How is the meaning of natural language interpreted? Taking as its point of departure the logical problem of natural language acquisition, this book elaborates a theory of meaning based on syntactical rather than semantical processes. Hornstein argues that the traditional neoFregean approach taken by Davidson, Barwise and Perry, and Montague, among others - an approach that makes use of semantical notions like "truth" and "reference" - should be replaced by a theory drawn from the syntactical vocabulary of generative grammar. Surprisingly, the book points out that linguistic competence can be acquired despite the degeneracy, finiteness, and deficiency of the environmental stimulus, and it characterizes those innate aspects of the mind which enable a child to develop into a native speaker. In eight chpaters it investigates the issue of pronoun binding, relative quantifier scope, the treatment of definite descriptions, as well as more technical issues in current theoretical linguistics. Norbert Hornstein is Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Program at the University of Maryland. A Bradford Book.

Logic as Grammar: An Approach to Meaning in Natural Language

Reference

Hornstein, Norbert

Foreign Language Study & Reference

MIT Press]

The Movement Theory of Control (MTC) makes one major claim: that control relations in sentences like 'John wants to leave' are grammatically mediated by movement. This goes against the traditional view that such sentences involve not movement, but binding, and analogizes control to raising, albeit with one important distinction: whereas the target of movement in control structures is a theta position, in raising it is a non-theta position; however the grammatical procedures underlying the two constructions are the same. This book presents the main arguments for MTC and shows it to have many theoretical advantages, the biggest being that it reduces the kinds of grammatical operations that the grammar allows, an important advantage in a minimalist setting. It also addresses the main arguments against MTC, using examples from control shift, adjunct control, and the control structure of 'promise', showing MTC to be conceptually, theoretically, and empirically superior to other approaches.

Control as Movement (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, Series Number 126)

Nunes, Jairo

Boeckx, Cedric

Words, Language & Grammar

Cambridge University Press

Human language seems to have arisen roughly within the last 50-100,000 years. In evolutionary terms, this is the mere blink of an eye. If this is correct, then much of what we consider distinctive to language must in fact involve operations available in pre-linguistic cognitive domains. In this book Norbert Hornstein, one of the most influential linguists working on syntax, discusses a topical set of issues in syntactic theory, including a number of original proposals at the cutting edge of research in this area. He provides a theory of the basic grammatical operations and suggests that there is only one that is distinctive to language. If this theory is correct then this narrows the evolutionary gap between verbal and non-verbal primates, thus facilitating the rapid evolutionary emergence of our linguistic capacity.

A Theory of Syntax: Minimal Operations and Universal Grammar

Understanding Minimalism (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

Minimalist models of grammar are developed logically in this volume and the ways in which they contrast with GB analysis are clearly explained. Spanning a decade of minimalist thinking, the textbook will enable students to better understand the questions and problems that minimalism invites, and to master the techniques of minimalist analysis. Over 100 exercises are provided, encouraging students to put their new skills into practice. The book will be an invaluable text for intermediate and advanced students of syntactic theory, as well as a solid foundation for further study and research within Chomsky's minimalist framework.

Grohmann, Kleanthes K.

A Theory of Syntax: Minimal Operations And Universal Grammar

The hardcover edition- near fine copy. "The aim of this book is to critically review grammatical research into logical form over the past 20 years, and to reconsider some of its major themes in the light of recent theoretical innovations. In the late 1970s generative grammarians proposed the existence of an abstract syntactic level of grammatical representation derived from surface structure which was phonetically invisible. This level, dubbed logical form, has been thought of as the information grammar contributes to semantic interpretation. The first part of the book reviews the standard arguments for the existence of LF and its format. Norbert Hornstein focuses especially on quantifier raising and a host of conditions that have been proposed to constrain valid LF phrase markers. The second section considers what properties a "minimalist" LF should have. This material is by its nature more speculative. Among the topics broached are antecedent-contained deletion constructions, weak crossover configurations and multiple interrogatives. " (publisher)

Logical Form: From Gb to Minimalism (Generative Syntax)

Blackwell Pub.

This book critically reviews grammatical research into logical form over the past 20 years and reconsiders some of its major themes in the light of recent theoretical innovations. 
In the late 1970s generative grammarians proposed the existence of an abstract syntactic level of grammatical representation derived from surface structure which was phonetically invisible. This level, dubbed logical form, has been thought of as the information that the grammar contributes to semantic interpretation. The first part of the book reviews the standard arguments for the existence of LF and its format.

Logical Form: From GB to Minimalism

Wiley/Blackwell

Move! A Minimalist Theory of Construal provides an accessible, in-depth and empirically oriented look at Chomsky's Minimalist Program.

Move! a Minimalist Theory of Construal (Generative Syntax)

Move! A Minimalist Theory of Construal provides an accessible, in-depth and empirically oriented look at Chomsky's Minimalist Program.

Move! A Minimalist Theory of Construal

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hornstein, Norbert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hornstein, Norbert

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hornstein, Norbert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Logic as Grammar: An Approach to Meaning in Natural Language

Control as Movement (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, Series Number 126)

A Theory of Syntax: Minimal Operations and Universal Grammar

Understanding Minimalism (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

A Theory of Syntax: Minimal Operations And Universal Grammar

Understanding Minimalism (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

Logical Form: From Gb to Minimalism (Generative Syntax)

Logical Form: From GB to Minimalism

Move! a Minimalist Theory of Construal (Generative Syntax)

Move! A Minimalist Theory of Construal