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Meaningful silence, meaningless sounds.

Sigurðsson, Halldor Armann LU (2004) In Linguistic Variation Yearbook 4. p.235-259
Abstract
This paper discusses the very general question of how syntactic features of individual languages relate to the universal set of syntactic features. It is pointed out that Chomsky’s approach (2001a) to this fundamental issue is paradoxical. On one hand he argues that language is uniform in the relevant sense (L-UNIFORMITY), but, on the other hand, he also assumes that languages make different selections of features from a universal feature set (L-SELECTION). The paper argues strongly that L-uniformity is the only conceivable possibility. However, if that is correct, a great deal of what languages have is common is ‘silence’, that is, categories that are present in Narrow Syntax but silent in PF. In other words, language has innate elements... (More)
This paper discusses the very general question of how syntactic features of individual languages relate to the universal set of syntactic features. It is pointed out that Chomsky’s approach (2001a) to this fundamental issue is paradoxical. On one hand he argues that language is uniform in the relevant sense (L-UNIFORMITY), but, on the other hand, he also assumes that languages make different selections of features from a universal feature set (L-SELECTION). The paper argues strongly that L-uniformity is the only conceivable possibility. However, if that is correct, a great deal of what languages have is common is ‘silence’, that is, categories that are present in Narrow Syntax but silent in PF. In other words, language has innate elements and structures irrespective of whether or how they are overtly expressed. It follows that language variation is to a substantial extent ‘silence variation’, that is, much of it boils down to languages being explicit vs. silent about different (syntactically active) categories. This claim is coined as the SILENCE PRINCIPLE, saying that any meaningful feature of language may be silent. (Less)
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Linguistic Variation Yearbook
volume
4
pages
235 - 259
publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISSN
2211-6834
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Swedish (015011001)
id
bcb98146-ab19-446b-a0f9-e946e8bf9c6d (old id 793474)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 08:54:05
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:50:02
@article{bcb98146-ab19-446b-a0f9-e946e8bf9c6d,
  abstract     = {{This paper discusses the very general question of how syntactic features of individual languages relate to the universal set of syntactic features. It is pointed out that Chomsky’s approach (2001a) to this fundamental issue is paradoxical. On one hand he argues that language is uniform in the relevant sense (L-UNIFORMITY), but, on the other hand, he also assumes that languages make different selections of features from a universal feature set (L-SELECTION). The paper argues strongly that L-uniformity is the only conceivable possibility. However, if that is correct, a great deal of what languages have is common is ‘silence’, that is, categories that are present in Narrow Syntax but silent in PF. In other words, language has innate elements and structures irrespective of whether or how they are overtly expressed. It follows that language variation is to a substantial extent ‘silence variation’, that is, much of it boils down to languages being explicit vs. silent about different (syntactically active) categories. This claim is coined as the SILENCE PRINCIPLE, saying that any meaningful feature of language may be silent.}},
  author       = {{Sigurðsson, Halldor Armann}},
  issn         = {{2211-6834}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{235--259}},
  publisher    = {{John Benjamins Publishing Company}},
  series       = {{Linguistic Variation Yearbook}},
  title        = {{Meaningful silence, meaningless sounds.}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5203185/8500119.pdf}},
  volume       = {{4}},
  year         = {{2004}},
}