Radwa Ayman
Q1. What’s Chomsky’s Background?
Noam Chomsky, born in 1928, is a prominent American linguist, philosopher, cognitive
scientist, historian, and social critic. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he
earned both his Bachelor's degree (in 1949) and Ph.D. (in 1955) in linguistics. His academic
career began with a focus on the structure of language, which led him to develop the theory of
transformational-generative grammar, a pivotal moment in modern linguistics.
Before fully establishing himself as a linguist, Chomsky worked in various academic roles.
He was an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) starting in
1955 and remained at MIT for most of his career, retiring in 2002. Over time, he expanded his
focus from linguistics into political theory and activism, particularly through his critiques of
U.S. foreign policy and mainstream media, notably in works such as Manufacturing Consent.
Chomsky's work in linguistics revolutionized the study of language, but his political writings,
especially his critiques of U.S. military interventions, media bias, and global capitalism, have
also been highly influential. He has written numerous books and articles on these subjects,
earning recognition both as a leading intellectual in the field of linguistics and as a vocal critic
of government policies. His influence spans far beyond academia, and he remains a leading
figure in political and social commentary today. (Britannica, 2024)
Q2- What’s the minimalist program?
It is the latest development of ‘Transformational Generative Grammar’ initiated by Naom
Chomsky. It centers on two psychological questions:
A- How the linguistic ability/ knowledge of language is represented in the human mind?
B- How does the knowledge arises in the individual?
Chomsky presupposes a distinction between the knowledge (competence) and how this
knowledge is put in use (performance). ‘Competence’ is the computational system whereby
derivations produce structural representations. As for ‘performance’, Chomsky claims that
while the computational system is ‘innate’, the human languages differ in terms of the
properties of particular lexical items that have to be learned.
The minimalist program maintains that ‘derivations’ and ‘representations’ constituting
linguistic competence conform to ‘an economy’ criterion. That mean there are no extra steps in
derivations, no extra symbols in representations, and no extra representations beyond those that
are conceptually necessary.
(Lasnik, 2002).
Q3- What was Chomsky's main aim?
A. He aimed to investigate the complexities evident in earlier models and tried to eliminate
them.
B. He also wanted to reduce the number of linguistic levels of representation in the model by
focusing only on what’s conceptually necessary.
C. He intended to deduce constraints on syntactic derivations.
D. He aimed at general considerations of economy and computational simplicity.
Q4- Why did he refer to it as 'a program'?
First, because it is open-ended: a "program" implies an ongoing research agenda rather than
a finished product. It represents a set of guiding questions and hypotheses rather than a fixed set
of principles. Second, The Minimalist Program is not just about syntax; it encompasses broader
aspects of linguistic theory, including semantics and phonology. It provides a methodological
framework for investigating how the different components of language interact.
Q5- What are the key differences & similarities between this syntax and the
other kinds of syntax?
Key similarities:
1- Language is a computational system which mean that language is responsible for combining
linguistic elements (such as words and phrases) into structured expressions (sentences)
according to the rules of syntax.
2- Language generates an infinite number of sentences based on the principles of creativity and
recursion.
3- Language consists of invariant and variant aspects; the former refers to ‘the computational
system, whereas the latter refers to particular lexical items which vary from a language to
another.
The key differences:
The exploration of minimalist questions has led to several radical changes in the technical
apparatus of transformational generative grammatical theory. Some of the most important are :
1- the elimination of the distinction between deep structure (underlying, abstract structure) and
surface structure (final written or spoken structure) in favour of a derivational approach.
According to the Minimalist Program, a sentence doesn’t have 2 layers (deep and surface);
instead, it simply develops through derivations until it reaches its final structure.
2- the elimination of X-bar theory in favour of bare phrase structure.
The X-bar theory is a model used to describe how phrases are structured within sentences. It
uses a hierarchical system, typically visualized in tree diagrams, to represent the relationships
between different elements of a sentence. This theory involves a complex system with multiple
levels of phrases.
According to bare phrase structure, phrases are not divided into multiple layers (like X', X'', X'''
in X-bar theory). Instead, there is only one "core" structure for each phrase, and everything is
built using just two main operations: Merge and Move.
3- the elimination of indexation in favour of Move or Agree.
Indexation: In older syntactic theories, indexation referred to marking or assigning certain
features to elements in a sentence (like marking the subject or object).
Move: This is an operation that allows parts of a sentence to move around, like changing word
order to ask a question.
Agree: This operation involves checking that elements in a sentence match in certain features
(like making sure a subject and verb agree in number: "He runs" vs. "They run").
4- the elimination of the notion of government in favour of feature-checking.
Instead of thinking of certain words as "controlling" others (government), such as the ‘verb’
controls the object in a sentence, Minimalism focuses on checking whether different parts of the
sentence match in features (like making sure a subject and verb both agree in number, as in
"She runs" vs. "They run"). Features here refers to number, tense, ad case (subject/ object).
When these features are matched, the sentence is grammatical, whereas it’s ungrammatical
when they aren’t matched.
5- the idea that feature-checking—which matches interpretable and uninterpretable features, and
subsequently deletes the latter—might be responsible for all structure-building operations,
including Merge, Move, and Agree
that feature-checking drives all the main operations in syntax. Here's how it works for the
key operations:
A- Merge (Combining Words)
When two elements are merged, it's because their features need to match.
For example: In "She runs," the verb "runs" merges with the subject "She" because the verb has
an uninterpretable feature for number (it needs to match with a singular subject). Once merged,
the verb's uninterpretable feature is deleted, leaving a well-formed structure.
B- Move (Rearranging Words)
Sometimes, words or phrases need to move to match features correctly.
For example: In a question like "What does she eat?", "What" moves to the front because it
needs to check its feature for being a question word. Without this movement, the sentence
wouldn’t make sense. The movement happens because the grammar demands that the question
feature be checked.
C- Agree (Matching Features at a Distance)
In some cases, elements don’t need to move but still need to match features.
For example: In "She eats," the verb "eats" agrees with the subject "She" because they both
share the singular feature. This agreement ensures the sentence is grammatical.
6- How did Chomsky reduce the number or rules & transformations? Why?
First, How:
A- He replaced specific rules with general (universal) operations:
In earlier frameworks (like Government and Binding Theory), specific rules were used for
processes like movement or structure-building. In Minimalism, Chomsky introduced universal
operations like ‘Merge’, which combines two elements into a hierarchical structure, eliminating
the need for rule-specific transformations.
Example: Instead of having separate rules for subject-verb agreement and sentence formation,
the Merge operation integrates these under one process.
B- Unifying Movement Mechanisms
Chomsky replaced multiple movement rules with generalized mechanisms like ‘Move’ and
‘Agree’, which are driven by the checking and deletion of linguistic features (e.g., tense,
agreement).
Example: Instead of having distinct rules for wh-movement and passive voice transformations,
both are explained as feature-checking phenomena.
C- Elimination of Deep and Surface Structures
Earlier theories relied on distinct levels of representation (Deep Structure and Surface
Structure). Minimalism eliminates these distinctions, simplifying sentence derivation to a single
derivational process, where sentences are generated step by step until they meet interface
conditions.
Second, Why:
A. Economy and Simplicity: The Minimalist Program emphasizes the principle of economy,
meaning that linguistic structures and derivations should be as simple and efficient as possible.
By minimizing transformations and rules, the framework eliminates redundancy and
unnecessary complexity.
B. Computational Efficiency: The framework is designed to reflect optimal computational
processes in the human brain, aligning with the "Strong Minimalist Thesis," which assumes that
linguistic structures are generated with minimal computational effort.
References:
Macgilvray, J.A. (2024). Noam Chomsky. Britannica. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Noam-Chomsky
Lasnik. H. (2002). The Minimalist program in syntax. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences,
6(10).
