Dynamic Syntax: Foundations and Developments
- Abstract:
- Unlike most other current linguistic theories, Dynamic Syntax (DS) provides an incremental, process-driven model of language and linguistic behaviour. Gone are multiple levels or structures of representations for putatively distinct aspects of grammar such as syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Gone, too, is a purely static conception of such representations as derived from whatever operations are defined as central to the model presented, such as Merge and Move in minimalist theories of transformational-generative grammar, unification in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar or combinatory operations or type raising in Categorial Grammar. Instead, a single level of representation, that of the conceptual content of an utterance, is derived time linearly as that utterance is produced. These representations may also be subject to further modification in the light of aspects of the context in which the utterance occurs. As such the framework presents a radical departure from the theoretical tradition of syntax which developed from Chomsky (1957) and the American structuralists who preceded. This shift in perspective, has, in its turn, led to further radical questioning of apparently foundational concepts of linguistic theory over the relatively short period since the inception of the framework. The intent of this chapter is to discuss the basic philosophical ideas behind the framework as set out in Kempson et al. (2001) and Cann et al. (2005) and chart the various conceptual and philosophical shifts in perspective provided by later work.
- Research areas:
- Year:
- 2026
- Type of Publication:
- In Collection
- Book title:
- The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Linguistics
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press: Oxford
- Editor:
- Ryan M. Nefdt and Gabe Dupre and Kate Hazel Stanton
- Pages:
- 386-407
- ISBN:
- 9780198879640
Hits: 40