This rejoinder demonstrates that Lopez-Serena's [Lopez-Serena, A., 2009. "Intuition, acceptability and grammaticality: a reply to Riemer." "Language Sciences" 31, 634-648] critique of Riemer [Riemer, N., 2009. "Grammaticality as evidence and as prediction in a Galilean linguistics." "Language Sciences" 31, 612-633] is unfounded. LS's critique is…

Language attracts everyone on earth. That is because we have and use language. Although there are some minority languages that have limited expressions such as the lack of writing systems in "Aynu itak" and "Shona" languages, they can effectively express their emotion and thought with their languages. In addition, every human being can acquire…

Riemer (2009) complains that a large number of sentences, despite appearing to be acceptable to many native speakers of English--including himself--are treated as ungrammatical in recent works that subscribe to the generative approach to (the English) language. In his opinion, this need not be considered "as evidence of an overly narrow…

Lardiere's keynote article adverts to a succession of "units of comparison" that have been employed in the study of cross-linguistic differences, including mid-twentieth-century structural patterns, generative grammar's parameters, and (within contemporary Minimalism) features. This commentary expands on the idea of units of cross-linguistic…

Sketches Noam Chomsky's conception of language, the ways it can and should be studied, and how it works as a scientific enterprise. (Author/GT)

This study challenges the prevailing interpretations of the Greek rhetorical principle of "kairos"--"saying the right thing at the right time"--and attempts to draw on a more nuanced understanding of the term in order to provide generative re-readings of three Braddock Award-winning essays. (Contains 6 notes and 2 figures.)

A theme running through much of the functionalist literature in linguistics is that grammatical structure often has an "iconic" motivation. Claims supporting this theme are discounted, and the implications are discussed of iconic relationships in language for the autonomy hypothesis and the evolution of language. (190 references)…

Harris's original idea of transformations has been changed several times in Chomsky's work. This article explicates these transformations, arguing that though their motivations are highly understandable, these transformations are not necessary for understanding the workings of natural languages. (Author/VWL)

Theories of natural language syntax often characterize grammatical knowledge as a form of abstract computation. This paper argues that such a characterization is correct, and that fundamental properties of grammar can and should be understood in terms of restrictions on the complexity of possible grammatical computation, when defined in terms of…

The language arts are constructed like a doughnut or a bagel, so that at their center where there might be something, there is instead a hole--emptiness. The dominant approach to understanding the nature of language--generative grammar--does not suggest a center for the language arts. An alternative approach to language and mind is "cognitive…

Discusses Chomsky's linguistic theories and suggests that these theories have clear implications for politics, philosophy, and psychology. (five references) (JL)

Through a dialog argues that transformational grammar should not be used as the linguistic description in university courses in applied linguistics because it has no particular validity as a pedagogical grammar, because it has a narrow view of the nature of language, and because it is theoretically inadequate.(SED)

Reviews a collection of articles written on Noam Chomsky. The collection consists of four volumes focusing on Linguistics, Philosophy, Anthropology, and Chomsky's impact on contemporary thought relative to disciplines influenced by generative grammar. (36 references) (CK)

David Lightfoot's "How to Set Parameters: Arguments from Language Change" (1991), which adopts the principles and parameters approach developed by Chomsky as part of the theory of government and binding, is reviewed. (Contains 34 references.) (LB)

This discussion focuses on the formalist and functionalist views of language, which put forth conflicting theories as to the origins of language. It is concluded that this conflict can be resolved because central to language there exists an autonomous grammar shaped in part by natural selection. (JL)