Minimalist architectures

Abstract

Ray Jackendoff, The architecture of the language faculty. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997. Pp. xiv+262.

In The architecture of the language faculty Jackendoff responds to the Minimalist Program (MP) of Chomsky (1995). There are three major themes: the conceptual foundations of MP and its historical antecedents; the interfaces between syntactic structure, phonetic structure and conceptual structure, and the nature of the lexicon. The basic approach is that of Jackendoff (1983, 1990), with roots going back at least as far as Jackendoff 1975. In the first chapter Jackendoff sets out the more or less standard views about universal grammar and subjects them to a critical analysis. Chapters 2–4 focus on the various ‘interfaces’ between levels of representation, and on how the interface relations are reified in individual lexical entries. Chapters 5–7 explore the properties of various types of lexical entries and the relations between them. Chapter 8 concludes with a speculative essay on the relation between language and thought.

This book is a rich compilation of observations, analyses, suggestions, perspectives, speculations and proposals. One could easily write a review at least as long as the book, developing and responding to the many ideas that it contains. Since space here is limited, I will concentrate on the main conceptual and foundational issues that are addressed by the book. In many ways, Jackendoff's work points to significant departures from classical perspectives on the organization of grammar. I will focus some attention on those areas where even more radical steps might be worth pursuing.