The problem of explaining the knowledge possessed by a native speaker of a natural language and the philosophical problem of rule-following are juxtaposed, and the former is seen to be an instance of the latter. A recent solution to the rule-following problem is reviewed, with special attention to the consequences that the solution has for the nature of those concepts acquired from exemplars. The concept of a grammatical sentence is one of these. Finally, it is shown that, as a consequence, we can see the grammaticality of a sentence to be an abstract property, which is simultaneously objective and tied to the responses of competent speakers. Thus, we gain a better understanding of some central questions in the philosophy of linguistics.

In this paper, we argue that the subject requirement or Extended Projection Principle (EPP) is naturally derived from predication, not in the standard syntax-based manner of Rothstein (1983), Chomsky (1986) or Heycock (1991), but in a full-blooded semantic manner within the selective mentalist Grammar Semantics of Bouchard (1995). We propose that the EPP is the effect of a basic proposition-forming operation of natural language, which is induced by a predication operator (Bowers 1993). On our analysis, insertion of an expletive in the subject position or raising to the subject position are therefore ultimately analysed as semantically motivated processes, triggered by the operation of proposition formation.

This paper presents an analysis of Icelandic umlaut in Optimality Theory. We account for umlaut in sal[œ]t-[Y]m ‘lettuce’ (dat. pl.) and d[œ:]g-[Y]m ‘day’ (dat. pl.), in which /a/ is fronted and rounded when followed by [Y], as well as forms such as j[œ]kli ‘glacier’ (dat. sg.) and b[œ]rn ‘child’ (ace. pl.) with an umlauted vowel, but no overt trigger. We explain why there is no umlaut in forms such as dal-n[Y]m ‘valley’ (def.), kakt[Y]s ‘cactus’ (nom. sg.), or d[a:]g-[Y]r ‘day’ (nom. sg.) despite the fact that /a/ occurs in the umlaut environment. We also explain why there is one umlauted vowel in sal[œ]t-[Y]m ≪ /salat + Ym/, but two umlauted vowels in f[œ]t-n[Y]ð-[Y]m ≪ /fat + nað + Ym/ ‘clothing’ (dat. pl.) and why the umlauted vowel is sometimes [Y] and sometimes [œ].

Standard negation is the basic sentential negation in a language. This article proposes a typology of standard negation that takes into account the whole negative construction and allows explanation of different negation types by different semantico-pragmatic background phenomena. There is semantic and pragmatic asymmetry between affirmation and negation, and this asymmetry is manifested in different ways in the morphosyntax of negative constructions. The primary division in the classification is between symmetric and asymmetric negation. The asymmetric type can be divided into subtypes according to which aspects of the semantico-pragmatic asymmetry are grammaticalized in the negative constructions. Symmetric and asymmetric negative constructions are analogous to the affirmative structure and to the background semantics and pragmatics of negation, respectively.