The Cambridge companion to Chomsky

354 Pages·2017·2.24 MB·English

by  McGilvray

The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky
This completely new edition of The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky
surveys Chomsky’s contributions to the science of language, to socioeco-
nomic-politicalanalysisandcriticism,andtothestudyofthehumanmind.
The first section focuses on the aims of Chomsky’s recent “biological –
minimalist” turn in the science of language, and shows how Chomsky’s
viewofthenatureoflanguageanditsintroductiontothehumanspecieshas
recentlydeveloped.ThesecondfocusesonChomsky’sviewofthemindand
its parts – and how to study them. Finally, the third examines some of
Chomsky’s many contributions to socio-political history and critique. This
neweditionexaminesChomsky’sviewsonawiderangeofissues:fromhis
viewsofthelexicon,language’sevolution,andthestudyofmindtothestatus
ofcapitalismandthePalestine-Israelconflict.Itwillbeessentialreadingfor
anyonewithaninterestinChomsky’sideas.
james mcgilvray is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at McGill
University, Montréal. He has written a general introduction to Chomsky’s
work (Chomsky 1999; second edition, 2014) and edited and contributed to
The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky (2005) and the second (2002) and
third(2009)editionsofChomsky’sseminalCartesianLinguistics(Cambridge
UniversityPress).Hehasalsopublishedseveralarticlesonthephilosophiesof
languageandmindthatdefendinvariouswaysthemethodsforthestudyof
languageandminddevelopedandendorsedbyChomskyandotherinternalist
“biolinguists.”

The Cambridge Companion
to Chomsky
Editedby
James McGilvray
McGillUniversity,Montréal
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©JamesMcGilvray2017
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Firstpublished2005
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Names:McGilvray,JamesA.(JamesAlasdair),1942–editor.
Title:TheCambridgecompaniontoChomsky/[editedby]JamesMcGilvray,
McGillUniversity,Montreal.
Description:NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2017.|Originally
published:Cambridge,UK;NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2005.
Identifiers:LCCN2016046819|ISBN9781107165892
Subjects:LCSH:Chomsky,Noam.
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This volume is dedicated to Noam Chomsky. All of the
authors in it – and very many more scholars and
innumerable “ordinary” people – are indebted to him and
hisinspiringintellectualworkandconcernforothers,now
spanning almost seventy five years.

Contents
ListofFigures pageix
ListofContributors x
Introduction 1
PartI TheScienceofLanguage:RecentChangeandProgress 27
1 TheLocalityofTransformationalMovement:Progressand
Prospects 29
howard lasnik
2 IstheFacultyofLanguagea“PerfectSolution”totheInterface
Systems? 50
samuel david epstein, hisatsugu kitahara, and t. daniel
seely
3 OnMerge 69
norbert hornstein
4 AFeelingforthePhenotype 87
robert c. berwick
5 TheGenerativeWord 110
hagit borer
6 ThirdFactorsinLanguageDesign:SomeSuggestionsfrom
QuantumFieldTheory 134
massimo piattelli-palmarini and giuseppe
vitiello
PartII TheHumanMindandItsStudy 153
7 TheInfluenceofChomskyontheNeuroscienceofLanguage 155
david poeppel
vii
viii Contents
8 CognitiveScience:WhatShouldItBe? 175
james mcgilvray
9 SemanticInternalism 196
paul m. pietroski
10 FacultiesandModules:ChomskyonCognitiveArchitecture 217
john collins
11 ChomskyandMoralPhilosophy 235
john mikhail
PartIII ChomskyonPoliticsandEconomics 255
12 CritiqueandHope:TheMoralBasisofChomsky’sPolitical
Economy 257
charles derber
13 ThePropagandaModelandManufacturingConsent:U.S.Public
ComplianceandResistance 275
anthony r. dimaggio
14 ChomskyListens:LatinAmericaandtheEthicsofSolidarity 295
greg grandin
15 NoamChomskyandtheQuestionofPalestine/Israel:Bearing
Witness 314
irene gendzier
Index 331
Figures
1.1 Phrasestructuretreeforsentence(1),“Themanleft.” page31
1.2 Phrasestructuretreeforsentence(10),“Thechildthinksthe
manleft.” 32
1.3 Phrasestructuretreeforsentence(12),“Thewomanknowsthe
childthinksthemanleft.” 32
1.4 Phrasestructurerepresentationofthesubcategorization
requirementfor(a)sleepand(b)solve. 34
1.5 Deepstructurerepresentationforsentence(12),“Thisproblem,
Johnsolved.” 35
1.6 Surfacestructurerepresentationforsentence(21),“This
problem,Johnsolved.” 35
1.7 AdjunctionofaWHtoacontainingVP. 45
4.1 Acartoon-likerepresentationofthekeydistinctionbetween
nonhumanandhumansyntacticcomputationalabilities. 92
4.2 Finite-statetransitionnetworkanalysis. 94
4.3 Estimatedpercentagegeneflowbetweenancestralhumanand
Neandertalgroups. 103
4.4 PhylogeneticpictureofHomospecies,assuggestedbythe
ancientnuclearDNAanalysisoftheSima“pitofbones”fossils. 105
ix
Contributors
howard lasnik (Distinguished University Professor, Department of
Linguistics,UniversityofMaryland,CollegePark)
samueldavidepstein(MarilynJ.ShatzCollegiateProfessorofLinguistics
andArthurF.ThurnauProfessor;Director,WeinbergInstituteforCognitive
Science,UniversityofMichigan)
hisatsugu kitahara (Professor, Institute of Cultural and Linguistic
Studies,KeioUniversity)
t. daniel seely (Professor of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics,
UniversityofEasternMichigan)
norbert hornstein (Professor of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics,
UniversityofMaryland,CollegePark)
robert c. berwick (ProfessorofComputationalLinguisticsandComputer
ScienceandEngineering,jointlywithBrainandCognitiveSciences,MIT)
hagit borer (ProfessorofLinguistics,QueenMaryUniversityofLondon)
massimo piattelli-palmarini (Professor of Cognitive Science,
DepartmentofLinguistics,UniversityofArizona,Tucson)
giuseppevitiello(ProfessorofTheoreticalPhysics,DepartmentofPhysics
“E.R.Caianiello,” University of Salerno and researcher at the Istituto
NazionalediFisicaNucleare[INFN])
david poeppel (Director, Department of Neuroscience, Max-Planck-
Institute Frankfurt and Professor of Psychology and Neural Science,
DepartmentofPsychology,NewYorkUniversity)
james mcgilvray (Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Department of
Philosophy,McGillUniversity)
x