A Minimalist Perspective on Recursion as the Core Property of Human Language, and its Role in the Generative Grammar Enterprise

Joseph Galasso

This book is about the recursive nature of syntax, its various spin-off implications, and the singular role it has played in the shaping of the generative grammar enterprise of Noam Chomsky. It takes as its point of departure four classic sentences which allows for an analysis of how recursive, embedded structures serve as a bricolage template for the formation of human language. Other topics which are informed by our discussion of recursive analyses are included as Five Notes, which include the Dual Mechanism Model, Problems of Projection, Proto-language, Recursive Implementation in AI, and the Brain.

Joseph Galasso is on the Linguistics Faculty at California State University, Northridge. His main research involves issues surrounding early child language development. He is interested in pursuing certain ‘Minimalist Program’ assumptions (Chomsky 1995) which ask how such assumptions might explain observed early stages of morphosyntactic development in children. His last monograph (2016) is entitled ‘From Merge to Move: A minimalist perspective on the design of language and its role in early child syntax’. LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics, 59.

ISBN 9783862889884 (Hardbound). LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 61. 268pp. 2019.