Linguistic Minimalism: Origins, Concepts, Methods, and Aims (Oxford Linguistics)
"Linguistic Minimalismis the most ambitious presentation and defense of the minimalist program published to date. My overall assessment is that Boeckx has done an excellent job. I recommendLinguistic Minimalismto anyone with a good background in syntactic theory who wants to know what the minimalist program is all about. Cedric Boeckx has written a book that puts the program in the best possible light." --Frederick J. Newmeyer, Language"This concise book is certainly a welcome addition to the literature on generative biolinguistics. Committed minimalists will appreciate Boeckx's unabashed and passionate boosterism, while skeptics and relentless critics of the minimalism program can try to stand up to his challenge. On both ends, it is enjoyable reading." --Naoki Fukui,Language"This deeply-informed study, drawing from a wide diversity of domains, provides a thoughtful perspective on how a minimalist program in linguistics emerges as a natural outcome of advances in understanding of the nature of language and its acquisition. It also outlines a course the program might take in seeking to identify the distinctive properties of human language, separating them from the effects of more general principles, which may reduce to laws of nature. To determine its special properties has been the goal of serious inquiry into language from its ancient origins. Such inquiry is now taking quite new forms, and, as Boeckx shows, is productively investigating questions that could scarcely have been formulated not long ago."--Noam Chomsky"An engaging, accessible, important exposition of Chomsky's pioneering Program, including its normal scientific evolution, the higher standards of explanation it imposes and the exciting new interdisciplinary linkages it has established."--Samuel David Epstein, University of Michigan"Linguistic Minimalism, Origins, Methods, and Aimsis an insightful presentation of the conceptual underpinnings and internal logic of the Minimalist Program. It will show the curious why those of us pursuing this program are so excited by its prospects."--Howard Lasnik, University of Maryland"An engaging, accessible, important exposition of Chomsky's pioneering Program, including its normal scientific evolution, the higher standards of explanation it imposes and the exciting new interdisciplinary linkages it has established."--Samuel David Epstein, University of Michigan