<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This paper argues that various important results of formal language theory (e.g., the so-called Chomsky Hierarchy) may in fact be illusory as far as the human language faculty is concerned, as has been repeatedly emphasized by Chomsky himself. The paper takes up nested dependencies and cross-serial dependencies, the two important dependencies that typically show up in the discussion of the central classes of grammars and languages, and specifically shows that the fact that nested dependencies abound in human language while cross-serial dependencies are rather limited in human language can be naturally explained if we shift our attention from dependencies defined on terminal strings to abstract structures behind them. The paper then shows that nested dependencies are readily obtained by Merge, applying phase-by-phase, whereas cross-serial dependencies are available only as a result of copying Merge, which requires a constituency of the relevant strings. These results strongly suggest that dependencies are possible in human language only to the extent that they are the results from the structures that can be generated by Merge, leading to the conclusion that it is Merge-generability that determines various dependencies in human language, and that dependencies defined on the terminal strings are indeed illusory. A possible brain science experiment to demonstrate this point is also suggested.</p></abstract>

This paper argues that various important results of formal language theory (e.g., the so-called Chomsky Hierarchy) may in fact be illusory as far as the human language faculty is concerned, as has been repeatedly emphasized by Chomsky himself. The paper takes up nested dependencies and cross-serial dependencies, the two important dependencies that typically show up in the discussion of the central classes of grammars and languages, and specifically shows that the fact that nested dependencies abound in human language while cross-serial dependencies are rather limited in human language can be naturally explained if we shift our attention from dependencies defined on terminal strings to abstract structures behind them. The paper then shows that nested dependencies are readily obtained by Merge, applying phase-by-phase, whereas cross-serial dependencies are available only as a result of copying Merge, which requires a constituency of the relevant strings. These results strongly suggest that dependencies are possible in human language only to the extent that they are the results from the structures that can be generated by Merge, leading to the conclusion that it is Merge-generability that determines various dependencies in human language, and that dependencies defined on the terminal strings are indeed illusory. A possible brain science experiment to demonstrate this point is also suggested.

A Note on Weak vs. Strong Generation in Human Language

Sophia University, 30-13 Sakuragi-cho. Atami City. Shizuoka, Japan 413-0025

Studies in Chinese Linguistics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

人類語言的弱生成與強生成

This paper argues that various important results of formal language theory (e.g., the so-called Chomsky Hierarchy) may in fact be illusory as far as the human...

A Note on Weak vs. Strong Generation in Human Language

Published Online: Dec 30, 2015

Page range: 59 - 68

Received: Dec 05, 2014

Accepted: Dec 05, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/scl-2015-0004

Keywords
weak generation, strong generation, Merge-generability, cross-serial dependencies, mildly context-sensitive

© 2015 Naoki Fukui, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

A Note on Weak vs. Strong Generation in Human Language

Published Online: Dec 30, 2015

Page range: 59 - 68

Received: Dec 05, 2014

Accepted: Dec 05, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/scl-2015-0004

Keywordsweak generation, strong generation, Merge-generability, cross-serial dependencies, mildly context-sensitive

© 2015 Naoki Fukui, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
weak generation, strong generation, Merge-generability, cross-serial dependencies, mildly context-sensitive