Understanding Minimalism

Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics

by Norbert Hornstein, Jairo Nunes, Kleanthes K. Grohmann

Minimalist models of grammar are developed logically in this volume and the ways in which they contrast with GB analysis are clearly explained. Spanning a decade of minimalist thinking, the textbook will enable students to better understand the questions and problems that minimalism invites, and to master the techniques of minimalist analysis. Over 100 exercises are provided, encouraging students to put their new skills into practice. The book will be an invaluable text for intermediate and advanced students of syntactic theory, as well as a solid foundation for further study and research within Chomsky's minimalist framework.

Genres: Linguistics, Textbooks, School

422 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

Reviews

[K]

I learned that minimalism is not just a project for understanding how language works, but also a project for melting my brain.

[Sandra]

This is a surprisingly straightforward, entertaining read for a textbook. The issue of course, is whether or not you believe a word of it.

[Amanda]

What a book...! I think it took me a little over 2 months to finish this bad boy, mainly because after the first few chapters, it suffered from that fatal linguistics (syntax?) flaw of "OK, we said X, but actually X can't be right - shall we entertain Y? Y is simpler! Ah, Y can't be right either... but since it's better than X, let's go with Y. (several pages later) Haha, well, you know how we said Y? Instead let's suppose it's Z." To be fair, that's not necessarily the book's fault, since it's not as if I have a better idea for how to present modern syntax coherently, convincingly, and comprehensively. And the authors do a very good job at defending their stance and keeping track of the many, many threads required. But after a lot of intense brain activity (I did all the exercises, at least for some value of "did"), I still can't say that I really *understand* minimalism.

That said, the voice is pretty endearing, and the "program"'s goals are stated very clearly, perhaps even too clearly. As I said, the first few chapters were quite good, and I foolishly recommended this book to a few students before finishing it. (I think I've finally learned my lesson about recommending things before I'm done with them.) Luckily they all bailed in Ch3-4, probably due to their brains hurting (or deep boredom). I was never bored reading this, though - in fact I took over 20 screenshots of charming quotes I liked; here are 3 at random:

"As such, though there remains some work to do, our minimalist project has not clearly met its Waterloo in the domain of binding."

"It's fair to say that SS is the queen of GB levels."

"It's true that that would have made the theoreticians' lives much easier, but theoreticians' happiness doesn't appear to be a factor in how biology makes grammars."

So true, Norbert &co.

[Mahmoud]

If you want to learn about minimalist syntax, this is *the book.* Crucial here is the authors' decision to use the Government-and-Binding era of the generative enterprise as a foil against which they accentuate the unique character of Minimalism. Due to that, the book not only introduces the new framework, but also shows the reader how generative syntax evolved over the years to reach its current state.

Example: Case was originally seen to be "assigned" via movement to certain non-uniform configurations, then it was analyzed as being "checked" via movement to special functional projections (AgrS, AgrO...etc), either overtly or covertly. Then, these functional projections and covert movement were both abandoned, and now case was seen as "checked" via movement of a nominal's formal case feature to a case-checking head, and, if the morphology dictates so, the nominal itself is pied-piped to a Spec position of that case-checking head. Finally, case is now seen as a reflex of a mutual agreement relationship between the nominal and a local head with a person feature. It is "specified" as opposed to "assigned" or "checked." It happens in situ: the movement of the nominal itself may take place to check a strong D/N feature.

[Yakoushi]

O que escrevi do «Teoria da Gramática» do Raposo pode-se igualmente aplicar aqui, com as diferenças de que este livro constituiu minha introducção ao minimalismo e que o estilo do texto é não tanto elegante quanto enleante, quando nota-se que uma dada secção foi redigida pelo Hornstein, que tem uma das prosas mais gostosas que já vi no campo da Linguística. O glossário de definições ao fim do livro é utilíssimo; e o capítulo sobre a Teoria da Ligação é de enorme suporte à leitura do «A minimalist program for linguistic theory», do próprio Chomsky, na parte em que este reanalisa o fenômeno da reconstrucção — justamente uma das, se não a porção mais complexa do texto. Os exercícios e indicações bibliográficas são uma fonte ainda preciosa de conteúdo sobre o minimalismo pré-«Three factors in language design». Por certo bem mais que um «mero» manual.

[pantelis xatzoudis]

"κουλ θείος που κάθεται με τη νεολαία" ass βιβλίο

[Brian Beakley]

A nice clear survey. Walks the reader through both the evidence for Government and Binding theory, and how (and why) this is re-analyzed in Minimalism.