Back to the Future: Non-generation, filtration, and the heartbreak of interface-driven minimalism
Omer Preminger
December 2021
 

This paper argues that the filtration-based approach to syntactic competence adopted in the context of minimalist syntax (Chomsky 1995, 2000, 2001), where freely-assembled syntactic outputs are evaluated at the interfaces with the sensorimotor (SM) and conceptual-intentional (C-I) systems, is empirically wrong. The solution, I argue, is a return to a non-generation alternative, of the kind put forth in Syntactic Structures (Chomsky 1957).

Made some cosmetic improvements to the prose following some online exchanges in December 2021. YES, this version is (ostensibly?) better than the published version! It's the internet, folks – no reason for the published version to be a paper's end-of-life :)
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/003447
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: Syntactic Structures after 60 years: the impact of the Chomskyan revolution in linguistics, eds. Norbert Hornstein, Howard Lasnik, Pritty Patel-Grosz & Charles Yang, 355–380, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
keywords: filtration, non-generation, case, agreement, interfaces, (falsehood of the) strong minimalist thesis, syntax
previous versions: v3 [June 2017]
v2 [May 2017]
v1 [May 2017]
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