Labeling in narrow syntax and sensory perception: reasons and consequences
Kirill Vasiltsov
August 2017 

In this paper I explore the nature of labeling. First, I argue against approaching the problem of labeling with minimal search algorithms and suggest that in fact lexical items are fully responsible for label determination. I show how label affects the workings of narrow syntax by focusing on unusual agreement phenomena in Russian. Next I investigate the status of labeling within our mind by focusing on examples from temporal, visual and musical cognition. I argue that the purpose of labeling (in a broad sense) is establishment of asymmetry, which allows us to make perceptual/meaningful distinctions about the world and to make objects on which a cognitive faculty operates usable in other domains. It is in this sense that label is not only “conceptually necessary” but also empirically necessary for objects generated by narrow syntax, which have to be interpreted at the interfaces that relate language to the rest of the cognitive faculties. Throughout the paper I mostly adopt Hornstein’s (2009) view of labeling.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/003628 (please use that when you cite this article)
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keywords:	narrow syntax, labeling, visual cognition, musical cognition, temporal cognition, russian, agreement, semantics, syntax
previous versions:	v1 [August 2017]
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