Syntactic Carpentry: An Emergentist Approach to Syntax

William O’Grady0805849599, 9780805849592, 9781410612571

O’Grady (linguistics, U. of Hawaii at Manoa) advances the emergenist thesis to the difficulties of the syntax of natural language. He begins by examining language without grammar, showing that sentences are simply built in the quickest, most efficient manner possible, using the least memory. He resolves some of the issues within the processor theory by describing structure building as a computation system, then applies the theory to pronoun interpretation. The study continues with examination of the issues of control structures, “what, when, where” questions, the particular syntax of contraction, and the process of acquiring language through efficient processing and the learning of routines.