Ray Jackendoff
Biographic Data
| ID | 738814 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ray Jackendoff |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ray |
| FAMILY NAME | Jackendoff |
| SIGNATURE | JACKENDOFF R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brandeis University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1358-9200 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 64 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 471 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 63 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
The Cambridge Handbook of Construction Grammar
Construction Grammar is one of the fastest-growing branches of functional syntax. Bringing together an international team of scholars, this handbook provides a complete overview of the current issues and applications in this approach. Divided into six thematic parts, it covers the fundamental notions of Construction Grammar, its conceptual origins and the basic ideas that unite its various branches, its solid empirical grounding and affinities wi…
A parallel architecture perspective on pre-activation and prediction in language processing
A recent trend in psycholinguistic research has been to posit prediction as an essential function of language processing. The present paper develops a linguistic perspective on viewing prediction in terms of pre-activation. We describe what predictions are and how they are produced. Our basic premises are that (a) no prediction can be made without knowledge to support it; and (b) it is therefore necessary to characterize the precise form of that …
Structural cues for symmetry, asymmetry, and non-symmetry in Central Taurus Sign Language
We investigate how predicates expressing symmetry, asymmetry and non-symmetry are encoded in a newly emerging sign language, Central Taurus Sign Language (CTSL). We find that predicates involving symmetry (i.e., reciprocal and symmetrical actions) differ from those involving asymmetry (i.e., transitive) in their use of the morphological devices investigated here: body segmentation, mirror-image articulators and double perspective. Symmetrical pre…
Formalist modeling and psychological reality
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Menscheln, kibbelen, sparkle
German, Dutch and English have surprisingly large sets of verbal diminutives: verbs ending in - el /- le and carrying an attenuative and/or iterative meaning. These verbs exhibit particular properties that make them interesting for morphological theory. Focussing on Dutch data, this paper sketches the challenges that arise with respect to structure, productivity and meaning, and proposes a constructionist account that allows for a better understa…
Case Assignment and Argument Realization in Nominals
Case assignment and argument licensing in process nominals, that is, nouns such as destruction that are morphologically related to verbs, are assumed to operate in a verblike manner both within government-and-binding theory and, more recently, within the distributed morphology framework. The data from Russian challenge this approach and reveal that there is an important difference between the verbal and the nominal domains: case assignment in ver…
Response to Seuren
Response to Seuren Ray Jackendoff Pieter Seuren is quite right in pointing out that an adequate theory of linguistic performance must account not only for language comprehension but also for language production, and that my discussion note (Jackendoff 2011) had more to say about the former than the latter. I also agree with him that language production probably makes more stringent demands on the grammar than comprehension, in that it requires re…
Same-except
Same-except is a fundamental, domain-general cognitive relation in which entities in proximity to one another are judged to be the Same, Except for some part or property where they differ. This relation can be attested in nonlinguistic modalities such as vision, audition, and taste, and it plays an important role in nonlinguistic categorization. We show that this relation is expressed linguistically by means of a wide range of devices, including …
What is the human language faculty
In addition to providing an account of the empirical facts of language, a theory that aspires to account for language as a biologically based human faculty should seek a graceful integration of linguistic phenomena with what is known about other human cognitive capacities and about the character of brain computation. The present discussion note compares the theoretical stance of biolinguistics (Chomsky 2005, Di Sciullo & Boeckx 2011) with a const…
The Evolution of Human Language
The way language as a human faculty has evolved is a question that preoccupies researchers from a wide spread of disciplines. In this book, a team of writers has been brought together to examine the evolution of language from a variety of such standpoints, including language's genetic basis, the anthropological context of its appearance, its formal structure, its relation to systems of cognition and thought, as well as its possible evolutionary a…
Parallels and Nonparallels between Language and Music
THE PARALLELS BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND MUSIC CAN BE explored only in the context of (a) the differences between them, and (b) those parallels that are also shared with other cognitive capacities. The two differ in many aspects of structure and function, and, with the exception of the metrical grid, all aspects they share appear to be instances of more general capacities
Construction After Construction and its Theoretical Challenges
The English NPN construction, exemplified by construction after construction, is productive with five prepositions-by, for, to, after, and upon-with a variety of meanings, including succession, juxtaposition, and comparison; it also has numerous idiomatic cases. This mixture of regularity and idiosyncrasy lends itself to an account in the spirit of construction grammar, in which the lexicon includes specified syntactic structures matched with mea…
Linguistics in Cognitive Science
The special issue of The Linguistic Review on “The Role of Linguistics in Cognitive Science” presents a variety of viewpoints that complement or contrast with the perspective offered in Foundations of Language (Jackendoff 2002a). The present article is a response to the special issue. It discusses what it would mean to integrate linguistics into cognitive science, then shows how the parallel architecture proposed in Foundations seeks to accomplis…
Conceptual semantics and natural semantic metalanguage theory have different goals
My interview with Istvan Kecskes, “On Conceptual Semantics” (OCS), offers some brief remarks on the relation of my approach to Anna Wierzbicka's theory of semantic primitives, Natural Language Metalanguage Theory (NSM). Wierzbicka's response, “Theory and empirical findings: A response to Jackendoff” (henceforth TEF) calls for some further commentary
Semantic Combinatorial Processes in Argument Structure
On conceptual semantics
Kecskes: One of the most intriguing claims of your theory of conceptualist semantics is that each lexical item makes reference to phonological, syntactic, and semantic structures, so the lexicon must be conceived of as a part of the linguistic interface module, rather than as a representational module itself. This means that what we call the “lexicon” is not a distinct entity but rather a subset of the interface relations between the three gramma…
The Peculiar Logic of Value
A system of values plays an important intermediary role in the human conceptual system. An individual associates a value – an abstract valence and quantity – with a past, present, or contemplated object or action in the environment, and uses values to help determine what actions to take. Value can be categorized into a number of different types, the most important of which for the purposes of the present article are affective value (how good the …
Turn Over Control to the Semantics
Historically, control in generative grammar has fallen within the province of syntactic theory. One primary reason for this is that Mainstream Generative Grammar (MGG) has imposed a strong uniformity criterion on analyses as a measure of their explanatory adequacy. One aspect of this uniformity criterion, which we call Interface Uniformity, holds that the syntax-semantics interface is maximally simple, in that meaning maps transparently into synt…
Simpler Syntax
This book offers a perspective on the structure of human language. The fundamental issue it addresses is the proper balance between syntax and semantics, between structure and derivation, and between rule systems and lexicon. It argues that the balance struck by mainstream generative grammar is wrong. It puts forward a new basis for syntactic theory, drawing on a wide range of frameworks, and charts new directions for research. In the past four d…
The nature of the language faculty and its implications for evolution of language (Reply to Fitch, Hauser, and Chomsky)
The faculty of language
The End Result(ative)
The end result(ative) Adele E. Goldberg and Ray Jackendoff This volume’s discussion notes include comments by Hans Boas and by Stephen Wechsler on our article, ‘The English resultative as a family of constructions’ (Goldberg & Jackendoff 2004), which we hope will raise further discussion about the nature of the semantic constraints and narrow productivity of the construction.1 The main objectives of our article were to argue against the position …
Contrastive Focus Reduplication in English (The Salad-Salad Paper)
The English Resultative as a Family of Constructions
English resultative expressions have been a major focus of research on the syntax-semantics interface. We argue in this article that a family of related constructions is required to account for their distribution. We demonstrate that a number of generalizations follow from the semantics of the constructions we posit: the syntactic argument structure of the sentence is predicted by general principles of argument linking; and the aspectual structur…
The Semantic Basis of Control in English
Our intent here,in the face of a persistent tradition of studying control in purely syntactic terms,is to reiterate the fundamental importance of semantics in the control problem, and to articulate some of the semantic factors more precisely than has heretofore been possible. After presenting familiar obstacles to a theory of control based on syntactic binding,we make a threeway distinction between 'unique control' (usually called OBLIGATORY CONT…
The architecture of the language faculty
Case in Tiers
This paper presents a theory of surface case which bears a strong formal similarity to autosegmental theory in phonology and morphology. We suggest that surface case forms a tier which is autonomous of phrase structure—and which is associated with NP's of the PS tier by general principles analogous to those which associate tones with segments, or phonemic melodies with CV skeleta. We show that this theory permits parameterization of a variety of …
Morphological and Semantic Regularities in the Lexicon
This paper proposes a theory of the lexicon consistent with the Lexicalist Hypothesis of Chomsky's ‘Remarks on nominalization’ (1970). The crucial problem is to develop a notion of lexical redundancy rules which permits an adequate description of the partial relations and idiosyncrasy characteristic of the lexicon. Two lexicalist theories of redundancy rules, each equipped with an evaluation measure, are compared on the basis of their accounts of…
The proper treatment of measuring out, telicity, and perhaps even quantification in english
The Semantic Basis of Control in English
Our intent here,in the face of a persistent tradition of studying control in purely syntactic terms,is to reiterate the fundamental importance of semantics in the control problem, and to articulate some of the semantic factors more precisely than has heretofore been possible. After presenting familiar obstacles to a theory of control based on syntactic binding,we make a threeway distinction between 'unique control' (usually called OBLIGATORY CONT…
The English Resultative as a Family of Constructions
English resultative expressions have been a major focus of research on the syntax-semantics interface. We argue in this article that a family of related constructions is required to account for their distribution. We demonstrate that a number of generalizations follow from the semantics of the constructions we posit: the syntactic argument structure of the sentence is predicted by general principles of argument linking; and the aspectual structur…
MME. Tussaud meets the binding theory
Control Is Not Movement
We present arguments against Hornstein's recent movement theory of control. Such a theory can be sustained only if a restricted subset of the data is considered. We review additional data that show that the position of the controller is determined at least in part by semantic constraints. A semantic account captures the generalizations in a manner impossible for a syntactic account
Contrastive Focus Reduplication in English (The Salad-Salad Paper)
Twistin' the Night Away
The ‘time‘- away construction, exemplified by We slept the whole afternoon away , proves to have a complex set of syntactic and semantic properties. In particular, the NP the whole afternoon behaves syntactically like a direct object, even though it is clearly not licensed by the verb sleep . This construction is shown to be distinct from two others that it superficially resembles, the resultative and the way-construction. It is also compared wit…
Parallels and Nonparallels between Language and Music
THE PARALLELS BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND MUSIC CAN BE explored only in the context of (a) the differences between them, and (b) those parallels that are also shared with other cognitive capacities. The two differ in many aspects of structure and function, and, with the exception of the metrical grid, all aspects they share appear to be instances of more general capacities
Turn Over Control to the Semantics
Historically, control in generative grammar has fallen within the province of syntactic theory. One primary reason for this is that Mainstream Generative Grammar (MGG) has imposed a strong uniformity criterion on analyses as a measure of their explanatory adequacy. One aspect of this uniformity criterion, which we call Interface Uniformity, holds that the syntax-semantics interface is maximally simple, in that meaning maps transparently into synt…
More Than Cool Reason
The View from the Periphery
The English comparative correlative construction (e.g., The more you eat, the fatter you get) embeds like an ordinary CP, and each of its clauses displays an ordinary long-distance dependency. However, the connection between the two clauses is not ordinary: they are connected paratactically in syntax, but the first clause is interpreted as if it were a subordinate clause. The construction's mixture of the general and the idiosyncratic at all leve…
Real-Time Processing Implications of Enriched Composition at the Syntax-Semantics Interface
More than cool reason
What is the human language faculty
In addition to providing an account of the empirical facts of language, a theory that aspires to account for language as a biologically based human faculty should seek a graceful integration of linguistic phenomena with what is known about other human cognitive capacities and about the character of brain computation. The present discussion note compares the theoretical stance of biolinguistics (Chomsky 2005, Di Sciullo & Boeckx 2011) with a const…
On the phrase the phrase ?the phrase
Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar
Like other recent work in the field of generative-transformational grammar, this book developed from a realization that many problems in linguistics involve semantics too deeply to be solved insightfully within the syntactic theory of Noam Chomsky's Aspect of the Theory of Syntax. Dr Jackendoff has attempted to take a broader view of semantics, studying the important contribution it makes to the syntactic patterns of English.The research is carri…
Les constructions possessives en anglais
Jackendoff Ray S. Les constructions possessives en anglais. In: Langages, 4e année, n°14, 1969. Tendances nouvelles en syntaxe générative, sous la direction de Nicolas Ruwet. pp. 7-27
Same-except
Same-except is a fundamental, domain-general cognitive relation in which entities in proximity to one another are judged to be the Same, Except for some part or property where they differ. This relation can be attested in nonlinguistic modalities such as vision, audition, and taste, and it plays an important role in nonlinguistic categorization. We show that this relation is expressed linguistically by means of a wide range of devices, including …
Construction After Construction and its Theoretical Challenges
The English NPN construction, exemplified by construction after construction, is productive with five prepositions-by, for, to, after, and upon-with a variety of meanings, including succession, juxtaposition, and comparison; it also has numerous idiomatic cases. This mixture of regularity and idiosyncrasy lends itself to an account in the spirit of construction grammar, in which the lexicon includes specified syntactic structures matched with mea…
Conceptual semantics and cognitive linguistics
Multiple subcategorization and the ?-criterion
On Katz's Autonomous Semantics
This paper critically examines Jerrold Katz's position on meaning, in particular his view that a semantic theory can be constructed which is free of information derived from pragmatics and speakers' belief systems. It is shown that, if such a semantic theory exists, it either excludes many fundamental phenomena which are normally thought of as semantic, or else misses linguistically significant generalizations. It is then argued that, even if Kat…
Les constructions possessives en anglais
Jackendoff Ray S. Les constructions possessives en anglais. In: Langages, 4e année, n°14, 1969. Tendances nouvelles en syntaxe générative, sous la direction de Nicolas Ruwet. pp. 7-27
On Some Questionable Arguments about Quantifiers and Negation
The theory that quantifiers are verbs of higher sentences in deep structure is examined critically. It is shown that this theory leads to loss of generality on several points, and that the syntactic arguments supporting it are inconclusive. Similar conclusions are reached with respect to the proposed Not -Transportation transformation
Morphological and Semantic Regularities in the Lexicon
This paper proposes a theory of the lexicon consistent with the Lexicalist Hypothesis of Chomsky's ‘Remarks on nominalization’ (1970). The crucial problem is to develop a notion of lexical redundancy rules which permits an adequate description of the partial relations and idiosyncrasy characteristic of the lexicon. Two lexicalist theories of redundancy rules, each equipped with an evaluation measure, are compared on the basis of their accounts of…
Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar
Like other recent work in the field of generative-transformational grammar, this book developed from a realization that many problems in linguistics involve semantics too deeply to be solved insightfully within the syntactic theory of Noam Chomsky's Aspect of the Theory of Syntax. Dr Jackendoff has attempted to take a broader view of semantics, studying the important contribution it makes to the syntactic patterns of English.The research is carri…
The Unanswered Question
On Katz's Autonomous Semantics
This paper critically examines Jerrold Katz's position on meaning, in particular his view that a semantic theory can be constructed which is free of information derived from pragmatics and speakers' belief systems. It is shown that, if such a semantic theory exists, it either excludes many fundamental phenomena which are normally thought of as semantic, or else misses linguistically significant generalizations. It is then argued that, even if Kat…
An Overview of Hierarchical Structure in Music
After reviewing their theoretical approach, the authors present four kinds of hierarchical structure in music: grouping structure, metrical structure, time-span reduction, and prolongational reduction. A musical analysis is given to illustrate these structures. In the ensuing discussion, comparison is made with Schenker9s theory, the nonoverlapping condition on hierarchies is considered, and relationships among the hierarchical, associational, an…
On the phrase the phrase ?the phrase
A Generative Theory of Tonal Music
Multiple subcategorization and the ?-criterion
Semantics and Cognition
Buku ini merupakan volume ke delapan dalam seri Current Studies in Linguistics. Buku ini mencoba menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan linguistik seperti konsep makna dan juga tentang struktur makna
X-Bar Semantics
Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1987), pp. 355-365
Case in Tiers
This paper presents a theory of surface case which bears a strong formal similarity to autosegmental theory in phonology and morphology. We suggest that surface case forms a tier which is autonomous of phrase structure—and which is associated with NP's of the PS tier by general principles analogous to those which associate tones with segments, or phonemic melodies with CV skeleta. We show that this theory permits parameterization of a variety of …
Topic…comment
The Problem of Reality
Underlying the practice of cognitive science is a basic tension in its goals that to me has much the flavor of a paradigm split in the sense of Kuhn. The tension has to do with how one phrases the fundamental question for a theory of mind. I have been trying to articulate this split for some time, at least since Jackendoff 1983, but its history certainly goes back much further than that. For convenience, I will call the two competing versions of …
More than cool reason
More Than Cool Reason
Babe Ruth Homered His Way into the Hearts of America
MME. Tussaud meets the binding theory
Semantic Structures
“What” and “where” in spatial language and spatial cognition
Fundamental to spatial knowledge in all species are the representations underlying object recognition, object search, and navigation through space. But what sets humans apart from other species is our ability to express spatial experience through language. This target article explores the language of objects and places , asking what geometric properties are preserved in the representations underlying object nouns and spatial prepositions in Engli…
On the role of conceptual structure in argument selection
Languages of the Mind
Patterns in the mind
What is it about the human mind that accounts for the fact that we can all speak and understand a language? Why can't other creatures do the same? And what does this tell us about the rest of human abilities? Recent dramatic discoveries in linguistics and psychology provide intriguing answers to these age-old mysteries. Along with the stunning advances in neuro-science and artificial intelligence, this research has breathed new life into the stud…
Patterns in the Mind
The Fundamental Arguments Finding our way into the problem: The Nature/Nurture Issue The Argument for Mental Grammar The Argument for Innate Knowledge * The Organization Of Mental Grammar Overview Phonological Structure Syntactic Structure American Sign Language * Evidence For The Biological Basis Of Language How Children Learn Language Language Acquisition in Unusual Circumstances I Language Acquisition in Unusual Circumstances II Language and t…
Linguistics (48 works) · Computer Science (47 works) · Philosophy (45 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (36 works) · Psychology (24 works) · Artificial Intelligence (21 works) · Natural language processing (18 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (16 works) · Programming language (16 works) · Artificial Intelligence (15 works)