Meaningful silence, meaningless sounds

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5774021
AutoresHalldór Ármann Sigurðsson (0000-0001-6358-3280, Lund University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2004
Volumen4
Páginas235-259
Fecha de publicación2004-12-31
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLinguistic Variation Yearbook (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1568-1483 • E-ISSN: 1569-9900
EditorialJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/livy.4.07sig
OpenAlexW2147474964
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas22
Referencias citadas13

This paper discusses the very general question of how syntactic features of individual languages relate to the universal set of syntactic features. It is pointed out that Chomsky's approach (2001a) to this fundamental issue is paradoxical. On one hand he argues that language is uniform in the relevant sense (L-uniformity), but, on the other hand, he also assumes that languages make different selections of features from a universal feature set (L-selection). The paper argues strongly that L-uniformity is the only conceivable possibility. However, if that is correct, a great deal of what languages have is common is 'silence', that is, categories that are present in Narrow Syntax but silent in PF. In other words, language has innate elements and structures irrespective of whether or how they are overtly expressed. It follows that language variation is to a substantial extent 'silence variation', that is, much of it boils down to languages being explicit vs. silent about different (syntactically active) categories. This claim is coined as the Silence Principle, saying that any meaningful feature of language may be silent

Feature (linguistics · Silence · Variation (astronomy · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation