Cedric Boeckx

Movement under Control

We examine the three categories of empirical argument that Landau (2003) puts forward against a movement theory of control (MTC): overgeneration cases, alleged arguments in favor of an MTC, and raising/control contrasts. We show that the problems cited either have plausible alternative analyses that leave the MTC unscathed or, in fact, are not nearly as dire for the MTC as Landau supposes. We conclude that the standard theory enjoys no obvious empirical advantages over the MTC and that the MTC is superior on conceptual and methodological grounds.

Reply to “Control Is Not Movement”

In this reply we examine Culicover and Jackendoffs (2001) arguments against syntactic treatments of control, and against Hornstein 1999 in particular. We focus on three of their core arguments: (a) the syntactocentric view of control; (b) the control pattern found with promise; and (c) the violability of the Minimal Distance Principle. In all cases we contend that Culicover and Jackendoffs claims fail to undermine Hornsteins proposal.

Scope Reconstruction And A-Movement

This paper re-examines recent arguments against A-movementreconstruction in general, and the idea that there is areconstruction residue. It argues that A-moving quantifiersdo not usually exhibit reconstruction effects because argumentsare interpreted in the position where their uninterpretableCase feature is erased. It shows how the Case-checking conditionon scope taking can be obviated in the case of indefinites bymeans of covert insertion of an expletive, and goes on toprovide arguments that lowered readings of indefinites involveliteral lowering. This movement is subject to RelativizedMinimality, thereby further supporting the claim thatQuantifier Movement is a syntactic operation. The paperconsiders the possibility that such an account can bereconciled with the idea that copies left by A-movementnecessarily delete, and argues that this is possible onlyif the derivational character of syntax is strengthened

Control as movement

1. Introduction 2. Some historical background 3. Basic properties of the Movement Theory of Control 4. Empirical advantages 5. Empirical challenges and solutions 6. On non-obligatory control 7. Some notes on semantic approaches to control 8. The movement theory of control and the minimalist program.

The shape of the human language-ready brain.

Our core hypothesis is that the emergence of our species-specific language-ready brain ought to be understood in light of the developmental changes expressed at the levels of brain morphology and neural connectivity that occurred in our species after the split from Neanderthals–Denisovans and that gave us a more globular braincase configuration. In addition to changes at the cortical level, we hypothesize that the anatomical shift that led to globularity also entailed significant changes at the subcortical level. We claim that the functional consequences of such changes must also be taken into account to gain a fuller understanding of our linguistic capacity. Here we focus on the thalamus, which we argue is central to language and human cognition, as it modulates fronto-parietal activity. With this new neurobiological perspective in place, we examine its possible molecular basis. We construct a candidate gene set whose members are involved in the development and connectivity of the thalamus, in the evolution of the human head, and are known to give rise to language-associated cognitive disorders. We submit that the new gene candidate set opens up new windows into our understanding of the genetic basis of our linguistic capacity. Thus, our hypothesis aims at generating new testing grounds concerning core aspects of language ontogeny and phylogeny.

Control in Icelandic and Theories of Control

This article examines a pervasive argument against a movement approach to control based on Icelandic concord facts. We show that the argument does not undermine the movement approach when the facts are considered in their entirety. The facts divide into two basic groups: instances of quirky Case assignment and instances of structural Case sharing. The former require some theoretical adjustments regarding multiply Case-marked NPs in order to be incorporated into a movement approach. We show that the adjustments needed may be independently required, and may be even more problematic for alternative views on control.

Language as a natural object – linguistics as a natural science

Abstract The Chomskyan revolution in linguistics in the 1950s in essence turned linguistics into a branch of cognitive science (and ultimately biology) by both changing the linguistic landscape and forcing a radical change in cognitive science to accommodate linguistics as many of us conceive of it today. More recently Chomsky has advanced the boldest version of his naturalistic approach to language by proposing a Minimalist Program for linguistic theory. In this article, we wish to examine the foundations of the Minimalist Program and its antecedents and draw parallelisms with (meta-)methodological foundations in better-developed sciences such as physics. Once established, such parallelisms, we argue, help direct inquiry in linguistics and cognitive science/biology and unify both disciplines.

Globularity and language-readiness: generating new predictions by expanding the set of genes of interest

This study builds on the hypothesis put forth in Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco (2014), according to which the developmental changes expressed at the levels of brain morphology and neural connectivity that resulted in a more globular braincase in our species were crucial to understand the origins of our language-ready brain. Specifically, this paper explores the links between two well-known ‘language-related’ genes like FOXP2 and ROBO1 implicated in vocal learning and the initial set of genes of interest put forth in Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco (2014), with RUNX2 as focal point. Relying on the existing literature, we uncover potential molecular links that could be of interest to future experimental inquiries into the biological foundations of language and the testing of our initial hypothesis. Our discussion could also be relevant for clinical linguistics and for the interpretation of results from paleogenomics.

Biolinguistics: forays into human cognitive biology

The present article surveys the field of biolinguistics. It revisits the roots of the fields core research agenda, then turns to the various factors that led to its recent re-emergence, and finally offers suggestions for future inquiry. The essay also serves to highlight certain conceptual issues that should be addressed if the field is to bear its interdisciplinary fruits.

Conflicting C‐command requirements

The paper concentrates on the locality problem that arises in the context of raising verbs when the embedded subject moves over the experiencer. I review the major approaches put forth in the minimalist program, showing how each of them is inadequate. I propose a solution that crucially relies on the timing of operations. To the extent that it is successful, the present analysis provides evidence for the strictly derivational approach to syntactic relations.