Open AccessSyntactic Structures as Descriptions of Sensorimotor Processes
Author(s) -
Alistair Knott
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
biolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1450-3417
DOI - 10.5964/bioling.8991
Subject(s) - syntax , sentence , computer science , minimalist program , transitive relation , artificial intelligence , minimalism (technical communication) , object (grammar) , sentence processing , syntactic structure , linguistics , natural language processing , interpretation (philosophy) , principle of compositionality , cognitive science , psychology , philosophy , mathematics , combinatorics , human–computer interaction , programming language
In this paper I propose a hypothesis linking elements of a model of theoretical syntax with neural mechanisms in the domain of sensorimotor processing. The syntactic framework I adopt to express this linking hypothesis is Chomsky’s Minimalism: I propose that the language-independent ’Logical Form’ (LF) of a sentence reporting a concrete episode in the world can be interpreted as a detailed description of the sensorimotor processes involved in apprehending that episode. The hypothesis is motivated by a detailed study of one particular episode, in which an agent grasps a target object. There are striking similarities between the LF structure of transitive sentences describing this episode and the structure of the sensorimotor processes through which it is apprehended by an observer. The neural interpretation of Minimalist LF structure allows it to incorporate insights from empiricist accounts of syntax, relating to sentence processing and to the learning of syntactic constructions.