Blackwell's

Lingue e Linguaggio, D. Delfitto, G. Graffi & S. Scalise (eds.), IV-1, 27-79, special issue on Language Evolution Enard et al. 2002 date the last mutation in FOXP2, the gene implicated in some central aspects of human language –crucially including context-sensitive syntax– to ca. 120,000before the present (B.P.). Traits in modern humans that arguably presuppose […]

International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, 14 (2), special issue on Cognition and Complex Brain Dynamics The study of language, its processing and its bearing on human cortical processes are all extensive domains of investigation in their own right. In this overview tutorial we limit ourselves to a sample of core illustrative issues. Our central […]

Variation and universals in biolinguistics, 341-377

Coreference, modality, and focus, 45-70

Adaptive Behavior, 11, 37-69 This article reviews recent progress made by computational studies investigating the emergence, via learning or evolutionary mechanisms, of communication among a collection of agents. This work spans issues related to animal communication and the origins and evolution of language. The studies reviewed show how population size, spatial constraints on agent interactions, […]

Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca” Julio de Urquijo”, 597-609 In this paper we analyze the core instances of infinitival complementation in Basque. Some familiar facts are discussed, and also a surprising one which has never been analyzed: the peculiar Case/agreement distributions apparent in instances of obligatory control. If valid, our analysis has potentially important […]

The Linguistic Review, 19 (1-2) 147-150 Positive data involving auxiliary fronting are never evidence for a constraint such as the structure-dependent hypothesis. At best, positive data of any complexity are direct evidence for a simple-minded hypothesis, of the sort of ‘front the first auxiliary (after something or other)’. On the widespread assumption that negative data […]

Derivation and explanation in the Minimalist Program, 106-132

Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 19-4, 891-900 Lappin, Levine and Johnson (LLJ) categorize my first reply to their piece as something ’which addresses our main objection to the MP by attempting to present a substantive defense of economy conditions in the theory of grammar’. This is why I chose the paradigm I did, among other […]