Structure Building

Abstract

I argue that structure building (e.g. Chomsky’s Merge) is not part of the narrow language faculty (FLN, contra Hauser, Chomsky & Fitch 2002). FLN is not empty, though: it consists of a lexico-grammatical component that defines grammatical objects, (non- recursive) combinatory rules/principles, and its interfaces to other components. Structure building is an independent component specific to humans but not to (natural) language which creates structures for elements from a specific component C provided that there is a combinatory rule or principle specific to C. It enables one to alleviate limitations of short term memory. Recursion can arise in special circumstances. This approach derives (under one specific implementation) a strong version of Inclusiveness (Chomsky 1995:225), from which Headedness (structures are headed) follows. It also accounts for the fact that structure building occurs not only in narrow syntax, but within many cognitive components inside and outside of language.