The papers assembled in this volume aim to contribute to our understanding of the human capacity for language: the generative procedure that relates sounds and meanings via syntax. Different hypotheses about the properties of this generative procedure are under discussion, and their connection with… read more
The theoretical proposals brought forward in this book as well as the results from the reported experimental studies present genuine contributions to the biolinguistic program. The papers contribute to our understanding of the properties of the computations and the representations derived by the… read more
This collection deals with central issues in the syntax of clauses and their interfaces with the conceptual-intentional system. The book targets the syntactic properties that have an impact on the interpretation of discourse and temporal dependencies, functional fields including CP, pragmatic… read more
This book explores the interaction of the grammar with the external systems, conceptual-intentional and sensori-motor. The papers in the Language section include configurational analyses of the interface properties of depictives, clitic clusters, imperatives, conditionals, clefts, as well as… read more
Volume I, Syntax and Semantics of Asymmetry in Grammar brings to fore the centrality of asymmetry in DP, VP and CP. A finer grained articulation of the DP is proposed, and further functional projections for restrictive relatives, as well as a refined analyses of case identification and presumptive… read more
Asymmetry in Grammar: Morphology, Phonology and Acquisition presents evidence that asymmetry, as a property of linguistic relations, is salient in grammar. The papers in morphology bring further evidence for the centrality of asymmetry in word-structure. It is shown that asymmetry is part of the… read more
Asymmetry in Grammar: Syntax and Semantics brings to fore the centrality of asymmetry in DP, VP and CP. A finer grained articulation of the DP is proposed, and further functional projections for restrictive relatives, as well as a refined analyses of case identification and presumptive pronouns.… read more
The papers assembled in this volume aim to contribute to our understanding of the human capacity for language, understood as a generative procedure that relates sounds and meanings via syntax. While theoretical hypotheses about this relation are part of the generative enterprise since its… read more
The Biolinguistics Program is an emergent interdisciplinary field encompassing natural sciences, neurosciences and the humanities. Its core object of inquiry is human language. The overarching questions it raises are the following: what is language and what is the relation between language and… read more
We examine pronominal objects in Old Romanian and show that the fluctuation in their position (pre-/post-verbal) and in their form (clitic/strong pronoun) is the result of the Directional Asymmetry Principle (DAP), a complexity-reducing principle proposed in Di Sciullo (2011), according to which… read more
I address the question of how morphology can be approached within the Minimalist program, focusing on the notion of asymmetry which has been shown to contribute to the understanding of language and other complex systems. I distinguish the Internalist from the Externalist approach to morphology. I… read more
This paper discusses the notion of morphological complexity and differentiates language external complexity (E-complexity) from language internal complexity (I-complexity). While E-complexity is measurable on the basis of the statistical occurrences of affixes and their combinations with roots,… read more
I raise the question why different sorts of affixes occupy different canonical positions in morphological expressions, and focus on Italian. I show that the semantic scope between affixes and the precedence relations between affixes and roots follow from Asymmetry Theory (Di Sciullo 2005). First, I… read more
Abstract. Complex reflexives such as himself and the like are D compounds, contrary to self-N compounds which are N compounds. The difference between pronouns and reflexives with respect to their distribution in compounds is expressed configurationally in terms of the difference between heads and… read more
