The Varying Aims of Linguistic Theory

The ‘Generative’ program for linguistic theory is now about 50 years old. During its short history, the aims and methods of the program have changed, as is to be expected of any scientific approach to natural phenomena. This essay outlines three periods within the Generative enterprise. The phases can be (roughly) identified in terms of the different goals that generativists set for themselves; each bringing with it different standards of success and suggesting (somewhat) different research agendas. All three goals are still with us and animate related yet different kinds of linguistic investigation. Thus, getting some clarity on these historical periods might also serve to clarify current practice. The three phases, or periods that we wish to consider can be called (i) the Combinatoric, (ii) the Cognitive, and (iii) the Minimalist. Each offers conceptual parallelisms with (and looks to inspiration from) better-developed sciences. Thus, the Combinatoric phase ‘connects’ at some level with engineering, the Cognitive phase with biology, and the Minimalist with physics. Each period is also associated with a central text (or two) by Noam Chomsky, which serve to give the research within each period its distinctive technical look and theoretical flavor. The core text of the Combinatoric period is Syntactic Structures (Chomsky 1957). The Cognitive era has an earlier and a later part. The central text of the former is Aspects of a Theory of Syntax (Chomsky 1965), and that of the latter is Lectures on Government and Binding (Chomsky 1981). The last phase reflects the spirit of The Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995). Though these books have many overlapping themes, each also has a peculiar research emphasis and each broadly identifies different criteria of success. As such, they will serve as guideposts in the discussion that follows. The paper is structured as follows. In section 1, we discuss the Combinatoric stage. In section 2, we first highlight the conceptual shift that the Generative program underwent, and how the Cognitive stage was defined (section 2.1). We then outline the logic of the central Poverty-of-Stimulus argument (section 2.2.), and finally show how a successful research agenda eventually emerged (section 2.3). Section 3 focuses on the Minimalist Program, the most recent stage of the generative enterprise. Here we attempt to clarify the various questions and methods currently being explored in linguistic theory.