In this article, the author addresses the question of how the mind represents two languages in simultaneous bilingualism. Some linguistic theories of intrasentential code switching are reviewed, with a focus on the Minimalist approach of MacSwan (1999b); the author concludes that evidence from code switching suggests that bilinguals have discrete and separate Lexicons for the languages they spe...

The Minimalist Program in syntactic theory seeks to factor cross-linguistic variation out of the syntax, and entirely into other grammatical components, chiefly the lexicon and the interfaces with semantics and phonetics. At the same time, current Minimalist research accords a central role to the operation of "Merge," a generalized transformation combining two autonomous subtrees as daughters o...

This paper presents a minimalist program for RDF, by showing how one can do without several predicates and keywords of the RDF Schema vocabulary, obtaining a simpler language which preserves the original semantics. This approach is beneficial in at least two directions: (a) To have a simple abstract fragment of RDFS easy to formalize and to reason about, which captures the essence of RDFS; (b) ...

The goal of a generative syntactic module is to create linguistic objects that connect sound to meaning. Therefore, a basic structure building operation is needed that combines syntactic objects into more complex objects. In the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995) this operation is called Merge. At first sight, both the existence and the working of Merge are close to being trivial, but on nearer ...

We consider triggering approaches to language acquisition, or "T-theory." T-theory incorporates a number of significant conceptual paradoxes and empirical puzzles. We suggest that a different type of theory, "adaptation-theory" (A-theory), may avoid these paradoxes and puzzles. We sketch out a dynamical systems approach to language acquisition and representation. A-theory crucially incorporates...

In recent years, central components of a new approach to linguistics, the Minimalist Program (MP) have come closer to physics. Features of the Minimalist Program, such as the unconstrained nature of recursive Merge, the operation of the Labeling Algorithm that only operates at the interface of Narrow Syntax with the Conceptual-Intentional and the Sensory-Motor interfaces, the difference between...