Proof search has been used to specify a wide range of computation systems. In order to build a framework for reasoning about such specifications, we make use of a sequent calculus involving induction and co-induction. These proof principles are based on a proof theoretic (rather than set-theoretic) notion of definition [19, 11, 47, 25]. Definitions are akin to logic programs, where the left and...

This paper reports a cross-linguistic investigation into the syntax-prosody mapping in German and Hindi. For both languages, comparable speech production experiments were carried out, using ambiguous coordination structures with four names in different syntactic conditions. Pitch contours and duration values were compared at syntactic boundaries of the different coordination structures within a...

The goal of a biological psychology is to undermine the autonomy of whatever it studies. For language, the goal is to derive its properties from other, presumably prior, properties of the human organism and its natural environment (cf. Lindblom, 1980). This does not mean that we should expect to reduce language to a mere collection of non-linguistic capacities in the individual, but it does mea...

In a Principles and Parameters syntax framework sentences are derived by two operations, merger and movement. Merger takes two categories as input (e.g., V and NP) and merges them into a single, higher-order category (e.g., VP). There are, however, constraints on the categories that can be merged successfully. Consider the following pairs: 1a. [NP The girl] sneezed 1b. *[NP The girl] sneezed [N...

Recent research in the area of Second Language Acquisition has proposed that bilinguals and L2 learners show syntactic indeterminacy when syntactic properties interface with other cognitive domains. Most of the research in this area has focused on the pragmatic use of syntactic properties while the investigation of compliance with a grammatical rule at syntax-related interfaces has not received...

The nature of computational principles of syntax remains to be elucidated. One promising approach to this problem would be to construct formal and abstract linguistic models that parametrically predict the activation modulations in the regions specialized for linguistic processes. In this article, we review recent advances in theoretical linguistics and functional neuroimaging in the following ...