Computational Syntax: From the Chomsky Hierarchy to Mild Context-Sensitivity and Minimalism

Course Description

It was no accident that the beginnings of the generative program in linguistics coincided with the first work in the formal theory of grammars. But compared to the first few decades of generative syntax, nowadays the connections are less apparent between mainstream syntax research and formal systems of the sort that facilitated Chomsky’s early work. But the connections are still there, and understanding those connections provides new insights into both questions of the sort that syntacticians devote attention to, and questions about how our theories of syntax fit into the broader cognitive science of language.

This course will begin with a targeted review of the most important lasting lessons from the “classical” (i.e.~1950s) theory of systems such as finite-state automata and context-free grammars. Next we will look at some of the first attempts to go beyond Chomsky’s original hierarchy in linguistically-motivated ways, specifically the first “mildly context-sensitive” formalisms from the 1980s and 1990s. Finally we will look at more recent formalisms that embody many important aspects of contemporary minimalist syntax, in a way that brings the threads from the earlier parts of the course into contact with syntactic systems that will look more familiar to students.

Area Tags: Syntax, Computational Linguistics, Linguistic Frameworks, Cognitive Science

Instructor: Tim Hunter