When
Sandiway Fong, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Linguistics
University of Arizona
Website https://sandiway.arizona.edu/
Zoom: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/82156094207
Parsing and the Strong Minimalist Thesis (SMT)
Abstract: We describe a new project, the SMT Parser, an implemented computer program that uses simplest Merge and follows the Strong Minimalist Thesis (SMT) design principle (Chomsky GK). There is a narrative due to Noam Chomsky that Nature unlocked recursive Merge with Language Organ-Specific Conditions (LSC) such as Theta Theory when modern humans, viz. homo sapiens, arrived on the scene a few hundred thousand years ago, see (Berwick & Chomsky 2017). Recursive Merge permitted modern humans to construct complex thought expressions not possible before, and the result was the subsequent explosion of symbolic and intellectual activity seen in the archaeological record and today. In terms of the evolutionary timescale, this was a very recent event, leaving no time to evolve more complex mechanisms other than the simplest possible form of Merge. All surviving humans since then share this same language/thought capability. Once evolved, possibly by some mutation, simplest Merge applied to language now becomes part of our genetic endowment. Moreover, the SMT implies Nature makes optimal use of this new-found mechanism, necessary given the computational limits of biology. The operation of the language organ is not just maximally simple (for evolutionary plausibility), but also must be computationally efficient, as the brain is largely chemical-based, see (Valentin 2002).
Language can (optionally) be externalized via different modalities, e.g. speech and sign. Although there has been no time to evolve other mechanisms or for Nature to tinker with and complexify Merge, it is a fact that modern humans can effectively parse and interpret externalized language. How does that happen if essentially there is only Merge available? In other words, isn’t it a mystery that we can parse externalized language at all?
This project explores Merge computation through formalization and computer simulation of the combinatorics of the theory. We show how a parser can operate using just Merge and the LSC Theta Theory to manage the computational complexity of the Workspace from which parses are derived. The goal of the SMT Parser project is to suggest that this scenario is not only plausible, but can be made efficient enough without positing (evolutionarily implausible) additional parsing mechanisms. If so, unlocking Merge is all that was needed.