LINGUIST List 15.3277

Mon Nov 22 2004

Disc: Re: 15.3231, Disc: Deep Structure/Initial PP

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1. Philip Carr, Re: 15.3231, Disc: Deep Structure/Initial PP

Message 1: Re: 15.3231, Disc: Deep Structure/Initial PP

Date: 22-Nov-2004
From: Philip Carr <philip.carr

univ-montp3.fr>
Subject: Re: 15.3231, Disc: Deep Structure/Initial PP

Re: Linguist 15.3231 (http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-3231.html)

Other issues in this discussion:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-3263.html
http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-3272.html

Even back in the days when Deep and Surface Structure were postulated,
there was an explicit retreat, connected with the ill-fated Derivational
Theory of Complexity, from assuming that postulated analyses were taken to
be analyses of on-line mental operations. You can see that as early as
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965).

Still, it's interesting to see how talk of operations or processes
persists today, even if it's interpreted, somehow, in an instrumentalist
way. If one adopts a computational theory of mind, how can one avoid
postulating mental processes/operations?

Phil Carr

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories; Syntax
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