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Este trabalho fornece um resumo geral de algumas das questões atuais no campo da Gramática Gerativa, o estudo da Faculdade da Linguagem humana. Revisamos algumas das ideias-chave que essa abordagem da linguagem propõe e desenvolve, concentrando-se nas propriedades básicas da linguagem e suas interações com outros sistemas. Também apontamos algumas das possibilidades que uma abordagem biológica da linguagem oferece para construir pontes entre a Linguística e outras disciplinas científicas. Ao longo do artigo, procuramos levar em consideração às vantagens que a incorporação de algumas dessas ideias teria para o Ensino Secundário - não apenas pelo valor potencialmente intrínseco do conhecimento linguístico, mas também pelo impacto dessa abordagem em habilidades mais gerais, como observar, descrever e comparar dados, formular generalizações ou oferecer argumentos empíricos. Tradução: Aniela Improta França e Marcus Maia

Este trabajo proporciona un resumen general de algunos de los problemas actuales en el campo de la Gramática Generativa, el estudio de la facultad humana del lenguaje. Revisamos algunas ideas clave que este enfoque del lenguaje ha propuesto y desarrollado, centrándonos en las propiedades básicas del lenguaje y sus interacciones con otros sistemas. También señalamos algunas de las posibilidades que un enfoque biológico del lenguaje ofrece para construir puentes entre la lingüística y otras disciplinas científicas. A lo largo de la discusión tenemos muy presentes las ventajas que tendría incorporar algunas de estas ideas en la Educación Secundaria, no solo por el potencial valor intrínseco del conocimiento lingüístico, sino también por el impacto de este enfoque en habilidades más generales (y competenciales) como son observar, describir y comparar datos, razonar, argumentar, contraargumentar, formular generalizaciones, analizar, sintetizar o inferir.

The goal of theory construction is explanation: for language, theory for particular languages (grammar) and for the faculty of language FoL (the innate endowment for language acquisition). A primitive notion of simplicity of grammars is number of symbols, but this is too crude. An improved measure distinguishes grammars that capture genuine properties of language from those that do not. The theory of FoL must meet the empirical conditions of learnability (under extreme poverty of stimulus), and evolvability (given the limited but not insignificant evidence available). Recent work provides promising insights into how these twin conditions may be satisfied.

20 years ago, in lectures in Brasilia, I suggested that we might someday discover that the Faculty of Language (FL) is “beautifully designed, a near-perfect solution to the conditions imposed by the general architecture of the mind-brain in which it is inserted, another illustration of how natural laws work out in wondrous ways,” so that language is rather like a snowflake, and the near-perfect design can be expected to impose inefficiency of use. I added that “these are fables,” with the redeeming value that they “might even turn out to have some elements of validity. In the years since, solid reasons have been found to suggest that these hopes were understated, and that the “fable” – the Strong Minimalist Thesis – appears to have considerable validity. A number of striking and puzzling properties of FL – “universals of language” in the contemporary sense – have been shown to derive from the simplest computational operation, Merge, along with conditions of computational efficiency that are in effect part of natural law. And as anticipated, they do indeed impose communicative inefficiency.

This is an annotated transcription of Noam Chomsky’s keynote presentation at the University of Reading, in May 2017. Here, Chomsky reviews some foundational aspects of the theory of structure building: essentially, Merge and Label. The aim is to eliminate what he refers to as extensions of Merge which are seemingly incompatible with the Strong Minimalist Thesis while still accounting for recursive structure, displacement, and reconstruction (as the main empirical goals of the Minimalist Program). These include sidewards movement, multi-dominance, and late- Merge; all of which have been developed throughout the life cycle of transformational generative grammar. Furthermore, Chomsky formulates a series of conditions that an adequate formulation of Merge must meet, and sketches how the aforementioned extensions may violate these conditions. Chomsky arrives at a formulation of an operation MERGE, which maintains the core properties of Merge but is further restricted by limitations over what MERGE can do to the workspaces where syntactic operations apply.

This paper provides an overview of what we take to be the key current issues in the field of Generative Grammar, the study of the human Faculty of Language. We discuss some of the insights this approach to language has produced, including substantial achievements in the understanding of basic properties of language and its interactions with interfacing systems. This progress in turn gives rise to new research questions, many of which could not even be coherently formulated until recently. We highlight some of the most pressing outstanding challenges, in the hope of inspiring future research.

In their Essay on the evolution of human language, Martins and Boeckx seek to refute what they call the "half-Merge fallacy"-the conclusion that the most elementary computational operation for human language syntax, binary set formation, or "Merge," evolved in a single step. We show that their argument collapses. It is based on a serious misunderstanding of binary set formation as well as formal language theory. Furthermore, their specific evolutionary scenario counterproposal for a "two-step" evolution of Merge does not work. Although we agree with their Essay on several points, including that there must have been many steps in the evolution of human language and the importance of understanding how language and language syntax are implemented in the brain, we disagree that there is any justification, empirical or conceptual, for the decomposition of binary set formation into separate steps.

Es difícil considerar sin importantes reservas una petición de predicciones para el actual siglo iniciado. El historial de las predicciones sobre los asuntos humanos no ha sido alentador, ni siquiera a corto plazo, o en lo que se refiere a las ciencias. Con la excepción de unas pocas áreas, nuestra comprensión es superficial, y algunos factores cruciales (como la voluntad humana) están fuera de nuestro alcance. Quizá la predicción más plausible sea que cualquier propósito sobre cuestiones importantes probablemente errará, y si acierta, será por casualidad.

Language is not the same as speech or communication; rather, it is a computational cognitive system. It has appeared very recently, consistent with a minimalist view of language's hierarchical syntactic structure.

This is an interview to Noam Chomsky (MIT) on linguistic variation.

Cuenta como se creó la primera agencia estatal de propaganda en EU. llamada Comisión Creel, cuyo objetivo fue crear una histeria nacionalista en favor de la guerra. Alemania perdió la Primera Guerra Mundial porque perdió la batalla de la propaganda, acota. Luego relata la creación de las Relaciones Públicas vinculadas a la Creel. Uno de sus éxitos a finales de los 20 fue conseguir que las mujeres fumasen Chesterfiel. La manufactura del consenso fue un nuevo arte en democracia.