General Linguistics. The notion of symmetry in syntax: formal, biological and mathematical issues (PhD)

Symmetry in syntax or steps toward the Cartesian dream.

Humans are designed to detect symmetry. This powerful notion is essential in many empirical and cognitive domains. It can be recognized and formally defined in different ways insofar some notion of invariance is maintained: the physical world, mathematical structures, art, and biological organisms display symmetries, and pervasively so. The aim of this course is to show that symmetry, contrary to the canonical models proposed ever since Chomsky 1986 and Kayne 1994, can in fact be detected in syntax, provided that a coherent metrics is designed linking the sequences of words to the hierarchical (recursive) structures underlying them and viceversa. The idea to be developed in the course is that symmetry generates (either computational or phonological) ambiguity and as such it must be neutralized. Ultimately, symmetry induces repair effects as if grammar provided a “syntactic epenthesis”. Symmetry naturally leads to the formulation of apowerful conjecture, namely that symmetry is the way grammar encodes predication. This hypothesis solves the debate concerning clause structure which characterizes linguistics ever since the classical Aristotelian model up to the structuralist debate: all clauses have a symmetrical, hence exocentric, nucleus although they expand according to an endocentric schema. Considering symmetry to be part of syntax forces a reshaping of the overall architecture of grammar, in particular it redesigns the boundaries between syntax and morphology and makes syntactic movement as a necessary consequence of the hierarchical structure characterizing all human languages. A novel perspective which cannot but to have an impact on the hypotheses bearing on the evolution of human language.

Nota bene:

classes will be concentrated in November and December. The course will be completed with an intensive two day seminar focusing on a topic discussed during the course.