Generative Grammar in the Twenty-First Century: The Road Ahead

Generative grammar has made important contributions to our understanding of language, and with it, the human mind. The field continues to be fecund and vibrant and new discoveries and developments continue apace. However, the rapid growth and development of this still-young field leaves it without a clear and uncontroversial canon, especially in syntax. There are few fundamental points that practitioners of the so-called minimalist approach have a clear consensus on. Because minimalist syntacticians generally cannot rely on a shared core of hypotheses and central principles, each paper has to build its case from the ground up, which results in publications steadily growing in size and presentations at conferences rarely generating the kind of excitement and fruitful discussion today that they used to more than a decade ago. It has become increasingly difficult to prove individual analyses, to prove them wrong, or to confront them in a meaningful way with counterarguments or supporting evidence.

This conference represents a ‘reconstitutional’ meeting of major minds in generative syntax aimed at producing a white paper to (re)affirm the theoretical core, work towards creating an analytical lingua franca, and lay down a platform for research in the field in the coming years.

In addition to plenary and group discussions, there will be a poster session, in which young and early-career-stage researchers will be encouraged to participate. A formal call for papers for this session will be distributed in due time.

Invited Contributors:

Elena Anagnostopoulou
Mark Baker
Jonathan Bobaljik
Lisa Cheng
Rose-Marie Déchaine
Janet Dean Fodor
Sabine Iatridou
Julie Anne Legate
Joan Maling
Alec Marantz
Jim McCloskey
Gereon Müller
David Pesetsky
Maria Polinsky
Gillian Ramchand
Henk van Riemsdijk
Luigi Rizzi
Ian Roberts
Peter Sells
Ivy Sichel
Spyridoula Varlokosta

Organizers: Artemis Alexiadou, Marcel den Dikken, Winfried Lechner, Terje Lohndal and Peter Svenonius
Contact: Marcel den Dikken
Contact Email: Mden-Dikken@gc.cuny.edu