ABSTRACT
In this chapter I would like to give an outline of some fundamental concepts, formal ideas and empirical results achieved in the study of language as a cognitive capacity over the last few decades. Hopefully, the discussion of ideas and models which have proven successful for the study of the language faculty may be of interest to scholars focusing on other domains of human cognition, however remote from language. Of more direct potential relevance, in the context of this volume, may be the final discussion on the role of economy and optimality considerations in the recent Minimalist Program in linguistics.
