ABSTRACT
A recent characterization of the history of generative syntax is one of steady progress through a process of accretion.1 This view points to a succession of discoveries, each building on prior ones, that have steered the field on a straight course that has led inexorably to the government-binding (GB) theory of the present day. To be specific, this account characterizes the principal task of the syntactician of thirty years ago as being to construct grammars of individual languages, each consisting of a list of language-particular rules. Between that time and the present, our ever deepening understanding of the principles of universal grammar (UG) has led to a steady reduction of the complexity and language-particularity of these rules. Today, our understanding of these principles is profound; in fact, we are close to the point where we can attribute virtually all observable differences among languages to the parameterization of these principles within highly circumscribed limits.
