ABSTRACT
One of the hallmarks of modern generative grammar from LSLT to the present is the assumption that only a derivational model endowed with a specific architecture can account for the complexity of natural languages. A second, more immediate way in which the notion of architecture is relevant to the theory of grammar is that the expressions that are produced by the computational system in each language and transferred for interpretation to the semantic and phonetic interfaces are themselves hierarchically structured. The chapter also lists additional architectural issues, which have not received a satisfactory answer yet or have remained unexplored. These are the relation of morphology to syntax, the relation of Clitics to phrase structure, the localization of general Principles, in particular locality Principles, in the overall architecture of grammar, the division of labor between components, in particular that between narrow-syntactic computational Principles and LF bare output conditions. Several phenomena coming from a wide range of languages can be brought to bear on these architectural issues. The relevance of architectural choices to the minimalist perspective is emphasized.
