ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents the stages of the study of morphology and mind with an examination of the distributional data on the suffixing preference and the head/affix correlation. It illustrates the interdisciplinary nature of the unified approach, and examines the problem from the perspectives, drawing on a number of linguistic traditions to formulate an account at a level of specificity and completeness seldom attempted in linguistic explanation. The book introduces the basic characteristics of the formal approach and unified approach. It also considers examples of the types of explanation offered, before examining some drawbacks and deficiencies of each. Chomskyan's work is, therefore, the pivot around which discusses the problem of linguistic explanation. Through a formulation of Universal Grammar (UG), he is claiming to offer an ultimately biological explanation for the universality of the fundamental properties of language structure.
