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Linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora
The core question behind this Frontiers research topic is whether explaining linguistic phenomena requires appeal to properties of human cognition that are specialized to language. We argue here that investigating this issue requires taking linguistic research results seriously, and evaluating these...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2015
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4585305/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26441791 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01421 |
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author | Adger, David Svenonius, Peter |
author_facet | Adger, David Svenonius, Peter |
author_sort | Adger, David |
collection | PubMed |
description | The core question behind this Frontiers research topic is whether explaining linguistic phenomena requires appeal to properties of human cognition that are specialized to language. We argue here that investigating this issue requires taking linguistic research results seriously, and evaluating these for domain-specificity. We present a particular empirical phenomenon, bound variable interpretations of pronouns dependent on a quantifier phrase, and argue for a particular theory of this empirical domain that is couched at a level of theoretical depth which allows its principles to be evaluated for domain-specialization. We argue that the relevant principles are specialized when they apply in the domain of language, even if analogs of them are plausibly at work elsewhere in cognition or the natural world more generally. So certain principles may be specialized to language, though not, ultimately, unique to it. Such specialization is underpinned by ultimately biological factors, hence part of UG. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4585305 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-45853052015-10-05 Linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora Adger, David Svenonius, Peter Front Psychol Psychology The core question behind this Frontiers research topic is whether explaining linguistic phenomena requires appeal to properties of human cognition that are specialized to language. We argue here that investigating this issue requires taking linguistic research results seriously, and evaluating these for domain-specificity. We present a particular empirical phenomenon, bound variable interpretations of pronouns dependent on a quantifier phrase, and argue for a particular theory of this empirical domain that is couched at a level of theoretical depth which allows its principles to be evaluated for domain-specialization. We argue that the relevant principles are specialized when they apply in the domain of language, even if analogs of them are plausibly at work elsewhere in cognition or the natural world more generally. So certain principles may be specialized to language, though not, ultimately, unique to it. Such specialization is underpinned by ultimately biological factors, hence part of UG. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-09-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4585305/ /pubmed/26441791 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01421 Text en Copyright © 2015 Adger and Svenonius. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Adger, David Svenonius, Peter Linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora |
title | Linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora |
title_full | Linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora |
title_fullStr | Linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora |
title_full_unstemmed | Linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora |
title_short | Linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora |
title_sort | linguistic explanation and domain specialization: a case study in bound variable anaphora |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4585305/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26441791 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01421 |
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