The Minimalist Program
The Nature and Plausibility of Chomsky's Biolinguistics
Cambridge Studies in Linguistics Series

The development of the Minimalist Program (MP), Noam Chomsky's most recent generative model of linguistics, has been highly influential over the last twenty years. It has had significant implications not only for the conduct of linguistic analysis itself, but also for our understanding of the status of linguistics as a science. The reflections and analyses in this book contain insights into the strengths and the weaknesses of the MP. These include: a clarification of the content of the Strong Minimalist Thesis (SMT); a synthesis of Chomsky's linguistic and interdisciplinary discourses; and an analysis of the notion of optimal computation from conceptual, empirical and philosophical perspectives. This book will encourage graduate students and researchers in linguistics to reflect on the foundations of their discipline, and the interdisciplinary nature of the topics explored will appeal to those studying biolinguistics, neurolinguistics, the philosophy of language and other related disciplines.

1. Introduction; 2. The minimalist program; 3. The strong minimalist thesis (SMT); 4. The SMT in an evolutionary context; 5. The SMT as an explanatory thesis; 6. Optimal computation and multiple realisation; 7. Conclusion.

Fahad Rashed Al-Mutairi is a Ph.D. graduate from the University of Essex. His academic interests are broad and include syntactic theory, the evolution of language, and the philosophy of science and mind.