Linearização e hierarquia no sistema computacional da linguagem humana, retomando o paradoxo posicional a partir do programa minimalista

Abstract

This thesis presents itself as a research of a theoretical nature and aims at a resumption of the discussion about the opposition highlighted by Milner (1989) in his famous "Introduction to the Science of Language" between the Saussurian concept of linearity and the Chomskyan notion of hierarchy. We return to the work begun by Milner that takes as corpus of analysis the initial moment of the generative theory, and we extend this analysis to the Minimalist Program (1995). We discuss two authors of formal linguistics who, according to our analysis, fit within the same epistemological model in the search for placing language in a scientific field and still to operate important "cuts" in the area from the delimitation of the "language" as the object of linguistic science, namely Saussure and Chomsky, and thus we propose an analysis in relation to the names of these authors, when we question the extent to which the reference to Chomsky's linearity in the Minimalist Program as a concept that reappears in Chomsky's linguistics and later, in the works of other generative authors such as Nunes (1995 et seq.), Kayne (1994), allows us to consider a new status for linearity in Chomskyan syntax, considered as the strongest syntactic theory of all time. We discuss two authors of formal linguistics who, according to our analysis, fit within the same epistemological model in the search for placing language in a scientific field and still to operate important "cuts" in the area from the delimitation of the "language" as the object of linguistic science, namely Saussure and Chomsky, and thus we propose an analysis in relation to the names of these authors, when we question the extent to which the reference to Chomsky's linearity in the Minimalist Program as a concept that reappears in Chomsky's linguistics and later, in the works of other generative authors such as Nunes (1995 et seq.), Kayne (1994), allows us to consider a new status for linearity in Chomskyan syntax, considered as the strongest syntactic theory of all time. We also put in retrospect a concept of Saussure's theorization that did not obtain the fortune of other concepts, linearity, but which presents itself as one of the founding principles of the linguistic sign and which has aroused interest of some authors like Testenoire (2010, 2012 ), and also put it in analysis with the Chomskyan notion of hierarchy, aiming to undo the insufficient / naive treatment regarding its theoretical importance internal to Saussurian theorization. We conclude that the positional paradox of which Milner (1989) deals is solved as a resource to linearization. A linearization of constituent structure which, although hierarchically arranged, is linearly distributed from one order of precedence to one another, ensuring that c-command operations, as well as the principle of economy in the PM act. Thus, the operation that, from Nunes (1995 et seq.), We propose to call Linearization (the product of the complex of operations of Copy, Concatenate, Form Chain and Reduce Chain), together with that of C-Command, participates in the determination of the intimate nature of the ILanguage. In this way, we conclude that, in a particular sense, the operations of the computational system impose on the performance system FF its linearity that, in the articulatory-perceptual solution, will dispose the lexical items in a temporal line and not the opposite. This last linearization differs from the previous one, but suggests to keep its marks in the form of traits that will allow, in the segmentation of the spoken chain, the items that will compose the mental dictionary and will feed the Numbering, keeping the marks of the syntactic positions occupied in the derivation. This argument led us to realize the importance of segmentation in the speech chain in the considerations about language acquisition. In Chomsky (2000) we find the author, more than once, mentioning the number and rate of word acquisition by a child throughout the language acquisition process. This statement is not negligible, since it has led us to recognize the very explicit and timely linkage of generative syntax considerations to language acquisition, specifically regarding the acquisition of the lexicon, this necessarily segmented from the linear chain of speech that composes the linguistic input to which the child is exposed.