Linguistics

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The Editors

[long_description] As the year draws to a close, the editors are delighted to present our second annual Christmas Chrestomathy, highlighting the essays that best represent our aims, ambitions, attitudes, and even our animadversions. As it turned out, 2021 was a milestone year for the journal with the launch of a new website, the switch to a rolling publication schedule, and the debut of a new section: The Rambler.

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On Aspects of the Theory of Syntax

Anna Maria Di Sciullo

[short_description] In the first essay for a new series on landmark texts, Anna Maria Di Sciullo revisits Noam Chomsky’s classic Aspects on the Theory of Syntax.

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Babbling Birds

Riny Huybregts

[short_description] At first sight, the chestnut-crowned babbler’s capacity to communicate seems comparable to the way humans form words from phonemes. Should this claim be taken seriously, or is this one for the birds?

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The Arabic Grammatical Tradition

Kees Versteegh

[short_description] In large parts of the Islamic world, children are taught Classical Arabic, which can differ greatly from their local dialect. Kees Versteegh recounts the history of teaching Classical Arabic grammar.

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Talk Is Cheap

Iris Berent

[short_description] Speech and language are so tightly linked that they are often considered inseparable. But what of sign language? Iris Berent sheds some light on this oft-neglected branch of linguistics.

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Misused Terms in Linguistics

Evelina Leivada

[short_description] Many terms in linguistics are often used incorrectly or incoherently. Evelina Leivada points to ten of the very terms that linguists have learned to love, striking evidence that love is often blind.

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Just a Thought

David Lobina

[short_description] Inner Speech: New Voices contains papers by philosophers, psychologists, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists, but linguists are thin on the ground. This is a mistake, David Lobina argues.

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The Siege of Paris

Robert Berwick & Noam Chomsky

[short_description] In a response to Cedric Boeckx, Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky defend their view of the human language faculty as a species-specific property, with no known group differences and little variation.

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Kept in Mind

Juan Uriagereka

[short_description] When it comes to the neuroprocessing of language, Juan Uriagereka argues, we know more than we knew, but less than we had hoped. Angela Friedrici’s Language in Our Brain is a case in point.

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Fodor’s Legacy

David Lobina

[short_description] The publication of a new volume on the work of the philosopher and cognitive scientist Jerry Fodor is an opportunity to reflect on his enduring legacy. David Lobina assesses Fodor’s contributions and ideas.

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Handmade

Vivian Cook

[short_description] Linguist Vivian Cook reviews a paper by Elena Pagliarini et al., “Children’s First Handwriting Productions Show a Rhythmic Structure,” and claims that some characteristics of handwriting are innate.

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The Galilean Challenge

Noam Chomsky

[short_description] One of the most striking features of the human capacity for language is the use of finite means to express an unlimited array of thoughts. Accounting for this feature is the Galilean challenge.

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