Syntax as a Hybrid Object in the Minimalist Program: a Categorial Approach

Abstract

Departing from the mainstream categorial grammars (full-propositional, Lambek-like representations), Song interprets categorically the syntactic atoms of the generative machinery. Merging and categorizing become the same: the propositional representations constitute the last layer of a multilevel abstraction-structure generating local types and combinability features.

I argue that dual interpretations are possible at any level of analysis under that of complete clauses: some CT-applications in philosophy of science, particularly the Stone duality theorem, show that the isomorphisms between semantic models correspond to syntactic categorial equivalences.

Finally, the semantic pointers’ architecture could provide a consistent neurobiological basis for the abstractions.