Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Theoretical validity and psychological reality of the grammatical code

  • and

Abstract

One interpretation of the competence-performance distinction is that the grammar is a knowledge base consulted by the performance systems. We argue for an alternative interpretation, according to which the grammar and the performance systems are theories of the same object, but at different levels of description. This does not mean that the grammar is reduced to the performance systems. It is fundamental in explaining properties of these systems, as it expresses constraints on their design that generalize across specific computational procedures. We base our argument on considerations of computational effi ciency, a comparison with other information-processing systems and evolutionary considerations.

Abstract

One interpretation of the competence-performance distinction is that the grammar is a knowledge base consulted by the performance systems. We argue for an alternative interpretation, according to which the grammar and the performance systems are theories of the same object, but at different levels of description. This does not mean that the grammar is reduced to the performance systems. It is fundamental in explaining properties of these systems, as it expresses constraints on their design that generalize across specific computational procedures. We base our argument on considerations of computational effi ciency, a comparison with other information-processing systems and evolutionary considerations.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. The linguistics enterprise 1
  5. Scope ambiguities through the mirror 11
  6. Phonetic and phonological approaches to early word recognition 55
  7. Restructuring head and argument in West-Germanic 79
  8. Scope assignment in child language 99
  9. The learnability of A-bar chains 115
  10. Looking at anaphora 141
  11. Incremental discourse processing 167
  12. Theoretical validity and psychological reality of the grammatical code 183
  13. Monitoring for speech errors has different functions in inner and overt speech 213
  14. What’s in a quantifier? 235
  15. Minimal versus not so minimal pronouns 257
  16. Against partitioned readings of reciprocals 283
  17. The representation and processing of fixed and compositional expressions 291
  18. Clitic doubling in Spanish 315
  19. Metalinguistic processing and acquisition within the MOGUL framework 327
  20. Catching heffalumps 345
  21. Index 377
The Linguistics Enterprise
This chapter is in the book The Linguistics Enterprise
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.150.08nee

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. The linguistics enterprise 1
  5. Scope ambiguities through the mirror 11
  6. Phonetic and phonological approaches to early word recognition 55
  7. Restructuring head and argument in West-Germanic 79
  8. Scope assignment in child language 99
  9. The learnability of A-bar chains 115
  10. Looking at anaphora 141
  11. Incremental discourse processing 167
  12. Theoretical validity and psychological reality of the grammatical code 183
  13. Monitoring for speech errors has different functions in inner and overt speech 213
  14. What’s in a quantifier? 235
  15. Minimal versus not so minimal pronouns 257
  16. Against partitioned readings of reciprocals 283
  17. The representation and processing of fixed and compositional expressions 291
  18. Clitic doubling in Spanish 315
  19. Metalinguistic processing and acquisition within the MOGUL framework 327
  20. Catching heffalumps 345
  21. Index 377
Downloaded on 12.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/la.150.08nee/html
Scroll to top button