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The minimalist program is a theory of grammar developed by Noam Chomsky in 1993, building on his previous work in generative and transformational grammar. It seeks to simplify grammar representation and levels, remove government from linguistics, and understand how all grammatical structures and rules arise. Chomsky also developed Base Phrase Structure (BPS) and advocated the theory of unity and movement.
The minimalist program is a technique for understanding grammar. The idea was first theorized by the famous grammarian Noam Chomsky in 1993. It is a form of inquiry related to cognitive science and Chomsky’s previous reflections on transformative and generative grammar. Overall, it falls into the area of theoretical linguistics.
Grammatical studies have not been linked to any single language, but seek to understand how all grammatical structures and rules arise. The first studies of English grammar were written in Latin in the 17th century. Each language has evolved differently, top-down like Japanese or oppressed and bottom-up like English and Hungarian. How closely an individual should abide by language rules, formal or informal, also varies from language to language.
Noam Chomsky, in defining the minimalist program, tried to build on his own studies from the 1950s onwards in generative and transformational grammar. Chomsky summarized generative grammar in 1965. It is the study of syntax. Using such studies, Chomsky believed it was possible to predict the morphology of a sentence based on his rules. This led to the creation of an algorithm.
The 1993 book on the minimalist program actually led to a return to the study of transformational grammar. Transformational grammar is where a small change to a sentence’s deep structure, its words and syntax, creates new meaning within its surface structure. Simple examples include turning a statement into a question and turning an active sentence into a passive one. Deep structure involves words and their relationships, while surface structure is the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
Chomsky advanced two basic theories in the minimalist program. They were the economy of derivation and the economy of representation. Derivation economics examines how grammatical transformations match interpretable data with uninterpretable data. Representation looks at the purpose of a sentence and how the structure of a sentence is no bigger than it should be.
The minimalist program offers several innovations in grammar approaches. First, it seeks to simplify the representation of grammar, simplify grammar levels, and remove government from linguistics. Linguistic governance concerns a word and its dependent relations.
Chomsky also developed Base Phrase Structure (BPS) to replace the older X-bar theory. His simplified version was all about the basics of sentence construction. It represents bottom-up sentence construction versus top-down X-bar theory. He also claims that there are no preconceived sentence structures in human linguistics.
Chomsky advocated the theory of unity and movement in his minimalist program. Blending occurs when two words are placed next to each other to create a new meaning; for example, soup and spoon. The soup spoon then becomes a label. Shift concerns when a word shifts the reader’s attention from one subject-object to another.
