Minimalist Syntax: The Essential Readings

"The physicist Paul Dirac noted that the beauty of an equation is far more important than its fit to the experimental evidence. The Minimalist Program in linguistics, championed by Chomsky in the mid-1990s, is an attempt to seek beauty in the theory of linguistics. Minimalist Syntax synthesizes the current state of play, showing both the elegance of the theory, and its far reaching implications for not only the study of language, but the mind more generally. You may not agree with the perspective outlined, and may not find the evidence compelling, but if you don’t take the proposal seriously, you will miss out on what could be one of the most radical and intellectually stimulating theories of the mind in the 21st century."
--Marc Hauser, Harvard College, author of Wild Minds (2000) and Moral Minds (2006).

"A fine collection of excerpts from many of the most important and influential texts of the Minimalist Program. Organized by topic, the editors have helpfully juxtaposed selections from the literature to give the reader a feel for how debates progressed and how ideas were shaped. This book provides the essential core reading list for any course on minimalist syntactic theory. It is also a must-have all-in-one-place reference source for syntacticians."
--Tim Stowell, UCLA

"An authoritative and comprehensive volume detailing how the Minimalist Program developed out of earlier work, and making clever use of extracts from key works by the world’s leading scholars. A unique teaching and research resource."
--Andrew Radford, University of Essex