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At JHU the structure and meaning of sentences is studied from a range of theoretical and experimental perspectives. Pioneering foundational work in several syntactic formalisms, including Principles-and-Parameters, Optimality Theory, and Tree-Adjoining Grammar/Minimalism, has been conducted by faculty in this group. The training provided in this area emphasizes both formal and empirical issues. Experimental work addresses issues such as the on-line production of sentence structure and the relative influences on real-time pronoun interpretation of structural, morphological, and pragmatic factors. Computational work models on-line sentence interpretation from a highly grammar-driven perspective, using neural-network as well as symbolic computation. Experimental work cross-linguistically explores such issues as the acquisition of language-particular syntactic frames for individual verbs and the structure of the very first sentences children produce. The overall architecture of the mental grammar is studied through patterns of breakdown in brain-damaged adults and the syntax acquired by children with the developmental disorder Williams syndrome. |
