Editing Universal grammar (section)

== Theories of universal grammar ==

Within generative grammar, there are a variety of theories about what universal grammar consists of. One notable hypothesis proposed by [[Hagit Borer]] holds that the fundamental syntactic operations are universal and that all variation arises from different [[feature (linguistics)|feature]]-specifications in the [[mental lexicon|lexicon]].<ref name="PesetskyUG"/><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Parameters|encyclopedia=The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Minimalism|year=2012|last= Gallego|first=Ángel|editor-last=Boeckx|editor-first=Cedric|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199549368.013.0023}}</ref> On the other hand, a strong hypothesis adopted in some variants of [[Optimality Theory]] holds that humans are born with a universal set of constraints, and that all variation arises from differences in how these constraints are ranked.<ref name="PesetskyUG"/><ref name ="McCarthyOT">{{cite book|last=McCarthy|first=John|year=1992|title=Doing optimality theory|publisher=Wiley|pages=1–3|isbn=978-1-4051-5136-8}}</ref> In a 2002 paper, [[Noam Chomsky]], [[Marc Hauser]] and [[W. Tecumseh Fitch]] proposed that universal grammar consists solely of the capacity for hierarchical phrase structure.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hauser|first1=Marc|author-link1=Marc Hauser|last2=Chomsky|first2=Noam|author-link2=Noam Chomsky|last3=Fitch|first3=W. Tecumseh|author-link3=W. Tecumseh Fitch|year=2002|title=The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve|journal=Science|volume=298|issue=5598 |pages=1569–1579|doi=10.1126/science.298.5598.1569|pmid=12446899 }}</ref>