The Cartographic Enterprise in Syntax

Abstract

AbstractCartography is a research program within the Principles & Parameters framework of syntactic theory. Its project is to draw detailed maps of syntactic configurations but its place lies in a broader research project, namely the study of functional (or grammatical) categories, their content, number and order. Cartography is inspired by and contributes to research in comparative syntax and typology. It adheres to the view that syntactic structures are uniform, locally simple and both necessary and sufficient to structurally represent the grammatical or functional information relevant for semantic/pragmatic interpretation. Like Minimalism, it attributes a cardinal role to features in syntax but whereas Minimalism focuses on the driving force of uninterpretable features, Cartography is concerned with the inventory of interpretable ones. Cartography contributes to a growing affinity between research in syntactic theory, semantics, discourse and information structure.