Tossup

This thinker developed phase theory as part of a paradigm whose basic operations are Move and Merge. This thinker’s “normal form” can express context-free grammars, (10[1])which are nested between (10[1])context-sensitive and regular grammars (10[1])in his namesake hierarchy. This thinker developed the minimalist program (10[1])to replace his earlier X-bar theory. Because children (10[1])have a “poverty of the stimulus,” this thinker argued that people have an innate capacity to understand recursive language. (10[1])This thinker’s book Syntactic Structures discusses the sentence “colorless green ideas sleep (10[1])furiously.” For 10 points, name this MIT linguist who developed the theory of universal grammar. ■END■ (10[1])

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