Round 8: Tossup 19

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

Back to tossups

Buzzes

Summary