El concepto de 'modularidad' en la metateoria lingüística

Abstract

The notion of 'modularity' is an appealing metaphor that has played a crucial part in recent meta-theoretical discussions of the structure of gram¬ mars. Indeed, Chomsky, Newmeyer, Bresnan, Gazdar, Sadock, and others explicitly refer to it as a major architectural trait distinguishing their respecti¬ ve grammars from other (supposedly 'holistic') approaches. Yet, there has been surprisingly little explicit discussion either of the concept itself or of the formal criteria licensing the classification of particular grammars as modular or non-modular, and, not unexpectedly, the recent literature on the topic re¬ veals substantial uncertainties and disagreements in both respects which cast serious doubts on the fertility of that distinction as currently understood. The purpose of the present article is to make such discrepancies explicit, to distin¬ guish between trivial and non-trivial interpretations of 'modularity', and to propose criteria for a meaningful use of that category in future meta-theoretical research.