De-syntacticising Syntax? Concerns on the Architecture of Grammar and the Role of Interface Components

Abstract

This article discusses different ways in which interface components could potentially affect syntax (or what have traditionally been analysed as syntactic phenomena). I will distinguish four types of potential effects that the interface components could have onto syntax: (i) no real interaction, since almost nothing pertains to syntax: everything (beyond Merge) is externalization; (ii) computations at interface components actively affect the syntactic computation; (iii) Properties of interface representations function to inform biases for language acquisition; (iv) interface components impose Bare Output Conditions (legibility conditions) that constrain the range of possible syntactic representations at the interface. I argue that the first two are problematic, whereas the latter two may help us understanding a range of universal and variable phenomena.

Keywords

• architecture of grammar
• syntax
• interfaces
• bare output conditions
• modularity