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a theory of syntax minimal operations and universal grammar
human language seems to have arisen roughly within the last 50 100000 years . in evolutionary terms this is the mere blink of an eye . if this is correct then much of what we consider distinctive to language must in fact involve operations available in pre linguistic cognitive domains . in this book norbert hornstein one of the most influential linguists working on syntax discusses a topical set of issues in syntactic theory including a number of original proposals at the cutting edge of research in this area . he provides a theory of the basic grammatical operations and suggests that there is only one that is distinctive to language . if this theory is correct then this narrows the evolutionary gap between verbal and non verbal primates thus facilitating the rapid evolutionary emergence of our linguistic capacity .