foreword by Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini This unusual book takes the form of a dialogue between a linguist and another scientist. The dialogue takes place over six days, with each day devoted to a particular topic--and the ensuing digressions. The role of the linguist is to present the fundamentals of the minimalist program of contemporary generative grammar. Although the linguist serves essentially as a voice for Noam Chomsky's ideas, he is not intended to be a portrait of Chomsky himself. The other scientist functions as a kind of devil's advocate, making the arguments that linguists tend to face from those in the "harder" sciences.The author does far more than simply present the minimalist program. He conducts a running argument over the status of theoretical linguistics as a natural science. He raises the general issues of how we conceive words, phrases, and transformations, and what these processes tell us about the human mind. He also attempts to reconcile generative grammar with the punctuated equilibrium version of evolutionary theory.In his foreword, Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini says, "The vast number of readers who have been enthralled by Goedel, Escher, Bach may well like also this syntactic companion, a sort of 'Chomsky, Fibonacci, Bach.'".

Part 1 The first day - the minimalist viewpoint: the mystery of language acquisition
the mystery of language variation
knowledge of language
simple learning methods
simple universal minds
economy
language and form. 
Part 2 The second day - notation and reality: levels of representation
words (repeat thrice)
systems of features
the inclusive nature of LF
the invariant parts of the computational system
representational alternatives
optimality theory.
Part 3 The third day - phrases and linearity: (virtually) necessary properties
phrasal representations
precendence by hierarchy
some interesting predictions
further intriguing predictions
empty categories are not empty
further consequences of linearization.
Part 4 The fourth day - cyclic transformations: movement in languages "without movement"
extending structures
noncyclic mergers?
adjunction
the array as a numeration
clockwork
some open questions to exercise with.
Part 5 The fifth day - chains and their checking domain: the minimal link condition
well-formedness conditions versus ranking criteria
further conditions pertaining to chains
the overall shape of grammatical chains (and where it may come from)
desperately seeking features
there!
heads and tails. 
Part 6 The sixth day - words and their internal domain: internal domains
much ado about word formation
the subcase principle
departures from optimality
on the origins of uninterpretable features
evolution strikes back
an abrupt and unexpected coda. 
Part 7 And on the seventh day...

Juan Uriagereka is Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Maryland at College Park.

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