Remarks on nonrecursivity in syntax
David Gil · Linguistic Inquiry · 1984
REMARKS ON NONRECURSIVITY IN SYNTAX David Gil, Tel Aviv University In a series of articles, Hintikka (1975; 1977; 1980) proposes an account of the occurrence of any in English which, if true, would entail that the set of grammatical sentences in English is not recursively enumerable. Chomsky (1976, 342; 1980, 123127) disputes the details of Hintikka's analysis, but acknowledges (1976, 342) the possible existence of other and simpler examples that lead to conclusions similar to his with respect to the nonrecursivity of syntax. Chomsky further states (1980, 127) that can make up simple examples of 'languages' very much like the ones we speak that are not recursively enumerable, and offers an example pertaining to the distribution of between and among in what he refers to as maybe an actual variety of English. Whether the set of grammatical sentences in a natural language is recursively enumerable is a question of considerable interest; hence, a definitive non-theory-dependent answer is highly desirable. I propose to show here that the set of grammatical sentences in English is-as speculated by Chomskynot recursively enumerable. To see this, consider the following sentences: