Gert Webelhuth, Dan Dennett, Marc Hauser, Tecumseh Fitch, Marcel Kinsbourne, James Pustejovsky, Jong Sup Jun,
and my editor, John Davey. Effusive thanks also on general principles to Joan Maling, my Brandeis colleague of nearly
thirty years, and to Lila Gleitman. I must particularly express my debt to my old graduate school friend Peter
Culicover, with who mI've been collaborating extensively over the last ten years. The synergy between Peter's
developing theory of“concrete minimalism”and my own work has helped me step out and commit to the radically
restructured conception of syntax that emerges here.
While I was grinding out the early chapters of the book in Berlin, I receivedthe news of the passing of my dear friend
Vicki Fromkin. Vicki“adopted”me (as she adopted everyone else) when I arrived in Los Angeles in 1969 as a freshly
minted Ph.D., and she and Jack never stopped being sources of delight. Her enthusiasm for bringing linguistics to the
rest of the world was inspirational; I can only hope that some of her spirit has rubbed off here. In the same week, we
also lost Alvin Liberman, whom I admired a great deal both professionally and personally, and who, like Vicki, was
concerned with bringing his message to audiences outside thefield. It's important to me to remember both of them
here and to acknowledge their influence on my thought over many years.
Old-timers willremember thejournalFoundations of Language, whichflourished fromthemid-1960s intothemid-1970s.
I still retain some fondness for it, having published myfirst paper in it in 1968. I hope it does not resent my having
borrowed its name.
Writinga book alsotakes money. For that, I'm gratefultotheSchering Foundation, whichfunded my fellowshiptothe
Wissenschaftskolleg,and totheNational InstitutesofHealth, whoseGrant 03660 GranttoBrandeisUniversityhelped
support this research.
It has been a real pleasure to work with the people at Oxford University Press, who have taken this project very
seriouslyand made every effort togetthewordout. I especiallywanttothank JohnDaveyand Sarah Dobsonfor their
help in making the book both textually clear and physicallybeautiful, and Jennifer Morettini, whose creative publicity
has brought me some interesting adventures.
Various parts of the text have been adapted fro mother works of mine, and appear here by per mission. These works
include:
“The Representational Structures of the Language Faculty and Their Interactions,”in Colin M. Brown and Peter
Hagoort (eds.),The Neurocognition of Language(Oxford University Press, 1999) (much of Chapter 1).
“What's in the Lexicon?,”in S. Nooteboom, F. Weerman, and F. Wijnen (eds.),Storage and Computation in the Language
Faculty(Kluwer, 2001) (much of Chapter 6).
xviii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS