b. 1952
Norbert Hornstein is a contemporary linguist and philosopher of language at the University of Maryland, College Park, known primarily for his work within the Minimalist Program in generative syntax. He has made significant contributions to the theory of syntactic movement, control, and to philosophical arguments concerning language learnability and the poverty of the stimulus. His work bridges formal syntax and philosophy of mind, particularly in debates about the innateness of linguistic knowledge.
Developed a movement-based theory of control (A-movement analysis), replacing traditional PRO-based accounts
Advanced poverty-of-the-stimulus arguments establishing that core grammatical properties are unlearnable from primary linguistic data alone
Co-authored foundational texts in minimalist syntax including work on feature-driven movement
Contributed to the philosophical case for linguistic nativism within the Chomskyan framework
Sustained programmatic defense of the Minimalist Program against alternative syntactic and cognitive theories