Ray Jackendoff

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Ray Jackendoff (born January 23, 1945) is an American

Jackendoff's research deals with the

Jackendoff argues against a syntax-centered view of generative grammar (which he calls syntactocentrism), at variance with earlier models such as the standard theory (1968), the extended standard theory (1972), the revised extended standard theory (1975), the government and binding theory (1981), and the minimalist program (1993), in which syntax is the sole generative component in the language. Jackendoff takes syntax, semantics, and phonology all to be generative, interconnected via interface components. The task of his theory is to formalize the proper interface rules.

While rejecting mainstream generative grammar due to its syntactocentrism, the cognitive semantics school has offered an insight that Jackendoff would sympathize with, namely, that meaning is a separate combinatorial system not entirely dependent upon syntax. Unlike many of the cognitive semantics approaches, he contends that neither syntax alone should determine semantics, nor vice versa. Syntax need only interface with semantics to the degree necessary to produce properly ordered phonological output (see Jackendoff 1996, 2002; Culicover & Jackendoff 2005).

Contribution to musical cognition

Jackendoff, together with

• Jackendoff, Ray (1972). Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
  ISBN 0-262-10013-4
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• Jackendoff, Ray (1977). X-Bar Syntax: A Study of Phrase Structure. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 248.
  ISBN 0-262-10018-5
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• Jackendoff, Ray (1983). Semantics and Cognition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 283.
  ISBN 0-262-10027-4
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• Lerdahl, Fred; Ray Jackendoff (1983). A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 369.
  ISBN 0-262-12094-1
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• Jackendoff, Ray (1987). Consciousness and the Computational Mind. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 356.
  ISBN 0-262-10037-1
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• Jackendoff, Ray (1990). Semantic Structures. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 322.
  ISBN 0-262-10043-6
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• Jackendoff, Ray (1992). Languages of the Mind: Essays on Mental Representation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. p. 200.
  ISBN 0-262-10047-9
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• Jackendoff, Ray (1993). Patterns in the Mind: Language and Human Nature. New York, NY: Harvester Wheatsheaf. p. 243.
  ISBN 0-7450-0962-X
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• Jackendoff, Ray (1997). The Architecture of the Language Faculty. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 262.
  ISBN 0-262-10059-2
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• Jackendoff, Ray (2002). Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 477.
  ISBN 0-19-827012-7
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• Culicover, Peter W.; Ray Jackendoff (2005).
  ISBN 0-19-927108-9
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• Jackendoff, Ray (2007). Language, Consciousness, Culture: Essays on Mental Structure (Jean Nicod Lectures). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 403.
  ISBN 978-0-262-10119-6
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• Jackendoff, Ray (2010). Meaning and the Lexicon: The Parallel Architecture 1975–2010. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 504.
  ISBN 978-0-19-956888-8
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• Jackendoff, Ray (2012). A User's Guide to Thought and Meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 274.
  ISBN 978-0-19-969320-7
  .