On Hilbert’s epsilon operator in FormSequence

Abstract

This paper examines Chomsky’s recently proposed and abandoned FormSequence operation and presents a middle-ground implementation of it in a way that conforms to the Strong Minimalist Thesis. Special attention is paid to the role of Hilbert’s epsilon (ϵ) operator in this operation. I argue that while the ϵ-operator can give FormSequence its desired effect, the sequence-choosing mechanism should more adequately be attributed to the cognitive-computational context (mainly the interfaces) instead of Narrow Syntax. In other words, FormSequence is not entirely syntactic in nature but only partly so. I implement its syntactic part as repeated Pair Merge of a coordinator with a number of conjuncts, which yields a partially ordered set as output instead of a sequence. This implementation reconciles FormSequence with the Strong Minimalist Thesis and maintains a purely hierarchical syntactic module of human language. Furthermore, I compare the use of the ϵ-operator in FormSequence and its more established use in formal semantics and eventually promote a domain-general perspective on the fundamental cognitive procedure of sequence formation.