Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
The Minimalist Program
Chomsky's 1995 'Minimalist Program' — stripping generative grammar to the optimal interface conditions
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Minimalist Program (Late (linguistic work)) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Curved |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Minimalist Program
1995 publication. Chomsky was 67; the Minimalist Program would dominate his subsequent linguistic-theoretical work.
Space
The Minimalist Program
MIT Department of Linguistics — Chomsky's institutional base since 1955 and the global centre of generative grammar.
Matter
The Minimalist Program
Four-paper collection (~420 pages). Form is technical-linguistic with extensive formal apparatus.
Observer
The Minimalist Program
Late Chomsky on the linguistic programme. The observer-linguist is at the height of his theoretical authority over generative-grammar research.
Energy
The Minimalist Program
Late-programmatic energies of generative linguistics. The Minimalist Program is the third major phase of the Chomskyan research programme.
Information
The Minimalist Program
Four papers consolidating Minimalist theory. The 1993 'A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory' is the central programmatic paper.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The defining statement of the Minimalist phase of generative grammar. Has shaped subsequent syntactic theory for three decades; the broader theoretical-cognitive-science questions about why language is the way it is (the 'three factors' of Chomsky 2005 — genetic endowment, experience, and the principles of efficient computation) have been continuously productive in linguistic-cognitive science.