Matilde Marcolli (Caltech) will be visiting Utrecht University on the 26th of June, and she will give a talk with the title:

A mathematical model of syntactic Merge

Abstract

In this talk I will present a mathematical view of the Merge operation in the Minimalist Model of syntax, in the free symmetric form of Chomsky’s more recent formulation of Minimalism.

I will show that the underlying mathematical formalism is closely related to Hopf algebra structures that play a fundamental role in physics.

I will also discuss from this mathematical perspective the advantages of this more recent formulation of Minimalism over older versions. This talk is based on joint work with Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick (arXiv:2305.18278).

All invited!

Date: 26 June 2023
Time: 11:00
Location: Drift 21, 104