The Noun Phrase Book

The author does a great job of arguing against both methodological and substantive minimalism by arguing that, first of all, language is nothing like minimalism describes it (such as efficient and economical), and second, that such a system is not evolvable and therefore a minimalist language could not have come about in our species via evolution. Though the view of evolution is functional and teleologic, this is not the fault of the author (still, four stars rather than five for that, since it is just too annoying). Even in a non goal-driven model of evolution the objections to minimalism still apply, perhaps even more so. If language is a natural system (and it has to be, otherwise we would not be capable of it), then it will not be in any way perfect, economical or efficient. Even with a view of evolution as goal-driven as the pervasive one is, scientists realize that natural systems are far from perfect. The most mediocre engineer could design better organisms and systems.