ON THE NOTIONS OF ECONOMY, REDUNDANCY AND OPTIMALITY IN LANGUAGE

The paper deals with the notions of economy, redundancy, optimality and the relations among these three with regard to the functioning of language. The author attempts to show that the notion of optimality does not have to be compatible with economy and at variance with redundancy, no matter which ontology and function of language we adopt. In the first part of the paper it is assumed that the primary function of language is communication, and from that perspective the drive-for-economy problem is considered. The second part of the paper is devoted to the problem of optimality and economy in relation to the concept of the Universal Grammar as expressed in the Minimalist Program. Here, he author adopts Chomsky's perspective on the ontology and function of language. In that approach, language is regarded as a data processing biological organ of the mind/ brain, whose main function is cooperating with the environing cognitive systems embedded in the brain. From that perspective he considers a major inconsistency in Chomsky's assumptions about the optimal and economical nature of the language faculty (economy being one of the actual principles of UG), and tries to show its possible origin.