1．引言 Noam Chomsky新作《语言科学：詹姆斯·麦吉弗瑞访谈》（The Science of Language：Interviews with James McGilvray）2012年由剑桥大学出版社出版。McGilvray为加拿大麦吉尔大学哲学教授。该书为Chomsky访谈观点的首次出版。本书依据所讨论的主题分25个章节，编者还为每章撰写评论并解释关键概念。鉴于采访人的提问及解释都是为引出或帮助澄清Chomsky的学术观点，本文的介绍和简评主要针对Chomsky的观点。
Trace theory is a very important linguistic hypothesis within the framework of Generative Grammar. But whether the theory is correct, namely whether the assumed empty trace exists in syntactic representation, must be verified by experiments concerning the neural mechanisms of language. On the basis of Generative Grammar, the current study uses event- related potentials （ERP） to examine the neural mechanism of trace in Chinese topicalized constructions. The results show that three types of waves （a sustained negativity, a negativity elicited by the verb and a P600 elicited at the sentence-final position） are observed in the processing of Chinese topicalized constructions. These neural electrophysiological indexes indicate that the sentence-initial topic does leave a trace in the position out of which it moves, i.e. the sentence-final position, suggesting that there is a syntactic dependency between the topic and its trace. Consequently, we draw the conclusion that trace is neurologically supported in Chinese topicalized constructions and trace theory isneurophysiologically viable. Meanwhile, the study also adds neural evidence to the view that Chinese topicalized constructions are structures derived from syntactic movement.
