Interface Strategies
Optimal and Costly Computations

Taking Chomsky's hypothesis of optimal design as a starting point, repair strategies based on computing reference-sets apply in restricted areas of the interface--quantifier scope, focus, anaphora and implicatures.

They require constructing and comparing a reference set of alternative derivations to determine whether a repair operation is indeed the only way to meet the interface requirements.Evidence that reference-set computation applies in these four areas comes from language acquisition. The required computation poses a severe load on working memory. While adults can cope with this load, children, whose working memory is less developed, fail in tasks requiring this computation.