Elements of syntax. Repulsion and attraction
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Henk van Riemsdijk
Abstract
In a famous article from 1989 Sylvain Bromberger and Morris Halle called “Why phonology is different” (Linguistic Inquiry 20, 51-70), the title says it all. And indeed there are few linguists who have argued that, at certain levels of abstraction, there are substantial similarities between phonology and syntax. In the present article I challenge the Bromberger-Halle doctrine. The background is that the null-hypothesis ought to be that there are close affinities between phonology and syntax. If we adhere to the idea that the main principles of universal grammar should be similar, perhaps even identical, then the Bromberger-Halle doctrine must be wrong. Of course, the principles of universal grammar are still in many ways unknown and too idiosyncratic to provide strong evidence that many (if not all) principles of universal grammar are shared by phonology and syntax. Still, there are some quite plausible general principles that seem to be common to phonology and syntax such as the OCP (the Obligatory Contour Principle). The present article explores some ways in which phonology and syntax may well be more similar than is generally assumed. In particular, it speculates to what extent we could arrange the structures of phonological and syntactic objects in such a way that we might say that both types of structure are actually identical.
Abstract
In a famous article from 1989 Sylvain Bromberger and Morris Halle called “Why phonology is different” (Linguistic Inquiry 20, 51-70), the title says it all. And indeed there are few linguists who have argued that, at certain levels of abstraction, there are substantial similarities between phonology and syntax. In the present article I challenge the Bromberger-Halle doctrine. The background is that the null-hypothesis ought to be that there are close affinities between phonology and syntax. If we adhere to the idea that the main principles of universal grammar should be similar, perhaps even identical, then the Bromberger-Halle doctrine must be wrong. Of course, the principles of universal grammar are still in many ways unknown and too idiosyncratic to provide strong evidence that many (if not all) principles of universal grammar are shared by phonology and syntax. Still, there are some quite plausible general principles that seem to be common to phonology and syntax such as the OCP (the Obligatory Contour Principle). The present article explores some ways in which phonology and syntax may well be more similar than is generally assumed. In particular, it speculates to what extent we could arrange the structures of phonological and syntactic objects in such a way that we might say that both types of structure are actually identical.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
- Elements and structural head-dependency 9
- Contrastive hierarchies and phonological primes 33
- Privativity and ternary phonological behavior 65
- A guide to Radical CV Phonology, with special reference to tongue root and tongue body harmony 111
- English vowel structure and stress in GP 2.0 157
- Reanalysing ‘epenthetic’ consonants in nasal-consonant sequences: A lexical specification approach 185
- The role of the elements in diphthong formation and hiatus resolution: Evidence from Tokyo and Owari Japanese 207
- Elements of syntax. Repulsion and attraction 251
- General Index 275
- Language Index 279
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
- Elements and structural head-dependency 9
- Contrastive hierarchies and phonological primes 33
- Privativity and ternary phonological behavior 65
- A guide to Radical CV Phonology, with special reference to tongue root and tongue body harmony 111
- English vowel structure and stress in GP 2.0 157
- Reanalysing ‘epenthetic’ consonants in nasal-consonant sequences: A lexical specification approach 185
- The role of the elements in diphthong formation and hiatus resolution: Evidence from Tokyo and Owari Japanese 207
- Elements of syntax. Repulsion and attraction 251
- General Index 275
- Language Index 279
