Search the web for DPNG, and
there’s a fair chance you’d end up on the Galapagos Islands,
at the D[irección
del] P[arque] N[acional] G[alápagos],
to be more precise. Depending on one’s conception of the universe,
this may or may not be entirely accidental, for – as the DPNG(alapagos)
have it – their concern is with the “... conservation
of [...] the biological diversity of the archipelago for the benefit
of humankind, the local population, science and education.” Substitute ‘intellectual
diversity’ and ‘field of linguistics’ for ‘biological
diversity’ and ‘archipelago’ respectively, and
you are not all that far off from where you are now: the homesite
of Dependency
Phonology (DP) and Notional
Grammar (NG).
The purpose of this site is the dissemination of information on Dependency
Phonology and Notional Grammar – modes of phonological and grammatical
theorizing which are driven by the assumption that the grouping of the basic
elements of phonological and grammatical structure into classes and the tactic
combination of members of these classes into constructions is determined by
their phonetic and notional substance respectively.
While DP enjoys some familiarity among workers in phonology (as witnessed by
the fact that it has found its way into a number of phonology textbooks), the
community has been somewhat slow in embracing its theoretical analogue in syntax,
Notional Grammar.
NG's basic tenet has it that the categories of the syntax are semantically
or notionally 'grounded', just as phonological categories are phonetically.
According to NG, then, the minimal requirement of a syntactic theory, viz.
accounting for the distributional properties of syntactic classes, can only
be met by a conception of syntactic categories which attributes to them notional,
ontological content.
NG thus offers a distinct perspective of bridging the divide between 'functionalist'
and 'formalist' (though perhaps not 'autonomist') approaches to syntax.
The Dependency Phonology and Notional Grammar pages host information
such as basic introductions, selected papers and pre-publications,
relevant links etc. |