Notional grammar and the redundancy of syntax
- In: Studies in Language 15.2, 301-333.
- As suggested by its title, Notional grammar and the redundancy of syntax is essentially a plea for syntactic minimalism (before this came to be fashionable elsewhere). Section 2 suggests that word class labels have an internal structure which consists of possibly asymmetrical combinations of two unary features, P(redicability) and N(ominality). These features have notional content: P is associated with the capacity to form a (optimally independent) predication, N with the capacity to refer. P thus introduces relationality and dynamicness, and N discreteness and stability. Names exhibit N but no P; finite verbs P but no N; other classes involve combinations of P and N, possibly with one or the other preponderant (governing). Section 3 shows how this articulation of categoriality enables the definition of natural classes and an explanation of scalar ('squishy') phenomena. Section 4 argues that syntactic structure – conceived of in terms of the binary aymmetric relation of dependency between a head element and its dependent(s) – is built monotonically on the basis of lexically provided notional word class characterisations, which also include, crucially, the valencies of a lexical item. Sections 5-7 are concerned with establishing that complex sentential structures, in particular those commonly held to display 'raising' and 'wh-movement', can be accommodated monotonically without appealing to movement and structure change.
- 26 pages, 309kb
Autor:
Anderson, John M.
Jahr:
1 991
Bereich:
NG
Papers PDF:
