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Semantico-Phonetic Form: A Unitarianist Grammar

Lotfi, Ahmad Reza (2000) Semantico-Phonetic Form: A Unitarianist Grammar. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Semantico-Phonetic Form: A Unitarianist Grammar Ahmad R. Lotfi Azad University at Esfahan (IRAN) ABSTRACT Semantico-Phonetic Form is a unitarianist theory of language in two different but inter-related senses: first, it assumes that the Conceptual-Intentional and Articulatory-Perceptual systems (responsible for semantic and phonetic interpretations respectively) access the data at one and the same level of inter- pretation; hence a single interface level--Semantico-Phonetic Form, SPF. Second, it is unitarianist in that (although it is still a formalist theory of language) it potentially permits the incorporation of both formalist and functionalist explana- tions in its formulation of the architecture of language. Within the framework of Semantico-Phonetic Form, and as an alternative proposal to Chomsky's minimalist thesis of movement, the Pooled Features Hypothesis pro- poses that "movement" is the consequence of the way in which the language faculty is organised (rather than a simple "imperfection" of language). The computational system CHL for human language is considered to be economical in its selection of formal features from the lexicon so that if two LIs (to be introduced in the same derivation) happen to have some identical formal feature in common, the feature is selected only once but shared by the syntactic objects in the derivation. It follows that the objects in question must be as local in their relations as possible. The local- ity of relations as such, which is due to economy considerations, results in some kind of (bare) phrase structure with pooled features labelling the structural tree nodes that dominate the syntactic objects. Pooled features, in a sense, are structurally interpreted. Other features, i.e. those not pooled, will be interpreted at SPF. KEY WORDS: bare phrase structure, economy, faculty of language, feature checking, feature sharing, formal features, imperfections, lexicon, logical forms, minimalist syntax, Semantico-Phonetic Form, strength, unitarianist theory

Item Type:Preprint
Keywords:semantico-phonetic form, LF, interface levels, minimalism, minimalist program, interpretation, generative linguistics
Subjects:Linguistics > Syntax
ID Code:1669
Deposited By: Lotfi, Ahmad
Deposited On:04 Jul 2001
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:54

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