The Roots of Philosophy of Chomsky's Transformational-Generative Theory

This book focuses on the evolution of object clitic pronouns in the Romance languages. It aims to explore the empirical facets of cliticization and elaborate on the theoretical ramifications of the topic. On the empirical side, the book deals with data ranging from Latin to modern languages and less well-known dialects from all areas of Romance. Medieval vernaculars take centre stage both in the reconstruction of the evolution from Latin to Romance and in the modelling of clitic placement in the modern languages. Syntactic, phonological, and morphological aspects are examined, but the main focus is on syntactic placement, which is the hallmark of Romance clitics. On the theoretical side, the books engage with the previous literature, in particular with Generative literature. In recent decades, our understanding of Romance clitics has grown in symbiosis with the Generative theory, and the importance of most empirical findings cannot be fully appreciated without being acquainted with the terms of the ongoing debate. The book challenges the received idea that cliticization resulted from a form of syntactic deficiency. Instead, it proposes that clitics resulted from the feature endowment of discourse features, which caused freezing of certain pronominal forms first and—through reanalysis—their successive incorporation into verbal hosts. This approach entails revising analyses of well-known phenomena such as interpolation, climbing, and enclisis/proclisis alternations (the so-called Tobler-Mussafia law), and addressing orthogonal phenomena such as V2 syntax, scrambling, and stylistic fronting.

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An extension of the comparative sociolinguistics approach for sociosyntax

Linguistic Variation ◽

10.1075/lv.16.2.02com ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 183-220 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Philip Comeau

Keyword(s):

Syntactic Structure ◽

Temporal Reference ◽

Generative Theory ◽

Single Constraint ◽

Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽

Acadian French ◽

Grammatical Structures ◽

Future Temporal Reference

This paper integrates aspects of both generative theory and variationist sociolinguistics. To compare the structure of two varieties of French (Acadian French and Laurentian French), I adapt the comparative sociolinguistics approach to compare the syntactic structure of these varieties. Specifically, I focus on the effects of a single linguistic constraint across multiple sociolinguistic variables. I argue that such a comparison provides insights into the underlying grammatical structures of the varieties under comparison, differences that may have remained hidden otherwise. To illustrate the approach, I focus on a single constraint, sentential polarity, and I analyze its effects on two sociolinguistic variables, yes/no questions and future temporal reference. Results show that the polarity constraint is operative in Laurentian French for both variables, but inoperative in Acadian French. To account for this difference, I argue that Laurentian French negative structures involve a negative head above the tense phrase while Acadian French does not.

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Reproductive Strategy and Sexual Conflict Slow Life History Strategy Inihibts Negative Androcentrism

Journal of Methods and Measurement in the Social Sciences ◽

10.2458/v4i1.17774 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 48 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Paul R. Gladden ◽

Aurelio José Figueredo ◽

D. J. Andrejzak ◽

Dan Nelson Jones ◽

Vanessa Smith-Castro

Keyword(s):

Emotional Intelligence ◽

Life History ◽

Executive Functioning ◽

Structural Model ◽

Life History Strategy ◽

Attitudes Toward Women ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

Biological Sex ◽

Generative Theory ◽

The Relationship

Recent findings indicate that a slow Life History (LH) strategy factor is associated with increased levels of Executive Functioning (EF), increased emotional intelligence, decreased levels of sexually coercive behaviors, and decreased levels of negative ethnocentrism. Based on these findings, as well as the generative theory, we predicted that slow LH strategy should inhibit negative androcentrism (bias against women). A sample of undergraduates responded to a battery of questionnaires measuring various facets of their LH Strategy, (e.g., sociosexual orientation, mating effort, mate-value, psychopathy, executive functioning, and emotional intelligence) and various convergent measures of Negative Androcentrism. A structural model that the data fit well indicated a latent protective LH strategy trait predicted decreased negative androcentrism. This trait fully mediated the relationship between participant biological sex and androcentrism. We suggest that slow LH strategy may inhibit negative attitudes toward women because of relatively decreased intrasexual competition and intersexual conflict among slow LH strategists. DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v4i1_gladden

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Distinctive Features in Speech Pathology: Phonology or Phonemics?

Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders ◽

10.1044/jshd.4101.23 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 23-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Frank Parker

Keyword(s):

Speech Production ◽

Speech Signal ◽

Speech Pathology ◽

Direct Relation ◽

Crucial Point ◽

Distinctive Features ◽

Phonological Structure ◽

Generative Theory ◽

Speech Science ◽

The One

Distinctive feature is not a unique concept within linguistic theory. It has two distinct theoretical bases: phonemic theory and generative theory. Phonemic theory assumes a direct correspondence between distinctive features (the elements of phonemes) and the speech signal. Although this assumption can be shown to be incorrect, it seems to be the one most widely held in speech science. Generative theory, on the other hand, assumes no such direct relation and consequently can account for certain linguistic phenomena that phonemic theory cannot. This theory then seems to be preferable to phonemic theory for a featural analysis of misarticulation. However, there is a problem. Chomsky and Halle’s system (generative theory) as it stands does not deal with the link between what it conceives to be the lowest level of linguistic structure (the phonetic matrix) and speech production. Therefore, Chomsky and Halle’s distinctive features cannot be applied fruitfully to all instances of misarticulation. The discrepancy that exists between phonological structure and the speech signal must be accounted for in a theory of speech production. This can be accomplished by recognizing a production matrix below the phonetic matrix, where segments are described in terms of production features. The crucial point is that no one-to-one relationship necessarily exists between distinctive features and production features.

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Interacting processes in phonological theory

Phonology ◽

10.1017/s095267571800012x ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 (3) ◽

pp. 441-479

Author(s):

Külli Prillop

Keyword(s):

Basic Principles ◽

Phonological Processes ◽

Rule Based ◽

The Core ◽

Repair Processes ◽

Generative Theory ◽

Environment Effects ◽

Markedness Constraint ◽

Serial Rule ◽

Chain Shifts

This article introduces basic principles of a generative theory of phonology that unifies aspects of parallel constraint-based theories and serial rule-based theories. In the core of the grammar are phonological processes that consist of a markedness constraint and a repair. Processes are universal, but every language activates a different set, and applies them in different orders. Phonological processes may be in bleeding or feeding relations. These two basic relations are sufficient to define more complicated interactions, such as blocking, derived and non-derived environment effects, chain shifts and allophony.

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