Neeleman, Ad;
(2025)
Syntax and Externalization:
Linearization.
In: Barbiers, Sjef and Corver, Norbert and Polinsky, Maria, (eds.)
The Cambridge Handbook of Comparative Syntax.
(pp. 938-966).
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge,UK.
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Abstract
While syntactic rules are clearly conditioned by constituent structure, it is less clear whether such rules refer to linear order. In this chapter, I explore several apparently syntactic phenomena in which linear order appears to play a role and discuss to what extent the data warrant a syntactic or an extra-syntactic account. The phenomena in question are (i) mirror-image effects in word order variation, (ii) left–right asymmetries in syntactic dependencies like movement, (iii) harmony within extended projections (the tendency for dependents to appear on the same side of a lexical head), (iv) harmony between extended projections (the tendency for extended projections to share left- or right-headedness), and (v) compactness (the tendency for the verb and the object to be linearly adjacent in SVO languages but not in SOV ones ). At least some of the data may allow an extra-grammatical account, in terms of acquisition (harmony) or parsing (compactness and left–right asymmetries in dependencies). However, whether such an account merely motivates grammatical constraints that refer to linear order or makes such constraint superfluous is hard to determine.
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