The Structure of Phonological Theory
Bridget Samuels
April 2009 

This dissertation focuses on "the syntax of phonology." I take a Minimalist approach, seeking to reduce representations & operations to a bare minimum. I argue that phonology is not just subtance-free, meaning a system of abstract symbolic computation, divorced from phonetic content, but also rich-structure free, and present case studies from (among others) various Bantu languages, Basque, Korean, and Serbo-Croatian. I then use this new theory as a starting point from which to investigate the position of the phonological module within the architecture of grammar and the evolutionary scenario developed by Hauser, Chomsky, & Fitch (2002), concluding that phonology poses no problem for the idea that FLN is very small (i.e., the abilities underlying phonological competence are part of FLB).

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/000863 (please use that when you cite this article, unless you want to cite the full url: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/000863)
Published in:	PhD dissertation, Harvard University
keywords:	phonology, pf interface, distributed morphology, evolution
Downloaded:	1339 times

 

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