Symmetry in Structure Building

Bibliographic Data

ID4238199
AuthorsPeter Hallman (0000-0002-8144-0416, McGill University, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume7
Issue1
Pages79-100
Publication date2004-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSyntax (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-0005 • E-ISSN: 1467-9612
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1368-0005.2004.00066.x
OpenAlexW2001364423
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited20

This paper defends three interconnected claims: (a) selection is the only licensing procedure available to UG, specifically, checking is an instance of selection; (b) selection obtains in the mutual c-command configuration; and (c) though a head does not mutually c-command its own specifier, it mutually c-commands the specifier of its complement. A head may therefore license the specifier of its complement (as well as its complement) but not its own specifier (it is not local enough). This effectively eliminates the spec-head configuration from the repertoire of syntactic configurations, in favor of a unified notion of locality strictly identifiable with mutual c-command, a symmetric configuration. The discussion shows that a theory that collapses these distinctions remains empirically discriminating. The resulting theory is therefore genuinely reductionist

Complement (music · Composition (language · Geometry · Head (geology · Linguistics · Locality · Physics · Repertoire · Selection (genetic algorithm · Specifier · Symmetry (geometry · Computer Science · Logic, programming, and type systems · Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge · Mathematics · Philosophy · semigroups and automata theory · Artificial Intelligence · Theoretical Computer Science

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