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)
Published in: PhD dissertation, Harvard University
keywords: phonology, pf interface, distributed morphology, evolution
Downloaded:19483 times

 

[ edit this article | back to article list ]