Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface
It is claimed in this paper that the well known incongruence between the phonology and the syntax is resolved by removing syntactic boundaries by means of the rhythmic patterning. Resulting from this is a direct interface between the phonological phrasing and the syntax. The intermediary of the prosodic component is thereby eliminated. Accordingly, it is emphasized that language is rhythmic and that the rhythm of any given language directly interprets the syntactic constituency. The instrument by which this is achieved is the rhythmic foot, which contravenes the syntactic constituency directly and restructures it to align it with the rhythmic patterning. In contrast to Nespor (1990), therefore, this approach takes into account no separation between the prosody and rhythm. As a result, it limits the need for pre-compiled rules as proposed by Hayes (1990). Especially targeted in relation to this discussion is the behavior of French schwa.
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