Part of
Interfaces in GrammarEdited by Jianhua Hu and Haihua Pan
[Language Faculty and Beyond 15] 2019
► pp. 25–48
Edited by Jianhua Hu and Haihua Pan
[Language Faculty and Beyond 15] 2019
► pp. 25–48
Chapter 3Elements of syntax
Repulsion and attraction
This contribution presents a somewhat autobiographical overview of the author’s struggle in coming to grips with the undeniable central role that the forces of attraction and repulsion play in the grammar of natural languages. It is therefore a tale of good and bad ideas, where the bad ideas sometimes suppressed the good ones. After disentangling these previous attempts at a more or less comprehensive theory of repulsion and attraction, I present a sketchy research program for where I think we need to go to find a satisfactory solution.
Article outline
- 1.Early sources of inspiration
- 2.A bit of “early” history
- 3.Some ideas about categories, projections, the internal cohesion of projections, and the contexts in which they occur
- 4.A monumental mistake
- 5.First ideas about a new approach
- 6.Conclusion
-
Notes -
References
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