Open AccessOn the syntax and pragmatics interface: left-peripheral, medial and right-peripheral focus in Greek
Author(s) -
Konstantina Haidou
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.35.2004.227
Subject(s) - linguistics , syntax , computer science , focus (optics) , pragmatics , phonology , grammar , interface (matter) , perspective (graphical) , generative grammar , representation (politics) , information structure , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , philosophy , political science , physics , bubble , maximum bubble pressure method , parallel computing , politics , law , optics
The present paper explores the extent to which narrow syntax is responsible for the computation of discourse functions such as focus/topic. More specifically, it challenges the claim that language approximates ‘perfection’ with respect to economy, conceptual necessity and optimality in design by reconsidering the roles and interactions of the different modules of the grammar, in particular of syntax and phonology and the mapping between the two, in the representation of pragmatic notions. Empirical and theoretical considerations strongly indicate that narrow syntax is ‘blind’ to properties and operations involving the interpretive components — that is, PF and LF. As a result, syntax-phonology interface rules do not ‘see’ everything in the levels they connect. In essence, the architecture of grammar proposed here from the perspective of focus marking necessitates the autonomy of the different levels of grammar, presupposing that NS is minimally structured only when liberated from any non-syntactic/discourse implementations, i.e., movement operations to satisfy both interface needs. As a result, the model articulated here totally dispenses with discourse projections, i.e. FocusP.