The Asymmetry and Antisymmetry of Syntax: A Relational Approach to Displacement

In both syntax and phonology, it has long been observed that locality is a fundamental property of displacement. In Minimalist syntax, Feature Geometry-based Relativised Minimality (Starke 2001) and Contiguous Agree (Nevins 2007), and in Autosegmental phonology the Line-Crossing Prohibition (which originates in the Well-formedness Condition of Goldsmith 1976) all capture the insight that displacement must create a chain of elements which appears contiguous if only elements having a certain characteristic are considered. For example, in the case of Relativised Minimality, wh- movement creates a chain based on the [Quant] feature comprising the copy X and the original constituent Y, but is blocked if another element Z bearing a [Quant] feature would interrupt the chain, as in the configuration …X…Z…Y… (Rizzi 2011).

Order theory has long been present in syntax because of the use of strict orders in linearisation with Kayne's (1994) Linear Correspondence Axiom, but very little has been said about weak orders. I argue that chains in syntax and spreading in phonology is best modelled as the establishment of equality relations in weak orders, and the fact that equality must be contiguous in such orders combined with monotonicity then leads to the phenomena described by Relativised Minimality, Contiguous Agree, and the Line- Crossing Prohibition. After reviewing some crucial aspects of the role of Order Theory and relations in syntax, I illustrate the representational properties of weak orders which are relevant to chains and spreading, before setting out how these representations work derivationally.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3773332