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The frame/content model and syntactic evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1998

Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealanda.c-mcc@ling.canterbury.ac.nz

Abstract

The frame/content theory suggests that chewing was tinkered into speaking. A simple extrapolation of this approach suggests that syllable structure may have been tinkered into syntax. That would explain the widely noted parallels between sentence structure and syllable structure, and also the otherwise mysterious pervasiveness of the grammatical distinction between sentences and noun phrases.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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