From: Mark Beatty (marksresearch@hawaii.rr.com)
Date: Thu Feb 08 2001 - 20:09:08 EST
Moon-Ryul wrote,
If the default word order is not so useful, it seems that there is no
Limit to the freeness of word order in Greek. Is there no constraint to word
Order in Greek?
My approach is different from the "default" method. A simple answer to your
question is that languages are perfect systems and therefore do not allow
randomness. This arises from the ECONOMY PRINCIPLE: Derivations and
representations ... are required to be minimal ... with no superfluous steps
in derivations and no superfluous symbols in representations. (Chomsky
1989:69; Radford 1997:149)
There are principles of language that determine the most economic form. In
some languages breaking this makes the sentence ill-formed. In Greek
breaking this makes the uneconomical form "special". My claim is that the
uneconomic for arises from discourse motivation. In my approach there is no
room for randomness.
Sincerely,
Mark Beatty
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