We begin with some longstanding observations about the unusual character of sound change in Australia: first, that there is often a lack of evidence for sound change between related languages; second and relatedly, that sound change is characteristically structure-preserving in Australia: it does not result in changes to the inventory or the phonotactics. This characteristic appears to be behind both the apparent lack of sound change and the widespread homogeneity of inventories and phonotactics discussed in earlier chapters. We discuss one very widespread pattern of sound change – lenition – with respect to the kinds of segments and word positions involved, and the evident failure of these changes to spread through the lexicon in a standard Neogrammarian fashion. Rather, many sound changes appear to have the character of ‘lexical diffusion’. We also discuss the set of changes known as ‘initial dropping’, which affected languages in Cape York, Central Australia, and elsewhere, where radical sound changes did take place, leaving these languages with inventories and phonotactics that are quite different from those found elsewhere on the continent or indeed in the world. Such languages raise questions about the relationship between models of speech processing and language change.

This chapter argues for adding labeling to the combination operation, thereby returning to an earlier conception of Merge. The main motivation for this is that it allows one to strengthen the Merge Hypothesis by having Merge extend to all grammatical dependencies, not just the eight reviewed in Chapter 2. I dub this the Extended Merge Hypothesis (EMH). The core principle of the EMH is the Fundamental Principle of Grammar (FPG). FPG states that all grammatical dependencies must be Merge mediated. For example, selection, subcategorization, control, binding, case, etc. must all be licensed under Merge.

Principles of lexical phonology, properties of lexical strata, survey of English morphology, zero derivation, cyclicity and the strict-cycle condition. Summary of the cyclic rules of stratum 1.