Linguistics An Introduction

As we arrive at the end of the book, it is perhaps appropriate to take stock of what we have achieved with respect to the issues raised in our main introduction.

It will be recalled that there (p. 4) we offered an initial sketch of a grammar as a system containing at least four components: a lexicon, a syntactic component, a component dealing with phonetic form (PF) and a component deriving the semantic (logical) form of a sentence (LF). The way these various components fit together is illustrated in (441) (p. 345), and we have provided extensive discussion of each of these components in the preceding sections. Thus, the syntactic component, with its core operations of merger and overt movement (along with agreement, etc.) and its reliance on a variety of empty categories has been described in detail in sections 18–22; LF and its employment of covert movement has been the topic of section 23; the structure of the lexicon and the nature of lexical entries was our theme throughout much of part II; and PF, as a system linking levels of phonological representation via phonological processes has been illustrated in part I, particularly section 5.

It would be misleading to suggest that we have presented a complete and final picture of the organisation of linguistic knowledge in the course of these discussions, and there are a number of factors which justify modesty in this connection.