Linearization in Bare Prosodic Structure

This paper defends the claim that the linear order of morphemes in words is determined by templates. Templates are defined as parametrized parsing rules over sets of CV syllables. The article addresses three potential challenges for this view: (i) templatic order may violate a certain interpretation of the Mirror Principle, (ii) templates (viewed as parametrized rules) are not immediately compatible with the view that parameters are set in the lexicon, and (iii) templates (viewed as phonological structure constraining the distribution of syntactic terminals) constitute a case of systematic look-ahead from syntax into phonology. With respect to (i) the paper argues that the Mirror Principle is a generalization over hierarchical, rather than linear order; concerning (ii), it presents inter-species comparative evidence suggesting that templatic ordering rules are learnable. (iii) is identified as a general property of morphological structure that needs to be addressed by any theory of the phonology-syntax interface. The paper presents a theory of parallel derivation that appears to be particularly well suited to this end.