英語音體論序說(Ⅰ)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how the syntactic and phonological components of grammar are interrelated. One of the famous tenets of structural linguistics is the prohibition of level mixing. According to this tenet, the analyzer should not look up the upper levels for the current analysis; he is allowed only to look down the lower levels. For example, when an analyzer is engaged in construing the phonemic structure of a string, the only information he can rely upon is that of phonetics; he is not supposed to resort to the information from morphological or syntactic levels. In generative grammar, on the contrary, the analyzer is not only allowed to ignore the tenet, but is also obliged to look up the upper levels. As the present paper tries to show, levels are so closely interlocked that it is impossible to expect satisfactory analysis without referring both to the lower and upper levels. In the formulation of several stress rules in English, such as the Main Stress Rule, the Compound Rule, the Nuclear Stress Rule, and the Alternating Stress Rule, attempts have. been made to show how phonological rules make crucial use of syntactic information. Thus, level mixing is a must in satisfactory grammatical analysis.