<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Kayne (2022) has proposed that the asymmetry of syntax be built into the fundamental operation of Merge itself. This squib reviews some of his proposals and supporting evidence. Departing from Kayne, this squib hypothesized that the asymmetric patterns mainly lie in the functional domain of syntax, and the lexical domain may remain symmetric either within a language or cross-linguistically. The Functional Asymmetry Hypothesis (FAH) is supported by the global symmetry of the VO/OV word order, the commutative conjunction structures in the lexical domain, and the free ordering of event-internal adverbs. If the observation is on the right track, it suggests that the asymmetry of syntax, while empirically robust, cannot be entirely reduced to the operation Merge.</p>
</abstract>

Kayne (2022) has proposed that the asymmetry of syntax be built into the fundamental operation of Merge itself. This squib reviews some of his proposals and supporting evidence. Departing from Kayne, this squib hypothesized that the asymmetric patterns mainly lie in the functional domain of syntax, and the lexical domain may remain symmetric either within a language or cross-linguistically. The Functional Asymmetry Hypothesis (FAH) is supported by the global symmetry of the VO/OV word order, the commutative conjunction structures in the lexical domain, and the free ordering of event-internal adverbs. If the observation is on the right track, it suggests that the asymmetry of syntax, while empirically robust, cannot be entirely reduced to the operation Merge.

Symmetry in the Asymmetric Universe: Remarks on Kayne (2022)

Academia Sinica and National Tsing Hua University

Studies in Chinese Linguistics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Symmetry in the Asymmetric Universe: Remarks on Kayne (2022)"}

Kayne (2022) has proposed that the asymmetry of syntax be built into the fundamental operation of Merge itself. This squib reviews some of his proposals and...

Symmetry in the Asymmetric Universe: Remarks on Kayne (2022)

Published Online: Jun 20, 2023

Page range: 33 - 50

Received: Sep 06, 2022

Accepted: Apr 11, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/scl-2023-0002

Keywords
(a)symmetry in syntax, word order, linear order, functional domain

© 2023 Wei-wen Roger Liao, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Symmetry in the Asymmetric Universe: Remarks on Kayne (2022)

Published Online: Jun 20, 2023

Page range: 33 - 50

Received: Sep 06, 2022

Accepted: Apr 11, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/scl-2023-0002

Keywords(a)symmetry in syntax, word order, linear order, functional domain

© 2023 Wei-wen Roger Liao, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
(a)symmetry in syntax, word order, linear order, functional domain