LINGUIST List 4.616

Wed 18 Aug 1993

Qs: Egypt, Phrase Structure, Software

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , Egyptian linguistics
2. "I. Plag", query re constraint on phrase structure rules
3. , Query: Linguistic software

This morning's New York Times reported that a Ph.D. candidate in linguis-
tics at Cairo University was denied his degree because his dissertation
criticized Islam.

I found it surprising a.) that a linguistics dissertation would have
controversial religious commentary, and b.) that a university would
deny a degree on such grounds.

I found myself wondering whether the paper was correct in reporting the
field to be linguistics, or whether it might be something like
literature with a higher potential for controversy. Does anyone know
more about the subject? I gather the Egyptian press has covered this
in some detail.

Aaron Broadwell
SUNY-Albany

Dear LINGUISTS,

Prepositions, verbs, or nouns seem not to subcategorize for maximal
projections with the same kind of head. I.e. prepositions do not take PP
complements, verbs do not take VP complements, nouns do not take NP
complements. In formal terms this would amount to a constraint on
phrase structure rules:

(1) * XP -> X XP

I would be happy if you could help me with the following questions:

1. Is the above observation correct cross-linguistically? Are there
languages where the above generalizations do not hold?

2. Are there any language-theoretical arguments why the phrase structure
rule ruled out by (1) should be disallowed on principle? Maybe some
principle of UG at work here? Where in the literature has this problem
been discussed?

Any comments, hints, references, etc. will be most welcome.
I will summarize the answers for the list.

Many thanks in advance,
Ingo Plag

Ingo Plag
Philipps-Universitaet Marburg
Institut fuer Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Wilhelm-Roepke-Str. 6 D
D-35032 Marburg
Germany

e-mail: plagmailer.uni-marburg.de
Tel 06421-285560
Fax 06421-287020

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