Syntactic Iconicity In Generative Grammar

In much recent work in the functionalist tradition, there is a popular belief that language structure to a considerable degree is iconically motivated. Iconicity is defined as the direct mapping between linguistic form and conceptual meaning in various degrees of abstraction, from concrete attributive resemblance to abstract relational analogy.This functionalist view of linguistic iconicity seemingly goes against the generativist theorizing that emphasizes the"autonomy"and"independence"of grammatical structure. Yet, careful speculation in iconicity and generative grammar demonstrates that generative grammar has no difficulty in representing iconic relations between grammatical structures and conceptual structures (Newmeyer, 1992; Han Jingquan, 2000; Lofti, 2001). The present dissertation aims to establish the relevance of iconicity for the generative rules and principles at the core of syntax, with sets of examples of the iconic match-ups between syntactic structures and concept structures.To demonstrate this claim, the dissertation first works out a detailed and historical exposition of the formalist and functionalist background against which generative grammar and iconicity are built, and clarifies the term"iconicity", its origin, classification, comparison and contrast with"arbitrariness","motivation"and"economy". The dissertation then devotes two whole chapters to investigating iconic aspects in generative rules and principles within the framework of Principles and Parameters, ranging from Government and Binding to Minimalist Program. The investigations go first from macro perspectives: the X-bar theory, theta theory, D-structure, S-structure and logical form, then to some micro perspectives such as the DP hypothesis, coordinate constructions, double-object constructions, resultative constructions and the Minimalist Program. Investigations show that the generative approaches of X-bar theory, theta theory, D-structure, S-structure and logical form can easily demonstrate iconicity of distance, categorization, asymmetry, dependence in their own respective style; and the DP hypothesis, coordinate constructions, double-object constructions, resultatives and the Minimalist Program have no trouble in representing iconicity of linearity, symmetry and...