On the parallel organization of linguistic components

This article is concerned with the question as to whether the components of grammar (syntax, semantics and phonology) have a similar architecture. I provide a modest historical background to the recurrent discussion about the parallelisms between syntax and phonology within Generative Grammar and mention some ‘meta-patterns’, i.e., shared properties of linguistic structures in different modules that are quite general and most likely not even specifically linguistic. I also discuss Andersonʹs [Anderson, J., 1992. Linguistic Representation: Structural Analogy and Stratification. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin] idea of Structural Analogy, the idea that, all things being equal, linguistic components and levels have similar structural properties. I argue in favor of a division between a word and a sentence subsystem for each of the three parallel grammatical components. Finally, I offer a general discussion of the place of phonology in the grammar and its relationship to phonetics. This section also sums up the main points of this article.