Focusing on Northern Iroquoian languages that straddle the Canadian-American border, this insightful synthesis of the influential linguistic theories of Noam Chomsky and Richard Kayne shows how noun incorporation results from a symmetry-breaking operation.

This innovative analysis of noun incorporation and related linguistic phenomena does more than just give readers an insightful exploration of its subject. The author re-evaluatesand forges links betweentwo influential theories of phrase structure: Chomsky's Bare Phrase Structure and Richard Kayne's Antisymmetry. The text details how the two linguistic paradigms interact to cause differing patterns of noun incorporation across world languages. With a solid empirical foundation in its close reading of Northern Iroquoian languages especially, Barrie argues that noun incorporation needs no special mechanism, but results from a symmetry-breaking operation. Drawing additional data from English, German, Persian, Tamil and the Polynesian language Niuean, this synthesis has major implications for our understanding of the formation of the verbal complex and the intra-position (roll-up) movement. It will be priority reading for students of phrase structure, as well as Iroquoian language scholars.

Ties together two influential theories of phrase structure, Bare Phrase Structure and Antisymmetry, in a fresh and innovative way Offers an insightful and elegant analysis of noun incorporation Provides a wide empirical coverage of noun incorporation and related phenomena

Inhalt
Dynamic Antisymmetry and the Syntax of Noun Incorporation .- Theoretical Background .- Unifying Antisymmetry and Bare Phrase Structure .- Noun Incorporation in Northern Iroquoian .- Noun Incorporation and its Kind in Other Languages .- V+N Order .- Conclusion .- Subject Index.