A Response to Fodor and Lepore, “Impossible Words?”

Abstract

In this response to Impossible Words? (Fodor and Lepore 1999), we begin by stating as clearly as we can the theoretical position we currently hold with respect to structure. We hope that it will become clear that although Fodor and Lepore's comments are relevant to a certain type of impossible-word argument, they are mistaken in assuming that our work is an example of that type. Our concern is argument structure, by which we mean the syntactic configuration projected by a lexical item. Argument structure is the system of structural relations holding between heads (nuclei) and the arguments linked to them, as part of their entries in the lexicon. Although a lexical entry is much more than this, of course, structure in the sense intended here is precisely this and nothing more. In order to illustrate the problems we are concerned with, we offer the following three examples, representing three distinct and productive classes in the English verbal inventory:'