Standard French liaison and natural syntax

Abstract

Natural Syntax is a developing deductive theory, a branch of Naturalness theory. The naturalness judgements are couched in naturalness scales, which follow from the basic parameters (or “axioms”) listed at the beginning of the paper. The predictions of the theory are calculated in what are known as deductions, whose chief components are a pair of naturalness scales and the rules governing the alignment of corresponding naturalness values. Parallel and chiastic alignments are distinguished, in complementary distribution. Here almost only chiastic alignment is utilized, this being mandatory in deductions limited to unnatural environments. (Of special importance below is the word-initial vowel as a phenomenon of low naturalness in Natural Syntax.)