UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 9 (1997)
Syntax without functional
categories
RICHARD HUDSON
This paper argues against the notion 'functional category' (a kind of word-class) while
accepting
that individual words may be described as 'function' words or 'content' words. It focuses on
the
two least controversial examples of functional categories -- 'determiner' and 'complementiser'
--
and argues that neither of these categories is needed; and if this conclusion is correct, there is
even
less independent support for the more abstract functional categories like 'Inflection' and its
subtypes. There is no word-class of 'determiners', because determiners are simply 'transitive'
pronouns; nor do 'complementisers' comprise a word-class because the standard
complementisers
are all different from each other.
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