Symmetry (Breaking) in Syntax

Humans are designed to detect symmetry. In fact, this notion may be defined in distinct domains: the physical world, art, mathematical structures and codes of communications. Certainly, there can be symmetries in the structure of human language in different modules of grammar, such as semantics and phonology. Can there be symmetry in syntax? By relying on Richard Kayne’s theory of antisymmetry of syntax four leading scholars will discuss this issue and also explore the hypothesis of symmetry-breaking in syntax (Dynamic Antisymmetry) as a constitutive mechanism of the architecture of human grammars.

Program

14.00 - 14:10 Andrea Moro | Scuola Normale Superiore
Introduction
14:10 – 15:25 Davide Mocci | Kyoto University
On quasi-copulas in Sanskrit
15:25 – 16:45 Richard Kayne | New York University
On Externalization

16:45 – 17:15 
Break

17:15 – 18:45 Cecilia Poletto | Università di Padova / Frankfurt Universität
About VO and OV fi rst merge word order
18:45 – 20:00 Ian Roberts | University of Cambridge
Tolerance and Head-Finality

IMG: An intact symmetrical order by ChatGP