The Lexical Integrity Hypothesis in a New Theoretical Universe

Abstract

(3) Di Sciullo & Williams (1987:49) The Atomicity Thesis Words are “atomic” at the level of phrasal syntax and phrasal semantics. The words have “features,” or properties, but these features have no structure, and the relation of theses features to the internal composition of the word cannot be relevant in syntax – this is the thesis of the atomicity of words, or the lexical integrity hypothesis, or the strong lexicalist hypothesis (as in Lapointe 1980), or a version of the lexicalist hypothesis of Chomsky (1970), Williams (1978; 1978a), and numerous others.