Chapter 4
A Linear Grammar of Speech
This chapter explores the feasibility of encoding speech in a linear rather
than a hierarchical grammar. The proposed grammar describes language
as unfolding word-like element by word-like element with each element
prospecting a further element until an increment is realized and a com-
municative need satisfi ed. Before setting out to evaluate if the grammar
provides a useful description of speech it is fi rst necessary to demonstrate
that a grammar of increments is capable of accurately describing used
language and that the elements which Brazil postulated as the slot fi llers
in his chains are adequate.
Section 1 shows that objections found in the literature, which argue that
a linear grammar is incapable of describing the generation and perception
of speech, do not necessarily apply to a linear description of the observed
reality of speech as a purposeful and cooperative happening. It argues
that the coding of used language into a linear grammar is not necessarily
incompatible with the coding of the same stretch of speech into a more
traditional constituent structure.^1 Section 2 reviews approaches which are
compatible with Brazil’s proposed grammar and compares and contrasts
them with his approach. Section 3 considers the extent, maximum and
minimum, of the slot fi lling lexical element in a linear chain. Section 4 con-
siders two features of spoken language – ellipsis and dysfl uency – which
prima facie contravene the chaining rules set out in Brazil (1995).
Section 5 discusses minor inconsistencies in the coding of the fi nal analysis
found in Brazil (1995) and attempts to resolve them using the fi ndings
from Sections 3 and 4.
4.1 The Feasibility of a Linear Grammar
Hunston and Francis (2000: 244) remind us that the view that language is
formed from a constituent structure is ‘the conventional view and requires
no further justifi cation’. This chapter does not challenge the conventional