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Laws and principles
A number of general laws and principles are freely referred to in linguistics
texts, and it is often assumed that the reader will be familiar with these.
Unfortunately, the list of laws and principles which are thought of as being well
enough known not to require a gloss keeps changing, so that a definitive list is
not possible. Here some of the most important are listed. Note that the words
condition, constraint and principle often seem to be used synonymously and
promiscuously in these titles.
Behaghel’s Law
Behaghel’s Law, as expressed in Behaghel (1932: 4), is that items which belong
together mentally will be grouped together syntactically. 1
Binding theory
In principle, a theory is not the same as a hypothesis or a set of constraints or
conditions. However, binding theory is made up of a set of three statements
which are variously termed ‘conditions’ or ‘principles’. As set out in Chomsky
(1981: 188) they are:
(A) An anaphor is bound in its governing category
(B) A pronominal is free in its governing category
(C) An R-expression is free.
1 ‘Das oberste Gesetz ist dieses, daß das geistig eng Zusammengehörige auch eng
zusammengestellt wird.’