Linearizing Structures

The linearization of unboundedly many syntactic structures given a finite number of ordering instructions poses a compositionality problem similar to the semantic problem of determining the meanings of unboundedly many structures. We discuss this challenge and use various constructions such as Right-Node Raising that have been argued to involve multidominance—and that combine a remarkable productivity across and inside languages with a sensitivity to linear order—to tease apart different theories of linearization. We use data from such constructions, including new data provided in the paper, to argue in favor of a specific view of linearization first proposed in Bachrach & Katzir, one in which linearization compatibility requirements are computed very locally, at every node in the structure.