Conclusion

Abstract

The central topic of research in the preceeding chapters has been non-projecting words. The empirical focus has been on Swedish verbal particles, but I have also discussed Danish, German and English particles (or rather words that have traditionally been called particles). Particles differ from other words and morphemes in their structural realization, although they are the same with respect to semantics and grammatical function. This is straightforwardly captured in the theoretical framework of LFG, which makes an explicit separation between different levels of grammatical information. Since c-structure only models the least abstract aspects of syntax (linear order and constituency), the focus of syntactic research in LFG has until now been mainly on f-structure and a-structure.¹ This work instead concentrates on c-structure as the locus of important syntactic constraints and generalizations. In this chapter I review and discuss the major findings that emerged from this study. I also bring out some of the main theoretical implications, and point to possible areas of further research.