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antisymmetry

n. 1 (context mathematics English) The condition of being antisymmetric. 2 (cx linguistics English) A theory of syntactic linearization, proposing that hierarchical structure in natural language maps universally onto a particular surface linearization, namely specifier-head-complement branching order.

Wikipedia
Antisymmetry

In linguistics, antisymmetry is a theory of syntactic linearization presented in Richard Kayne's 1994 monograph The Antisymmetry of Syntax. The crux of this theory is that hierarchical structure in natural language maps universally onto a particular surface linearization, namely specifier-head-complement branching order. The theory derives a version of X-bar theory. Kayne hypothesizes that all phrases whose surface order is not specifier-head-complement have undergone movements that disrupt this underlying order. Subsequently, there have also been attempts at deriving specifier-complement-head as the basic word order.

Antisymmetry as a principle of word order is reliant on assumptions that many theories of syntax dispute, e.g. constituency structure (as opposed to dependency structure), X-bar notions such as specifier and complement, and the existence of ordering altering mechanisms such as movement and/or copying.