ABSTRACT
Well-known anomalies of all theories of syntax in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was the existence of various left-right asymmetries in the syntax of natural languages, both within single languages, and cross-linguistically. In Kayne's the antisymmetry of syntax, a drastic tightening of the theory is proposed, which, among other things, appears to be able to derive the 'anomaly' of the general left-right asymmetry of natural languages. This tightening involves a particular view of the mapping between hierarchical structure and linear order, which Kayne suggests used to be conceived of in an overly permissive way, with precedence entirely dissociated from hierarchical relations such as c-command. Kayne shows that in most cases independent considerations are against a rightward movement analysis of Right Node Raising, Heavy NP shift, Subject Inversion in Romance, Right Dislocation, Relative Clause Extraposition, Result and Comparative Clause Extraposition.
