An examination of the predicates "optional" and "obligatory" is made that suggests that they are far more appropriately viewed as derived rather than primitive notions, whose appropriate attributions follow in all cases from independent linguistic facts and principles of a much more general and more generally significant character. (Author/HP)

A coherent theory of intonation in relation to syntax has not yet been formulated, partly because there is no satisfactory theory of context within a transformational generative grammar, and partly because intonation studies have been concerned with phonetic descriptions of intonation contours. This article calls for an intonation theory. (CK)

Criticizes Chomsky's theory of the syllabic feature as a major class feature in The Sound Pattern of English'' (New York, Harper and Row, 1968). (RS)

Revised and corrected version of an earlier paper. (DD)

Revised version of Komplexe Regelmerkmale in der Morphologie des Irischen'' (Complex Rule Characteristics in Irish Morphology), a paper presented at a meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Prague, Czechoslovakia, October 10, 1970; present paper presented at the Dublin Linguistic Circle, January 10, 1971. (DD)

Discusses the theories of various linguists concerning variation and argues that genetically related languages and related dialects are manifestations of the same linguistic phenomenon. (PM)