Re[4]: [tied] Re: IE lexical accent

At 2:08:32 PM on Monday, July 19, 2004,
enlil@... wrote:

> Brian:

>> No, it isn't. Ockham's Razor is an injunction against
>> multiplying entities unnecessarily.

> Yes. We know that Syncope exists in some circumstances. We
> aren't sure whether it exists in others. So we begin by
> generalizing Syncope for all examples and if it is false,
> it will be proven by contradiction.

No, it won't necessarily. You neglect the very real
possibility that the available evidence is insufficient
to settle the question. Your inability to accept this
forces you to make arbitrary choices -- not, to be sure,
wholly arbitrary, but without any real evidentiary basis.

[...]

>> Where there is no evidence that a particular cluster is
>> the result of syncope, a postulated cluster-breaking
>> vowel is an unnecessary entity.

> 'Fraid not. I don't know of a clear cut case where there
> wasn't a cluster-breaking vowel.

Irrelevant. What's relevant is the large number of cases in
which you have no evidence *for* one.

Brian