In the field of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, specifically in

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

, phonetic form (PF), also known as phonological form or the articulatory-perceptual (A-P) system, is a certain level of

mental representation A mental representation (or cognitive representation), in philosophy of mind, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, is a hypothetical internal cognitive symbol that represents external reality, or else a mental process that ma ...

of a linguistic expression, derived from surface structure, and related to

Logical Form In logic, logical form of a statement is a precisely-specified semantic version of that statement in a formal system. Informally, the logical form attempts to formalize a possibly ambiguous statement into a statement with a precise, unambiguo ...

. Phonetic form is the level of representation wherein expressions, or sentences, are assigned a phonetic representation, which is then pronounced by the speaker. Phonetic form takes surface structure as its input, and outputs an audible (or visual, in the case of sign languages), pronounced sentence. This is part of the Y- or T-model of grammar within

minimalist grammar Minimalist grammars are a class of formal grammars that aim to provide a more rigorous, usually proof-theoretic, formalization of Chomskyan Minimalist program than is normally provided in the mainstream Minimalist literature. A variety of particula ...

, wherein the syntactic structure is constructed and then transferred (called spell-out) to both the Phonetic Form and the

. Operations in this branch of the model (between spell-out and pronunciation), the syntax-phonology interface, affect the pronunciation of the utterance but not its meaning. Within

distributed morphology In generative linguistics, Distributed Morphology is a theoretical framework introduced in 1993 by Morris Halle and Alec Marantz.Halle, Morris & Alec Marantz. 1993. 'Distributed Morphology and the Pieces of Inflection.' In The View from Buildin ...

(DM), this is where

morphological structure Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

is constructed, where the hierarchical syntactic structure is transformed into a linearized structure, and syntactic features are replaced with vocabulary items, among other things. According to some theories of prosody, the prosodic representation is derived with direct reference to the hierarchical syntactic structure. For example, Selkirk (2011, and others) proposes that prosodic structure is constructed by a process of matching, although imperfectly, prosodic constituents to syntactic constituents. Kahnemuyipour (2009) demonstrates, using evidence from several languages, how

information structure In linguistics, information structure, also called information packaging, describes the way in which information is formally packaged within a sentence.Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. ''Information structure and sentence form.'' Cambridge: Cambridge Univer ...

can be represented in the transfer from

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

, arguing that transfer can only be uni-directional, from syntax to phonology. Oltra-Massuet and Arregi (2005) argue that the metrical structure, as well, makes reference to hierarchical syntactic structure in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

. Oltra-Massuet, Isabel, and Karlos Arregi. 2005. "Stress-by-Structure in Spanish." ''Linguistic Inquiry'' 36.1:43–84. The extent of the interaction between the syntax and phonology at the interface is a matter of current debate.

Notes

Syntactic transformation