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This thesis is presented as a contribution to the St Andrews School of Linguistics, Axiomatic Functionalism, as developed by Mulder and Hervey. It is essentially a piece of Theoretical Linguistics which outlines an approach to the hitherto undeveloped areas of Parasyntax and the Sentential Level in Axiomatic Functionalism. The theoretical arguments are supported by descriptive hypotheses concerning the nature of Spoken English. These descriptions are corpus-based. The conclusion reached by the author is that not only are Parasyntax and the Sentential Level distinct in theory (this is axiomatic), but they are also distinct in their application as regards methodology and description. This conclusion will undoubtedly prove to be controversial in the light of recent developments in Axiomatic Functionalism concerning the Postulates in particular (of which the author was at the time of writing unaware), and in the light of other Functionalist approaches to the nature of intonation and sentences. It is anticipated that this thesis will be of value to those interested in Functionalism as well as those concerned with intonation and the levels of language beyond syntax.

While the present work is far from being a definitive one, it does aim at providing a fairly complete phonology of San Martin Quechua. The author has tried to give a satisfactory account of the descriptive problems and their possible solutions for the dialect. The theoretical principles used to solve the problems are explained, the notions of the theory are defined, and their application to the data is outlined in every case, and explained in some detail in many cases as well. This work is unusual among works on Quechua as regards the space it devotes to explaining and solving problems in the description. Existing descriptions of Quechua may be characterised as supposedly problem-less descriptions. The present work treats Phonology, not as a subsidiary to grammar but as a universe in its own right, with its own problems and solutions. The European background of the work, and the 'axiomatic' approach of Mulder, have undoubtedly contributed in, great measure to the nature of this description, and to what some might call its 'preoccupation' with problems. Without wishing to tag derogatory labels on Bloomfieldian linguistics (enough writers have done so already). I have written the present work as a possible answer to what I believe to be an inadmissable ‘gap’ in Quechua linguistic description as it stands the lack of a rigorous autonomous phonology, which attempts to recognise, state and solve descriptive problems. It is to be hoped that the present work provides a beginning for a fully-fledged discipline of Quechua phonology. [Taken from the forward not from the abstract].