Top-down derivation, recursion, and the model of grammar

This article argues that common views on the nature of phrase structure rules (finite-state or of a higher complexity) suffer from an unmotivated and unnecessary hidden assumption, namely that the rules of grammar are fed by a homogeneous set of symbols, the alphabet/numeration. Once it is understood that the symbols in a numeration may themselves be the output of a separate derivation layer, arguments against the finite-state character of the phrase structure rules lose their force