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Word order without phrases (Introduction to Word Grammar)

Richard Hudson Budapest, March 2012. Word order without phrases (Introduction to Word Grammar). Plan. Dependency or phrase structure? Rich dependencies Word order, dependencies and landmarks Default inheritance Landmark raising and lowering Pied-piping Conclusion.

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Word order without phrases (Introduction to Word Grammar)

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  1. Richard Hudson Budapest, March 2012 Word order without phrases(Introduction to Word Grammar)

  2. Plan • Dependency or phrase structure? • Rich dependencies • Word order, dependencies and landmarks • Default inheritance • Landmark raising and lowering • Pied-piping • Conclusion

  3. 1. Dependency or phrase structure? A phrase-structure analysis: Small children use short sentences. Small children use short sentences use short sentences small children short sentences

  4. A dependency structure 'stemma' notation(Tesnière) 'arrow' notation (Word Grammar) Small children use short sentences. object adjunct subject adjunct

  5. History and geography • Phrase structure • Since 1930 • USA (Bloomfield – Chomsky) • Dependency structure • Since at least 9th Century? • Europe+ • Basis for most school grammar

  6. Why phrase structure? • Why not recognise direct word-word relations? • academic tradition in the USA • Cognitively, this restriction is very implausible. • Compare social structure!

  7. For example, a kinship network Gretta son brother mother husband Colin me Gaynor brother wife daughter daughter grandson Lucy son Peter

  8. Moreover, words are like other actions • Actions aim to solve problems • and sub-problems • and sub-problems of sub-problems • Notice: • asymmetrical relations ('dependencies') • ordering in time

  9. Opening a door insert the key turn the key remove the key open the door find the key

  10. Dependents as sub-solutions • Task: Say that small babies cry. • Solution: Say cry, but specify 'small babies'. • Sub-task: Specify 'small babies'? • Solution: Add babies before, but specify 'small'. • Sub-task: Specify 'small'? • Solution: Add small. cry small babies

  11. 2. Rich dependencies • Relations among words are too rich for stemma notation because of: • Interdependencies • impossible in phrase structure • Multiple dependencies

  12. Interdependencies Consider: Who came? • Who depends (as subject) on came. • But came depends (as complement) on who. • I wonder who/*he came. • Someone came. I wonder who. Who came? complement subject

  13. Multiple dependencies: raising Consider: It was raining. • It depends (as subject) on was. • But it also depends (as subject) on raining. • RAIN selects it as its subject. It was raining. Has no effect on word order. subject subject predicate

  14. 3. Word order and dependencies • Dependencies typically restrict word order • e.g. children play, not: *play children. • But some dependencies have no effect on word order • e.g. It (was) raining. subject subject subject

  15. How to model word order mentally • In our minds, there is no left-right order. • Mental space is just a network. • Order (in place or in time) is a relation. • e.g. 'before' or 'after' • Order relates: • a 'trajector' (subordinate) • to its 'landmark' (superior) • Langacker

  16. Landmarks and sub-tasks • In general we solve sub-tasks before returning to the super-task • So a sub-task's landmark is the super-task • So the sub-task takes its position from the super-task • so sub-tasks stay next to their super-task.

  17. Similarly with words • A word's landmark is the word on which it depends (its 'parent') • i.e. its 'super-task' • So a word stays next to its parent. • Hence: 'phrasal glue'

  18. Phrasal glue • Good: I like red wine. • Bad: *I red like wine. • Why? • Because red isn't next to its landmark, wine. • Shown by crossing lines.

  19. Notation for landmarks • Typical dependencies match landmarks. A B • These dependencies are above the words. • Others are below the words. • x landmark dependent

  20. Two examples predicate • It was raining. • What do you think we should do? subject 'surface structure' 'deep structure' subject

  21. Summary so far • A word has one parent • but: roots have no parent • and: raised, extracted words have >1 parent • A word's parent is its landmark • but: if a word has >1 parent, only one is its landmark. • this is 'raised', i.e. the highest parent.

  22. 4. Default inheritance • Every concept is in an 'is-a' hierarchy • e.g. penguin is-a bird is-a creature is-a ….. • By default, properties are inherited from higher concepts. • But exceptions are allowed. • e.g. A bird flies. • BUT: A penguin doesn't fly. • x

  23. Exceptional words may … • reverse the default order • e.g. are they for they are • have a non-landmark parent • e.g. it … raining • have a 'lowered' landmark • have a parent but no landmark • x

  24. Reversing the default order • An English word's dependent is after it. • A verb's subject is before it. • An interrogative auxiliary verb's subject is after it. is in London he is is he

  25. 5. Landmark raising and lowering • Landmark raising A B C • Landmark lowering A B C winner winner

  26. Landmark lowering • Landmarks are usually 'raised' • if: W has two parents P1, P2 • and P1 depends on P2 • then: W's landmark is P2, not P1 • But there are exceptions • Thanks to default inheritance.

  27. German Partial VP fronting • Eine Concorde ist hier nie gelandet. A Concorde is here never landed • Eine Concorde gelandet ist hier nie.

  28. 6. Pied-piping Thanks to András Imrényi! • e.g. With whom does he live? • Whom is extracted to the front • But whom depends on with • whom allows its parent to have no landmark • so it takes ('pied-pipes') with to the front. With whom does he live?

  29. Conclusions • Word order can be predicted from: • dependency structure, plus • landmark structure, plus • default inheritance • This is better than phrases because: • it gives enough flexibility for language data • it uses the full power of the human mind. • x

  30. Thank you • This slideshow can be downloaded: • www.phon.ucl.ac.ak/home/dick/talks.htm • More on Word Grammar: • www.phon.ucl.ac.ak/home/dick/wg.htm

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