Dynamic syntax : the flow of language understanding / Ruth Kempson, Wilfried Meyer-Viol, Dov Gabbay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kempson, Ruth M.

Contributor:

Meyer-Viol, Wilfried.

Gabbay, Dov M., 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Linguistic analysis (Linguistics).

Physical Description:

xii, 348 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford, UK ; Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers, 2001.

Summary:

This volume shows how by modelling the dynamics of language processing, we can explain structural properties of language in a simple and elegant way. Moreover, it sets out a model that defines linguistic structure in these terms. The model is introduced both informally and formally, and is applied to a range of languages. Alongside formal definitions, the authors have step-by-step derivations and detailed lexical definitions to illustrate their new form of syntactic analysis. They use these to show how the model applies to a broad range of languages, so that the reader gets a sense of the rich potential the framework provides for general application to linguistic analysis.

In bringing together explanations of knowledge of language and the way language is used in parsing, Dynamic Syntax challenges basic assumptions of linguistic theory, and is essential reading for anyone interested in what it means to know a language.

Contents:

1 Towards a Syntactic Model of Interpretation 1

1.1 Natural Language as a Formal Language? 1

1.2 Underspecification in Language Processing 3

1.3 The Representational Theory of Mind 7

1.4 Pronominal Anaphora: Semantic Problems 9

1.4.1 The Problem of Multiple Ambiguity 9

1.4.2 The Problem of Uniqueness 12

1.4.3 The Problem of Indirect Reference 13

1.4.4 Quantification 15

1.4.5 Syntactic Processes of Anaphora 15

1.5 The Anaphora Solution

Towards a Representational Account 16

2 The General Framework 18

2.1 A Preliminary Sketch 19

2.2 The Data Structures of the Parsing Model 27

2.2.1 Atomic Formulae 31

2.2.2 Tree Modalities 36

2.2.3 Basic Tree Structures 39

2.2.4 Partial Tree Structures 41

2.2.5 Requirements 42

2.2.6 Descriptions of Tree Structures 49

3 The Dynamics of Tree Building 55

3.1 The Parsing Process

A Sketch 56

3.1.2 A Left-Dislocation Example 64

3.1.3 Verb-final Languages and the Grammar-parser Problem 67

3.2 The Parsing Process Defined 76

3.2.1 Computational Rules 80

3.2.2 Lexical Transitions 89

3.2.3 Pragmatic Actions and Lexical Constraints 95

4 Linked Tree Structures 103

4.1 Relative Clauses

Preliminaries 103

4.1.1 The Link Relation 104

4.1.2 The Data Reviewed 105

4.2 The Analysis

A Sketch for English 109

4.2.1 Defining Linked Tree Structures 110

4.2.2 Relativizers Annotating Unfixed Nodes 111

4.3 Relatives: Towards a Dynamic Typology 121

4.3.1 Relativizers Projecting a Requirement 121

4.3.2 Variation in Locality 128

4.3.3 Topic Structures and Relatives 130

4.3.4 Variation in Order

Head-final Relatives 133

4.3.5 Head-internal Relatives 139

4.3.6 The Potential for Lexical Variation 142

4.4 Genitive Constructions as Link Structures 144

5 Wh Questions: A General Perspective 150

5.2 The Semantic Diversity of wh Questions 151

5.2.1 Scopal Properties of wh Expressions 154

5.3 Wh-initial vs wh-in-situ Structures 156

5.3.1 Wh-in-situ Structures 158

5.3.2 Wh-in-situ from a Dynamic Perspective 161

5.4 Expletive wh Structures 163

5.4.1 Partial Movement 163

5.4.2 Partial Movement as a Reflex of a Requirement 169

5.5 Wh Expressions and Scope Effects 186

6 Crossover Phenomena 190

6.1 Crossover

The Problem 190

6.2 Crossover

The Dynamic Account 196

6.2.1 Crossover in Relatives 196

6.2.2 Crossover Phenomena in Questions 213

7 Quantification Preliminaries 223

7.2 Scope Effects and Indefinites 224

7.3 Quantification 231

7.3.1 Quantified NPs 234

7.3.3 Term Reconstructions 245

7.3.4 Applications

E-type Anaphora 249

8 Reflections on Language Design 253

8.1 The Overall Perspective 253

8.2 Underspecification and the Formal Language Metaphor 259

8.2.1 English is not a Formal Language 260

8.3 Well-formedness and Availability of Interpretations 262

8.4 Universals and Language Variation 264

8.5 On Knowledge of Language 266

9 The Formal Framework 268

9.2 Declarative Structure 273

9.2.1 Feature-decorated Tree Construction 273

9.2.2 Goal-directedness 291

9.2.3 The Structure of Goal-directed Partial Tree Models 297

9.2.4 Tree Descriptions 302

9.3 Procedural Structure 307

9.3.1 Actions over Goal-directed Partial Tree Models 308

9.3.2 Natural Languages 312

9.4 Axioms 317

9.4.1 Finite Binary Trees 317

9.4.2 Partial Trees 319

9.4.3 Requirements 320

9.4.4 Actions 321

9.4.5 Partial Order 322

9.4.6 Logical Forms 322

9.4.7 Computational Rules 323

9.4.8 Update Actions 325

9.4.9 Pragmatic Actions 325.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [326]-337) and indexes.

ISBN:

0631176128

0631176136

OCLC:

44811895