Cross-linguistic variation and efficiency / John A. Hawkins.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Hawkins, John A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Grammar, Comparative and general--Syntax.

Physical Description:

xx, 271 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2014.

Summary:

In this book John A. Hawkins argues that major patterns of variation across languages are structured by general principles of efficiency in language use and communication. Evidence for these principles comes from languages permitting structural options from which selections are made in performance, e.g. between competing word orders and between relative clauses with a resumptive pronoun versus a gap. The preferences and patterns of performance within languages are reflected, he shows, in the fixed conventions and variation patterns across grammars, leading to a 'Performance-Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis'. Hawkins extends and updates the general theory that he laid out in Efficiency and Complexity in Grammars (OUP 2004); New areas of grammar and performance are discussed, new research findings are incorporated that test his earlier predictions, and new advances in the contributing fields of language processing, linguistic theory, historical linguistics, and typology are addressed. This efficiency approach to variation has far-reaching theoretical consequences relevant to many current issues in the language sciences. These include the notion of ease of processing and how to measure it, the role of processing in language change, the nature of language universals and their explanation, the theory of complexity, the relative strength of competing and cooperating principles, and the proper definition of fundamental grammatical notions such as 'dependency'. The book also offers a new typology of VO and OV languages and their correlating properties seen from this perspective, and a new typology of the noun phrase and of argument structure. Book jacket.

Contents:

• 1 Language variation and the Performance-Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis 1
• 1.1 The Performance Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis 1
• 1.2 Examples of proposed performance-grammar correspondences 4
• 1.3 Predictions and consequences of the Performance-Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis 6
• 2 Three general efficiency principles 11
• 2.1 Efficiency principle 1: Minimize Domains 11
• 2.2 Efficiency principle 2: Minimize Forms 15
• 2.2.1 Greenberg's markedness hierarchies 18
• 2.2.2 Wasow et al.'s relativizer omission data 20
• 2.2.3 Gaps and resumptive pronouns in relative clauses 22
• 2.3 Efficiency principle 3: Maximize Online Processing 28
• 2.3.1 Fillers First 30
• 2.3.2 Topics First 31
• 2.3.3 Other linear precedence asymmetries 33
• 2.4 The relationship between complexity and efficiency 34
• 2.5 Competing efficiencies in variation data 38
• 2.5.1 Extraposition: Good for some phrases, often bad for others 39
• 2.5.2 Competing head orderings for complex phrases 41
• 2.5.3 Complex inflections and functional categories benefit online processing 42
• 2.5.4 Interim conclusions 44
• 3 Some current issues in language processing and the performance-grammar relationship 46
• 3.1 Ease of processing in relation to efficiency 47
• 3.2 Production versus comprehension 50
• 3.3 Online versus acceptability versus corpus data 51
• 3.4 Locality versus antilocality effects 56
• 3.5 The relevance of grammatical data for psycholinguistic models 57
• 3.6 Efficiency in Chomsky's Minimalist Program 62
• 3.6.1 Internal computations versus performance 63
• 3.6.2 Further issues 67
• 4 The conventionalization of processing efficiency 73
• 4.1 Grammaticalization and processing 73
• 4.2 The grammaticalization of definiteness marking 76
• 4.3 The grammaticalization of syntactic rules 78
• 4.4 The mechanisms of change 85
• 5 Word order patterns: Head ordering and (dis)harmony 90
• 5.1 Head ordering and adjacency in syntax 90
• 5.2 MiD effects in the performance of head-initial languages 93
• 5.3 MiD effects in head-final languages 96
• 5.4 Greenberg's word order correlations and other domain minimizations 98
• 5.5 Explaining grammatical exceptions and unpredicted patterns 101
• 5.6 Disharmonic word orders 102
• 5.7 The timing of phrasal constructions and attachments 104
• 5.8 Predictions for disharmonic word orders 106
• 5.8.1 Structure (5.4) 106
• 5.8.2 Structure (5.3) 109
• 5.8.3 Structure (5.2) (head finality) 111
• 5.8.4 Conclusions on word order disharmony 114
• 6 The typology of noun phrase structure 116
• 6.1 Cross-linguistic variation in NP syntax 117
• 6.2 Constructibility hypotheses 121
• 6.2.1 NP construction 122
• 6.2.2 Lexical differentiation for parts of speech 123
• 6.2.3 Head-initial and head-final asymmetries 124
• 6.3 Attachability hypotheses 126
• 6.3.1 Separation of NP sisters 127
• 6.3.2 Minimize NP attachment encoding 130
• 6.3.3 Lexical differentiation and word order 132
• 7 Ten differences between VO and OV languages 136
• 7.1 Mirror-image weight effect and head orderings 138
• 7.2 Predicate frame and argument differentiation in VO and OV languages 139
• 7.3 Relative clause ordering asymmetries in VO and OV languages 146
• 7.4 Related relative clause asymmetries 150
• 7.5 Complementizer ordering asymmetries in VO and OV languages 153
• 7.6 Fewer phrasal constructors and more affixes in OV languages 155
• 7.7 Complexity of accompanying arguments in OV vs VO languages 158
• 7.8 The ordering of obliques in OV vs VO languages 159
• 7.8.1 The patterns 161
• 7.8.2 Verb and direct object adjacency [Pattern II] 162
• 7.8.3 Object and X on same side of verb [Pattern III] 166
• 7.8.4 Direct object before oblique phrases [Pattern IV] 170
• 7.8.5 VO consistency vs OV variability [Pattern I] 171
• 8 Asymmetries between arguments of the verb 184
• 8.1 Illustrating the asymmetries 184
• 8.2 Hierarchies 187
• 8.3 Minimize Domains 190
• 8.4 Minimize Forms 192
• 8.5 Maximize Online Processing 196
• 9 Multiple factors in performance and grammars and their interaction 201
• 9.1 Pattern One: Degree of preference 202
• 9.2 Pattern Two: Cooperation 204
• 9.2.1 Performance 204
• 9.2.2 Grammars 207
• 9.3 Pattern Three: A Competition Hypothesis 210
• 9.3.1 Performance 211
• 9.3.2 Grammars 215
• 9.4 Summary 218
• 10 Conclusions 220
• 10.1 Support for the PGCH 221
• 10.2 The performance basis of grammatical conventions and cross-linguistic patterns 225
• 10.3 Some bigger issues 230.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 240-257) and index.

ISBN:

• 0199664994
• 9780199664993
• 0199665001
• 9780199665006

OCLC:

849593041