Abstract We provide a general formal framework for analyzing c-command based dependencies in syntax, e.g. binding and NPI licensing, from a subregular perspective. C-command relations are represented as strings computed from Minimalist derivation trees, and syntactic dependencies are shown …
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Case Assignment in TSL Syntax: A Case Study
read moreAbstract Recent work suggests that the subregular complexity of syntax might be comparable to that of phonology and morphology. More specifically, whereas phonological and morphological dependencies are tier-based strictly local over strings, syntactic dependencies are tier-based strictly …
Subregular Syntax: The What, How, and Why
read moreAbstract It is a well-known fact of computational linguistics that syntax is mildly context-sensitive and thus highly complex —- certainly more complex than phonology or morphology. This complexity is at odds with the ease of language acquisition and the impressive speed of human sentence …
The Surprising Simplicity of Syntax: Derivation Trees, Subregular Complexity, and What It Implies for Language and Cognition
read moreAbstract It is a well-known fact of computational linguistics that syntax is mildly context-sensitive and thus highly complex —- certainly more complex than phonology or morphology. This complexity is at odds with the ease of language acquisition and the impressive speed of human sentence …
C-Command Dependencies as TSL String Constraints
read moreAbstract We provide a general formal framework for analyzing c-command based dependencies in syntax, e.g. binding and NPI licensing, from a subregular perspective. C-command relations are represented as strings computed from Minimalist derivation trees, and syntactic dependencies are shown …
Case Assignment in TSL Syntax: A Case Study
read moreAbstract Recent work suggests that the subregular complexity of syntax might be comparable to that of phonology and morphology. More specifically, whereas phonological and morphological dependencies are tier-based strictly local over strings, syntactic dependencies are tier-based strictly …
Tiers and Relativized Locality Across Language Modules
read moreAbstract Heinz and Idsardi (2013) draw attention to a profound computational difference between syntax and phonology: phonology only requires regular computations over strings (Johnson 1972 …
Why Movement Comes for Free Once You Have Adjunction
read moreAbstract This paper presents a novel answer to the question why Move might be an integral part of language. The answer is rooted in the computational framework of subregular complexity, which has already been fruitfully applied to phonology. The computational perspective reveals that …
Derivations as Representations: News from the Computational Frontier
read moreAbstract Ever since McCawley (1968) one of the fundamental questions of linguistic theory has been whether formalisms should be construed as derivational or representational in nature. The former focuses on how structures are built in an incremental fashion from pre-defined atoms via structure-building …
Grammar Size and Quantitative Restrictions on Movement
read moreAbstract This work is a first tentative step towards motivating constraints on movement as a mechanism for minimizing grammar size.
Recently is has been proved that every Minimalist grammar can be converted into a strongly equivalent single movement normal form such that every …
Grammar Size and Quantitative Restrictions on Movement
read moreAbstract This work is a first tentative step towards motivating constraints on movement as a mechanism for minimizing grammar size.
Recently is has been proved that every Minimalist grammar can be converted into a strongly equivalent single movement normal form such that every …
Relative Clauses as a Benchmark for Minimalist Parsing
read moreAbstract Minimalist grammars have been used recently in a series of papers to explain well-known contrasts in human sentence processing in terms of subtle structural differences. These proposals combine a top-down parser with complexity metrics that relate parsing …
A Single Movement Normal Form for Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract Movement is the locus of power in Minimalist grammars (MGs) but also their primary source of complexity. In order to simplify future analysis of the formalism, we prove that every MG can be converted into a …
A Computational Guide to the Dichotomy of Features and Constraints
read moreAbstract A contentious issue in the Minimalist literature is whether certain phenomena are best described in terms of features or constraints. Building on recent work in mathematical linguistics, I argue that constraints and features are interchangeable in Minimalist syntax. This does not invalidate …
A Single Movement Normal Form for Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract Movement is the locus of power in Minimalist grammars (MGs) but also their primary source of complexity. In order to simplify future analysis of the formalism, we prove that every MG can be converted into a …
Memory Usage Predicts Relative Difficulty in Human Sentence Processing
Computational Unity Across Language Modules
read moreAbstract Computational linguistics is often construed as the enterprise of processing language with computers. But the field has much more to offer than just that. A computationally informed perspective of language offers profound scientific insights and can unearth new language universals. In this …
Syntax and Phonology: A Computational Common Core
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read more@Misc{Graf15StPetetalk, author = {Graf, Thomas}, title = {Syntax and Phonology: {A} Computational Common Core}, year = {2015}, note = {Department of Mathematical Linguistics, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia} }
Formal Processing Theory, or Parsing Without Parsers
read moreAbstract I argue that computational parsing research so far has operated at the wrong level(s) of granularity and that we should take a hint from formal language theory instead. Rather than compare the predictions of specific parsing models for specific phenomena, we …
A Refined Notion of Memory Usage for Minimalist Parsing
read moreAbstract Recently there has been a lot of interest in testing the processing predictions of a specific top-down parser for Minimalist grammars (Stabler 2012). Most of this work relies on memory-based difficulty …
A Refined Notion of Memory Usage for Minimalist Parsing
read moreAbstract Recently there has been a lot of interest in testing the processing predictions of a specific top-down parser for Minimalist grammars (Stabler 2012). Most of this work relies on memory-based difficulty …
A Hidden Consensus: Computational Invariants of Minimalist Syntax
read moreAbstract A common sentiment among linguists is that the Minimalist literature features a dazzling array of competing proposals that seem to share little common ground in their technical assumptions. While differences certainly do exist between accounts, a computationally informed perspective reveals a set …
Commonality in Disparity: The Computational View of Syntax and Phonology
read moreAbstract Heinz and Idsardi (2013) draw attention to a computational difference between syntax and phonology established by earlier research: phonology only requires regular computations over strings (Johnson 1972, Kaplan and Kay 1995), whereas syntax involves non-regular computations over strings (Chomsky …
A Computational Guide to the Dichotomy of Features and Constraints
read moreAbstract I draw on various result from mathematical linguistics to argue that feature-based accounts and constraint-based ones should not be viewed as competing with each other but rather as complementing each other. In particular, recent results on Minimalist grammars show that features and …
Models of Adjunction in Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract Three closely related proposals for adding (cyclic) adjunction to Minimalist grammars are given model-theoretic definitions and investigated with respect to their linguistic and formal properties. While they differ with respect to their linguistic adequacy, they behave largely the same on a computational …
Models of Adjunction in Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract Three closely related proposals for adding (cyclic) adjunction to Minimalist grammars are given model-theoretic definitions and investigated with respect to their linguistic and formal properties. While they differ with respect to their linguistic adequacy, they behave largely the same on a computational …
Evaluating Evaluation Metrics for Minimalist Parsing
read moreAbstract In response to Kobele et al. (2012), we evaluate four ways of linking the processing difficulty of sentences to the behavior of the top-down parser for Minimalist grammars developed in Stabler (2012). We investigate the predictions these four metrics …
Evaluating Evaluation Metrics for Minimalist Parsing
read moreAbstract In response to Kobele et al. (2012), we evaluate four ways of linking the processing difficulty of sentences to the behavior of the top-down parser for Minimalist grammars developed in Stabler (2012). We investigate the predictions these four metrics …
Late Merge as Lowering Movement in Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract Minimalist grammars can be specified in terms of their derivation tree languages and a mapping from derivations to derived trees, each of which is definable in monadic second-order logic (MSO). It has been shown that the linguistically motivated operation Late Merge can …
Late Merge as Lowering Movement in Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract Minimalist grammars can be specified in terms of their derivation tree languages and a mapping from derivations to derived trees, each of which is definable in monadic second-order logic (MSO). It has been shown that the linguistically motivated operation Late Merge can …
Local and Transderivational Constraints in Syntax and Semantics
read moreAbstract A long-standing tension in Minimalist syntax is that between the structure-building operations Merge and Move on the one hand and the constraints restricting the shape of the structures built by said operations on the other. Proposals differ vastly in how much weight …
Constraints Emerge from Merge
Tree Adjunction as Minimalist Lowering
read moreAbstract Even though Minimalist grammars are more powerful than TAG on the string level, the classes of tree languages the two define are incomparable. I give a constructive proof that if the standard Move operation in Minimalist grammars is replaced by Reset Lowering …
Tree Adjunction as Minimalist Lowering
read moreAbstract TAG and Minimalist grammars (MGs) are related in very interesting ways. Even though MGs subsume TAGs at the level of string languages, their respective classes of tree languages are incomparable (Kobele et al 2007, Mönnich 2006). As pointed out by Mönnich (2006 …
Movement-Generalized Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract A general framework is presented that allows for Minimalist grammars to use arbitrary movement operations under the proviso that they are all definable by monadic second-order formulas over derivation trees. Lowering, sidewards movement, and clustering, among others, are the result of instantiating …
Movement-Generalized Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract A general framework is presented that allows for Minimalist grammars to use arbitrary movement operations under the proviso that they are all definable by monadic second-order formulas over derivation trees. Lowering, sidewards movement, and clustering, among others, are the result of instantiating …
Locality and the Complexity of Minimalist Derivation Tree Languages
read moreAbstract Minimalist grammars provide a formalization of Minimalist syntax which allows us to study how the components of said theory affect its expressivity. A central concern of Minimalist syntax is the locality of the displacement operation Move. In Minimalist grammars, however, Move is …
Locality and the Complexity of Minimalist Derivation Tree Languages
read moreAbstract Minimalist grammars provide a formalization of Minimalist syntax which allows us to study how the components of said theory affect its expressivity. A central concern of Minimalist syntax is the locality of the displacement operation Move. In Minimalist grammars, however, Move is …
Closure Properties of Minimalist Derivation Tree Languages
read moreAbstract Recently, the question has been raised whether the derivation tree languages of Minimalist grammars (MGs; Stabler 1997, Stabler & Keenan 2003) are closed under intersection with regular tree languages (Graf 2010). Using a variation of a proof technique devised by Thatcher (1967), I …
Closure Properties of Minimalist Derivation Tree Languages
read moreAbstract Recently, the question has been raised whether the derivation tree languages of Minimalist grammars (MGs; Stabler 1997, Stabler & Keenan 2003) are closed under intersection with regular tree languages (Graf 2010). Using a variation of a proof technique devised by Thatcher (1967), I …
From Vagueness to Disaster: On the Intricacies of Feature Checking
read moreAbstract Because the thesis I wrote as a wee undergrad at the University of Vienna is cited in Reuland (2011) Anaphora and Language Design, I finally decided to upload it despite its many shortcomings. The (preachy) message is that we have to be …