Abstract Minimalism emphasizes the simplicity of UG and the role of computational efficiency as a third factor that shapes grammar. But how does one turn this big-picture idea into a concrete proposal with specific predictions? This talk presents a computational answer in the …
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The Computational Unity of Merge and Move
read moreAbstract Based on a formal analysis of the operations Merge and Move, I provide a computational answer to the question why Move might be an integral part of language. The answer is rooted in the framework of subregular complexity, which reveals that Merge …
Syntactic Tiers: Empirical Applications and Challenges
read moreAbstract In prior work (Graf 2018), I have argued on computational grounds that movement is best understood by borrowing an idea from autosegmental phonology: specific elements of the syntactic structure are projected onto one or more tiers, and movement dependencies must be maximally …
Typological Implications of Tier-Based Strictly Local Movement
read moreAbstract Earlier work has shown that movement, which forms the backbone of Minimalist syntax, belongs in the subregular class of TSL-2 dependencies over trees. The central idea is that movement, albeit unbounded, boils down to local mother-daughter dependencies on a specific substructure …
Typological Implications of Tier-Based Strictly Local Movement
read moreAbstract Earlier work has shown that movement, which forms the backbone of Minimalist syntax, belongs in the subregular class of TSL-2 dependencies over trees. The central idea is that movement, albeit unbounded, boils down to local mother-daughter dependencies on a specific substructure …
Diving Deeper into Subregular Syntax
read moreAbstract In my target paper Subregular linguistics: Bridging theoretical linguistics and formal grammar I argued that theoretical linguistics and formal grammar, despite major differences in methodology, have a lot to offer to each other, and that the recently emerged subfield of subregular linguistics …
Subregular Linguistics: Bridging Theoretical Linguistics and Formal Grammar
read moreAbstract Subregular linguistics is a fairly new approach that seeks a deeper understanding of language by combining the rigor of formal grammar with the empirical sophistication of theoretical linguistics. The approach started in phonology but has since branched out to morphology and even …
Subregular Tree Transductions, Movement, Copies, Traces, and the Ban on Improper Movement
read moreAbstract Extending prior work in Graf (2018, 2020, 2022c), I show that movement is tier-based strictly local (TSL) even if one analyzes it as a transformation, i.e. a tree transduction from derivation trees to output trees. I define input strictly local (ISL …
Subregular Tree Transductions, Movement, Copies, Traces, and the Ban on Improper Movement
read moreAbstract Extending prior work in Graf (2018, 2020, 2022c), I show that movement is tier-based strictly local (TSL) even if one analyzes it as a transformation, i.e. a tree transduction from derivation trees to output trees. I define input strictly local (ISL …
The Dose Makes the Poison: Chesi’s Vision and Subregular Syntax
read moreAbstract In this reply to Chesi’s Is it the end of (generative) linguistics as we know it, I argue that the specifics of his vision for generative syntax in the 21st century remain hazy. Depending on how one interprets Chesi’s methodological …
Automata for Subregular Syntax: Syntax with Strings Attached
read moreAbstract Building on recent work in subregular syntax, we argue that syntactic constraints are best understood as operating not over trees, but rather strings that track structural relations such as dominance and c-command. Even constraints that seem intrinsically tied to …
Multiple Wh-Movement Is Not Special: The Subregular Complexity of Persistent Features in Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract Minimalist grammars have been criticized for their inability to analyze successive cyclic movement and multiple wh-movement in a manner that is faithful to the Minimalist literature. Persistent features have been proposed in the literature as a potential remedy (Stabler …
Multiple Wh-Movement Is Not Special: The Subregular Complexity of Persistent Features in Minimalist Grammars
read moreAbstract Minimalist grammars have been criticized for their inability to analyze successive cyclic movement and multiple wh-movement in a manner that is faithful to the Minimalist literature. Persistent features have been proposed in the literature as a potential remedy (Stabler …
Diagnosing Movement via the Absence of c-Command Relations
read moreAbstract In this paper, we propose a new diagnostic for movement. It has been argued in the computational linguistics literature that some constraints can be formalized by path constraints on the sequence of their c-commanders (Graf and Shafiei 2019), and …
Cyclic Scope and Processing Difficulty in a Minimalist Parser
read moreAbstract A common view in the theoretical literature is that quantifier raising (QR) is a clause-bounded operation. But in a paper published in Glossa, Wurmbrand (2018) argues that (i) QR is not clause-bounded, and the apparent clause-boundedness of QR is …
The Subregular Complexity of Syntactic Islands
read moreAbstract We provide a formal framework for analyzing syntactic island effects from a subregular perspective. Key aspects of the syntactic representation are encoded as strings where precedence represents containment. Island effects then are expressed as constraints on the shape of …
The Subregular Complexity of Syntactic Islands
read moreAbstract We provide a formal framework for analyzing syntactic island effects from a subregular perspective. Key aspects of the syntactic representation are encoded as strings where precedence represents containment. Island effects then are expressed as constraints on the shape of …
Are Syntactic Categories ISL-2 Inferrable? A Corpus Study
read moreAbstract We use the MG treebank of Torr (2017) to investigate the conjecture in Graf (2020) that category systems are ISL-2 inferrable. A category system is ISL-2 inferrable iff the category feature of every lexical item …
Modeling Island Effects with Probabilistic Tier-Based Strictly Local Grammars over Trees
read moreAbstract We fuse two recent strands of work in subregular linguistics—probabilistic tier projections (Mayer, 2021) and tier-based perspectives on movement (Graf, 2022a)—into a probabilistic model of syntax that makes it easy to add gradience …
Modeling Island Effects with Probabilistic Tier-Based Strictly Local Grammars over Trees
read moreAbstract We fuse two recent strands of work in subregular linguistics—probabilistic tier projections (Mayer, 2021) and tier-based perspectives on movement (Graf, 2022a)—into a probabilistic model of syntax that makes it easy to add gradience …
Diagnosing Movement via the Absence of c-Command Relations
read moreAbstract Based on an earlier finding that almost all c-command dependencies amount to subregular constraints on c-strings, we argue that all exceptions to this generalization involve movement. Since regulating movement is already known to be beyond the purview of c-strings …
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 …
Sensing Tree Automata as a Model of Syntactic Dependencies
read moreAbstract Various aspects of syntax have recently been characterized in subregular terms. However, these characterizations operate over very different representations, including string encodings of c-command relations as well as tiers projected from derivation trees. We present a way to …
Sensing Tree Automata as a Model of Syntactic Dependencies
read moreAbstract Various aspects of syntax have recently been characterized in subregular terms. However, these characterizations operate over very different representations, including string encodings of c-command relations as well as tiers projected from derivation trees. We present a way to …
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 …