Reference-Set Computation = Minimalism + Transformational Rules?

Graf, Thomas

Abstract Transderivational constraints (TC) formed an integral part of the early Minimalist Program. I develop a formal model of TCs firmly rooted in automata theory and subsequently argue that

in general, TCs aren’t computationally intractable, nor does their complexity exceed that of non-transderivational constraints;
TCs have technical advantages over normal constraints in accounting for cross-linguistic variation;
an automata-theoretic approach brings us closer to a unified perspective on three rather distant research traditions, each of them with their unique body of empirical results: TCs, OT, and Synchronous Tree-Adjoining Grammar.

As an illustration of the applicability of this formal model, I exhibit precise implementations of Focus Economy (Reinhart 2006), the Merge-over-Move condition (Chomsky 1998), and the Shortest Derivation Principle.

Files [pdf] [code]

@Misc{Graf10Bielefeldtalk,
  author    = {Graf, Thomas},
  title     = {Reference-Set Computation = {M}inimalism + Transformational Rules?},
  year      = {2010},
  note      = {Invited talk, December 8, Institut für Linguistik,
          Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany}
}

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Efficient Computation at the Interfaces

Graf, Thomas

Files [pdf] [code]

@Misc{Graf10ONLIposter,
  author    = {Graf, Thomas},
  title     = {Efficient Computation at the Interfaces},
  year      = {2010},
  note      = {Poster presented at On Linguistic Interfaces II (OnLI II),
          December 2--4, 2010, University of Ulster, Belfast, United
          Kingdom}
}

A Tree Transducer Model of Reference-Set Computation

Graf, Thomas

Abstract Reference-set constraints are a special class of constraints used in Minimalist syntax. They extend the notion of well-formedness beyond the level of single trees: When presented with some phrase structure tree, they compute its set of competing output candidates and determine the …

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