Word order without phrases (Introduction to Word Grammar)

1. Richard Hudson Budapest, March 2012 Word order without phrases(Introduction to Word Grammar)

2. Plan • Dependency or phrase structure? • Rich dependencies • Word order, dependencies and landmarks • Default inheritance • Landmark raising and lowering • Pied-piping • Conclusion

3. 1. Dependency or phrase structure? A phrase-structure analysis: Small children use short sentences. Small children use short sentences use short sentences small children short sentences

4. A dependency structure 'stemma' notation(Tesnière) 'arrow' notation (Word Grammar) Small children use short sentences. object adjunct subject adjunct

5. History and geography • Phrase structure • Since 1930 • USA (Bloomfield – Chomsky) • Dependency structure • Since at least 9th Century? • Europe+ • Basis for most school grammar

6. Why phrase structure? • Why not recognise direct word-word relations? • academic tradition in the USA • Cognitively, this restriction is very implausible. • Compare social structure!

7. For example, a kinship network Gretta son brother mother husband Colin me Gaynor brother wife daughter daughter grandson Lucy son Peter

8. Moreover, words are like other actions • Actions aim to solve problems • and sub-problems • and sub-problems of sub-problems • Notice: • asymmetrical relations ('dependencies') • ordering in time

9. Opening a door insert the key turn the key remove the key open the door find the key

10. Dependents as sub-solutions • Task: Say that small babies cry. • Solution: Say cry, but specify 'small babies'. • Sub-task: Specify 'small babies'? • Solution: Add babies before, but specify 'small'. • Sub-task: Specify 'small'? • Solution: Add small. cry small babies

11. 2. Rich dependencies • Relations among words are too rich for stemma notation because of: • Interdependencies • impossible in phrase structure • Multiple dependencies

12. Interdependencies Consider: Who came? • Who depends (as subject) on came. • But came depends (as complement) on who. • I wonder who/*he came. • Someone came. I wonder who. Who came? complement subject

13. Multiple dependencies: raising Consider: It was raining. • It depends (as subject) on was. • But it also depends (as subject) on raining. • RAIN selects it as its subject. It was raining. Has no effect on word order. subject subject predicate

14. 3. Word order and dependencies • Dependencies typically restrict word order • e.g. children play, not: *play children. • But some dependencies have no effect on word order • e.g. It (was) raining. subject subject subject

15. How to model word order mentally • In our minds, there is no left-right order. • Mental space is just a network. • Order (in place or in time) is a relation. • e.g. 'before' or 'after' • Order relates: • a 'trajector' (subordinate) • to its 'landmark' (superior) • Langacker

16. Landmarks and sub-tasks • In general we solve sub-tasks before returning to the super-task • So a sub-task's landmark is the super-task • So the sub-task takes its position from the super-task • so sub-tasks stay next to their super-task.

17. Similarly with words • A word's landmark is the word on which it depends (its 'parent') • i.e. its 'super-task' • So a word stays next to its parent. • Hence: 'phrasal glue'

18. Phrasal glue • Good: I like red wine. • Bad: *I red like wine. • Why? • Because red isn't next to its landmark, wine. • Shown by crossing lines.

19. Notation for landmarks • Typical dependencies match landmarks. A B • These dependencies are above the words. • Others are below the words. • x landmark dependent

20. Two examples predicate • It was raining. • What do you think we should do? subject 'surface structure' 'deep structure' subject

21. Summary so far • A word has one parent • but: roots have no parent • and: raised, extracted words have >1 parent • A word's parent is its landmark • but: if a word has >1 parent, only one is its landmark. • this is 'raised', i.e. the highest parent.

22. 4. Default inheritance • Every concept is in an 'is-a' hierarchy • e.g. penguin is-a bird is-a creature is-a ….. • By default, properties are inherited from higher concepts. • But exceptions are allowed. • e.g. A bird flies. • BUT: A penguin doesn't fly. • x

23. Exceptional words may … • reverse the default order • e.g. are they for they are • have a non-landmark parent • e.g. it … raining • have a 'lowered' landmark • have a parent but no landmark • x

24. Reversing the default order • An English word's dependent is after it. • A verb's subject is before it. • An interrogative auxiliary verb's subject is after it. is in London he is is he

25. 5. Landmark raising and lowering • Landmark raising A B C • Landmark lowering A B C winner winner

26. Landmark lowering • Landmarks are usually 'raised' • if: W has two parents P1, P2 • and P1 depends on P2 • then: W's landmark is P2, not P1 • But there are exceptions • Thanks to default inheritance.

27. German Partial VP fronting • Eine Concorde ist hier nie gelandet. A Concorde is here never landed • Eine Concorde gelandet ist hier nie.

28. 6. Pied-piping Thanks to András Imrényi! • e.g. With whom does he live? • Whom is extracted to the front • But whom depends on with • whom allows its parent to have no landmark • so it takes ('pied-pipes') with to the front. With whom does he live?

29. Conclusions • Word order can be predicted from: • dependency structure, plus • landmark structure, plus • default inheritance • This is better than phrases because: • it gives enough flexibility for language data • it uses the full power of the human mind. • x

30. Thank you • This slideshow can be downloaded: • www.phon.ucl.ac.ak/home/dick/talks.htm • More on Word Grammar: • www.phon.ucl.ac.ak/home/dick/wg.htm