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The artificial grammar learning paradigm is a classic method of investigating the influence of universal constraints on shaping learning biases on language acquisition. While this method has been used extensively by linguists to test theoretical claims in generative grammar, one of the most prevalent frameworks in language acquisition, several studies have questioned whether artificial grammar learning reflects language acquisition enough to allow us to use it to draw inferences about the validity of universal constraints, particularly those arising from phonetic naturalness. The current study tests whether artificial grammar learning shows the effect of one robust phonetic naturalness constraint: the restriction on nasal harmony patterns arising from the sonority hierarchy. Nasal harmony is of particular interest because it is one of the few types of harmony that occurs between consonants and vowels, which is an under-researched topic. The results, contrary to the skeptical concerns, showed that participants (n = 120) could learn an artificial grammar involving a natural pattern, but could not learn one corresponding to an arbitrary/phonetically unmotivated pattern in the same way or to the same degree. This study contributes epistemic support to the large body of work using artificial grammar experiments to test phonological operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this note is to offer a critical review of the contrastive analysis hypothesis within the field of second language acquisition. The notions of interlanguage, universal grammar and mental grammar are discussed. Transfer is redefined as the output of underlying rules in the grammar of a second language. Through Jackendoff’s notion of a mental grammar we reconcile the contribution of structural and generative grammar to the understanding of the phenomenon of transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a broad consensus that both the procedural and declarative memory systems play a crucial role in language learning, use, and knowledge, the mapping between linguistic types and memory structures remains underspecified: by default, a dual‐route mapping of language systems to memory systems is assumed, with declarative memory handling idiosyncratic lexical knowledge and procedural memory handling rule‐governed knowledge of grammar. We experimentally contrast the processing of morphology (case and aspect), syntax (subordination), and lexical semantics (collocations) in a healthy L1 population of Polish, a language rich in form distinctions. We study the processing of these four types under two conditions: a single task condition in which the grammaticality of stimuli was judged and a concurrent task condition in which grammaticality judgments were combined with a digit span task. Dividing attention impedes access to declarative memory while leaving procedural memory unaffected and hence constitutes a test that dissociates which types of linguistic information each long‐term memory construct subserves. Our findings confirm the existence of a distinction between lexicon and grammar as a generative, dual‐route model would predict, but the distinction is graded, as usage‐based models assume: the hypothesized grammar–lexicon opposition appears as a continuum on which grammatical phenomena can be placed as being more or less "ruly" or "idiosyncratic." However, usage‐based models, too, need adjusting as not all types of linguistic knowledge are proceduralized to the same extent. This move away from a simple dichotomy fundamentally changes how we think about memory for language, and hence how we design and interpret behavioral and neuroimaging studies that probe into the nature of language cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a research that aimed to verify the acquisition of verbal forms related to tense and aspect, demonstrating the results of an investigation carried out after the study of the emergence of verbal structures (in simple form and in periphrastic form -- auxiliary and main verb) effectively produced by five monolingual children, between 2 years old and 5 years and 11 months old, in the process of language acquisition. The corpus used was cataloged by two members of the eLinC group -- Studies in Language and Cognition (in press). The objective was to understand, in addition, to what extent the notions of semantic/ lexical aspect influence or not on the appearance of grammatical aspect marks. This work has two hypotheses: (i) in children's grammar, the notion of aspect appears, more recurrently, before the notion of tense and (ii) when the verbal forms in the present tense and in the perfect past tense appear, the aspect is expressed. Based on qualitative analyses, we understand that the aspect is a category that appears before tense, but, even so, younger children present the tense category in their spontaneous productions, which is in line with what the Generative Theory advocates, which is the theoretical framework adopted to carry out this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We make two claims regarding weather expressions in Basque: first, based on Eriksen et al.'s (2010) typology, we show that Basque tends towards the argument type (and less frequently so to the predicate-argument type) when coding dynamic (precipitation or other) events and to both the argument and the predicate type when coding static events; Basque often has transitive structures (i.e. both transitive predicate and argument transitive types), apparently a rare typological feature. Second, with respect to two key issues in the study of weather predicates within Generative Grammar, we claim (a) that Basque supports the view that both lexicalizations of weather verbs (unaccusative and unergative/transitive) are possible across languages, as argued by Bleotu (2015) and Levin & Krejci (2019); and (b) that the empty pro subject of Basque transitive weather constructions is closer to a quasi-argument (Chomsky 1981; Levin & Krejci 2019) rather than to a true expletive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present preliminary results on successfully training a recurrent neural network to learn a spatial grammar embodied in a data set, and then generate new designs that comply with the grammar but are not from the data set, demonstrating generalized learning. For the test case, the data were created by first exercising generative context-free spatial grammar representing physical layouts that included infeasible designs due to geometric interferences and then removing the designs that violated geometric constraints, resulting in a data set from a design grammar that is of a higher complexity context-sensitive grammar. A character recurrent neural network (char-RNN) was trained on the positive remaining results. Analysis shows that the char-RNN was able to effectively learn the spatial grammar with high reliability, and for the given problem with tuned hyperparameters, having up to 98% success rate compared to a 62% success rate when randomly sampling the generative grammar. For a more complex problem where random sampling results in only 18% success, a trained char-RNN generated feasible solutions with an 89% success rate. Further, the char-RNN also generated designs differing from the training set at a rate of over 99%, showing generalized learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most essential classes of problems related to formal languages is the membership problem (also called word problem), i.e., to decide whether a given input word belongs to the language specified, e.g., by a generative grammar. For context-free languages the problem is solved efficiently by various well-known parsing algorithms. However, there are several important languages that are not context-free. The membership problem of the context-sensitive language class is PSPACE-complete, thus, it is believed that it is generally not solvable in an efficient way. There are various language classes between the above mentioned two classes having membership problems with various complexity. One of these classes, the class of permutation languages, is generated by permutation grammars, i.e., context-free grammars extended with permutation rules, where a permutation rule allows to interchange the position of two consecutive nonterminals in the sentential form. In this paper, the membership problem for permutation languages is studied. A proof is presented to show that this problem is NP-complete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a formal model of the human language faculty that accommodates the possibility of 'attrition' (modification or loss) of morphosyntactic properties in a first language. Modeling L1 grammatical attrition entails a quite fundamental paradox: if the structure of the language faculty in principle allows for attrition of morphosyntax, why is it apparently so heavily constrained and rarely attested? We demonstrate that the attrition paradox can be resolved with a model that integrates a formally explicit generative grammar (eschewing classical parameters in favor of functional feature assemblies; see Chomsky, 2000, 2001) into a generalized model of language acquisition that decouples linguistic input from acquisitional intake (following Lidz and Gagliardi, 2015). This implementation makes specific predictions about the input and intake conditions that favor and disfavor L1 attrition. We explore these predictions for one of the most widely studied areas of attrition, namely the realization of pronominals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generative models of partial array languages with partial array rewriting rules are presented. We introduce the notion of regular partial array grammar and context - free partial array grammar to generate partial array languages. We compare these grammars for their generative powers. We also generate partial array languages using extended and non extended partial array rewriting P systems. The generative power of partial array rewriting P system is compared with that of regular and context - free partial array grammars generating partial array languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a general summary of some of the current issues in the field of Generative Grammar, the study of the human Faculty of Language. We review some key ideas this approach to language has put forward and pursued, focusing on the basic properties of language and its interactions with other systems. We also point at some of the possibilities that a biological approach to language offers to build bridges between Linguistics and other scientific disciplines. Throughout the paper we take into consideration the advantages that incorporating some of these ideas would have in Secondary Education, -not only for the potentially intrinsic value of linguistic knowledge, but also for the impact of this approach on more general skills like observing, describing and comparing data, reasoning, providing arguments and counterarguments, formulating generalizations, analyzing, summarizing or inferring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflecting critically on the criteria that have led grammars of different theoretical approaches to distinguish types of subordinate sentences is one of the general objectives of this article. Traditionally, subordinate clauses have been classified as nominal, adjective or relative and adverbial or circumstantial clauses. Current theorical approaches in the framework of Generative Grammar (Hernánz, 2002; Bosque and G. Rexach, 2009; Brucart and Gallego, 2009) have emphasized that notional classifications give rise to unconstrained interpretations and unstable classifications. Moreover, Delbecque and Lamiroy (1999) distinguish degrees of abstraction in nominal category, which allow them to describe certain properties of nominal subordination. In this article, we start with the analysis of two types of nominal clauses: argument and appositive clauses, subordinated to abstract nouns (Leonetti, 1999). From the different grammatical status of these constructions and the differences in their use, which can be claimed, according to this author, as formal criteria for their characterization, I will investigate if these criteria can be applied to the recognition of other types of subordinate clauses in Spanish. Leonetti (1999) and Rodríguez Espiñeira (2003) postulate that it is necessary to identify the lexical nature of the abstract noun and the latter adds the discursive context as a relevant instance for the distinction between argumental or appositive functions. The explicitation of these recognition and analysis criteria is essential for the implementation of a didactic proposal at any level of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Shape grammars are a generative formalism in which dynamic changes to shape structure plays a vital role. Such changes support ambiguity and emergence, and as a result shape grammars are often used as the basis for proposed developments in supporting shape exploration in computer-aided design. However, the general implementation of shape grammars remains an unsolved problem, and a common solution is to adopt a fixed structure. This paper explores the consequences of assuming a fixed shape structure, via analysis of a simple shape grammar, often used as a benchmark problem to illustrate advances in shape grammar implementation. With reference to the combinatorics of words, it is proved that adopting a finite fixed structure limits the capability of a shape grammar. The paper concludes with a discussion exploring the implications of this result for shape grammar implementation and for design descriptions in CAD. Highlights • A series of simple shape grammars are analysed according to fixed part strucutres. • It is shown that symmetric embedded lines result in periodic palindromic structures. • It is shown that these structures can limit the application of shape rules. • Implications for shape grammar implementation, and CAD in general, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a case study in how quantitative-statistical and formal-theoretical (generative) approaches to language variation can be combined. We provide a quantitative analysis of word-order variation in verb clusters in 185 dialects of Dutch and map the results of that analysis against linguistic parameters extracted from the theoretical literature on verb clusters. Based on this novel methodology, we argue that verb cluster ordering in Dutch dialects can be reduced to three grammatical parameters (largely similar to the ones described in Barbiers et al. 2018), and we identify the dialect groups that correspond to the various settings of those parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Despite being a recent development in generative linguistics, Optimality Theory (OT, Prince & Smolensky 1993) has had a profound impact on linguistics, particularly on phonology in North America. OT posits that observed forms of language arise due to conflicting linguistic constraints. When proposed in 1993, OT saw virtually overnight success in American phonology despite not having been the first theory of grammar to focus solely on the constraint. I argue, that the reasons for which OT saw such immediate success due in large part to the efforts of Prince and Smolensky to work at getting the word out, the state of American phonology at the time which felt stagnant to some, and the coincidence of OT's birth with the Internet Boom which Prince and Smolensky used to their advantage [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that there is no narrow syntax, and that the language faculty merely consists of the semantic and phonological components, and linking between these and other systems. It follows as a logical consequence from the latest works of Chomsky (2007 et seq.) and Hauser et al. (2002) who argue that narrow syntax consists of as few features as possible, ideally only recursive embedding and mapping to the interfaces, and Nordström (2014) who shows that the language faculty cannot involve recursive embedding if one wants it to be able to handle discrete infinity, but must merely be a discrete combinatorial system. As such, it shares features with many other mental processes, such as tool making, and, this paper argues, should not be seen as a separate module. The discrete combinatorial processes, as argued here, take place in the semantic and phonological components, which are linked by an axonal pathway. The paper further shows that other potential features of narrow syntax, namely word order, agreement and case (Pinker and Jackendoff 2005; Chomsky 2000 et seq.) can also perfectly well be located within the semantic and phonological components, dispensing with so-called uninterpretable features and leading to the ultimate conclusion that there is no narrow syntax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following an introduction to ellipsis and its consequences both for communication and for the theory of grammar, this paper addresses a number of issues which have been debated in the linguistic literature on ellipsis, namely structure, identity and licensing. This study brings to the readers' attention the effects which such conditions have for the study of ellipsis in different languages as well as their constraints within the generative framework. As case studies on the conditions and the characterisation of the linguistic strategy under scrutiny, this paper also summarises the main approaches to ellipsis in the studies embodied in this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on bilingual grammars from a formal perspective has often come under the guise of mainstream generative grammar. Since the inception of Chomsky's (1995 et seq.) Minimalist Program (MP), many scholars have adopted the notion of formal features representing abstract grammatical information that can be associated with lexical items. To model changes in bilingual grammars due to the acquisition of particular forms, the attrition of information by means of incomplete acquisition or the lack of usage throughout the course of the lifespan, or due to intense contact with another grammar, the mechanism known as feature reassembly (e.g. Lardiere 1998) - whereby abstract grammatical information in the form of formal features can be detached and reassigned to other lexical items - has enjoyed a great deal of success in the literature. In this article we argue that in spite of this success, the analysis of aspects of bilingual grammars can be improved upon by replacing the notion of feature reassembly with the satisfaction of constraints. Here we provide conceptual and empirical evidence arguing for the adoption of constraint satisfaction in place of the feature reassembly mechanism. Finally, in addition to constraint satisfaction we also make the case for adopting a parallel model of cognition and language for the bilingual mind, which is strongly supported by recent psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on bilingual grammars from a formal perspective has often come under the guise of mainstream generative grammar. Since the inception of Chomsky's (1995 et seq.) Minimalist Program (MP), many scholars have adopted the notion of formal features representing abstract grammatical information that can be associated with lexical items. To model changes in bilingual grammars due to the acquisition of particular forms, the attrition of information by means of incomplete acquisition or the lack of usage throughout the course of the lifespan, or due to intense contact with another grammar, the mechanism known as feature reassembly (e.g. Lardiere 1998) - whereby abstract grammatical information in the form of formal features can be detached and reassigned to other lexical items - has enjoyed a great deal of success in the literature. In this article we argue that in spite of this success, the analysis of aspects of bilingual grammars can be improved upon by replacing the notion of feature reassembly with the satisfaction of constraints. Here we provide conceptual and empirical evidence arguing for the adoption of constraint satisfaction in place of the feature reassembly mechanism. Finally, in addition to constraint satisfaction we also make the case for adopting a parallel model of cognition and language for the bilingual mind, which is strongly supported by recent psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I review the classic literature in generative grammar and Marr’s three-level program for cognitive science to defend the Evaluation Metric as a psychological theory of language learning. Focusing on well-established facts of language variation, change, and use, I argue that optimal statistical principles embodied in Bayesian inference models are ill-suited for language acquisition. Specific attention will be given to the Subset Problem: Indirect negative evidence, which can be attractively formulated in the Bayesian framework, is ineffective when the statistical properties of language are examined in detail. As an alternative, I suggest that the Tolerance Principle (Yang 2016) provides a unified solution for the problem of induction and generalization: It bridges the computational and algorithm levels in Marr’s formulation, while retaining the commitment to the formal and empirical constraints in child language development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Verhagen's thesis on the relative order of nominal arguments and sentence adverbials in the middle field of the clause argued that the order variation found in Dutch can be described in a more insightful way within a functional approach than within a formal, generative grammar. This was true in the 1980s, when generative grammar was concerned with competence only. In current generative grammar, however, the output of the computational system is interpreted and filtered by the performance systems, which opens the possibility of formally accounting for certain aspects of meaning and intonation. I will argue that this refutes Verhagen's claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Chomsky's report of the mid 1970s, he and Harris developed their theories in an essentially independent way; whereas according to some statements by Harris, some contact actually took place between them. To shed light on this issue, it may be useful to systematically compare their respective views of the notion 'transformation' as well as their analyses of certain syntactic phenomena. Among the topics dealt with in the present article are: the system of syntactic categories and their symbols; the notion of 'zero elements'; the phenomenon of discontinuous constituents; the English auxiliary system; wh-constructions; the typology of transformations; the notions of 'kernel' and 'kernel sentence'. Several of these analyses show many points of contact between the two scholars (e.g., the analysis of wh-constructions or that of English auxiliaries), which allow us to maintain that they surely influenced each other. The overall differences between the two models are also clear: the transformational relation holds between sentences in Harris's framework, while it holds between underlying strings on the one hand and actual sentences on the other in Chomsky's. As a consequence of this different view of the notion of transformation, two problems which were fundamental for Chomsky had no importance for Harris, namely the order of transformations and the distinction between optional and obligatory transformations. It can therefore be concluded that, if the two scholars certainly influenced each other when they were working out their respective transformational theories, their theoretical views were acutely different almost from the beginning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a set of biologically and computationally motivated design choices for modeling the learning of language, or of other types of sequential, hierarchically structured experience and behavior, and describe an implemented system that conforms to these choices and is capable of unsupervised learning from raw natural-language corpora. Given a stream of linguistic input, our model incrementally learns a grammar that captures its statistical patterns, which can then be used to parse or generate new data. The grammar constructed in this manner takes the form of a directed weighted graph, whose nodes are recursively (hierarchically) defined patterns over the elements of the input stream. We evaluated the model in seventeen experiments, grouped into five studies, which examined, respectively, (a) the generative ability of grammar learned from a corpus of natural language, (b) the characteristics of the learned representation, (c) sequence segmentation and chunking, (d) artificial grammar learning, and (e) certain types of structure dependence. The model's performance largely vindicates our design choices, suggesting that progress in modeling language acquisition can be made on a broad front-ranging from issues of generativity to the replication of human experimental findings-by bringing biological and computational considerations, as well as lessons from prior efforts, to bear on the modeling approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Kuhnian and Post-Kuhnian Philosophy of Science, it is widely accepted that scientific revolutions always involve the replacement of an old paradigm by a new paradigm. This article attempts to refute this assumption by showing that there are paradigm-constellations that conform to the relation of a scientific revolution in a Kuhnian sense without a paradigm-replacement occurring. The paradigms investigated here are the linguistic paradigms of Generative Grammar and Construction Grammar that, contrary to Kuhn's conception of a sequence of paradigm-replacements, are reconstructed as coexisting competing paradigms. By choosing linguistic paradigms, Kuhn's assumption that paradigm-led research takes place only in the natural sciences is implicitly challenged, and an insight into linguistic theory-construction largely underrepresented in the philosophy of science is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This discussion note revolves around the early days of generative grammar, that is to say the late 1950s and the 1960s. A number of commentators have claimed that MIT linguists in this period formed an elitist in-group, talking only to each other by means of inaccessible 'underground' publications and thereby erecting a barrier between themselves and the outside world of linguistics. I attempt to refute such claims. We see that the early generativists used every means at their disposal at the time to diffuse their ideas: publishing single-authored books, journal articles, anthology chapters, and technical reports; aiding the writing of textbooks; giving conference talks; teaching at LSA (Linguistic Society of America) Institutes; and hosting numerous visitors to MIT. And in particular, there was no significant 'underground' literature to obstruct the acceptance of the new theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates soft labial conspiracy in Kurpian, a dialect of Polish that has not been discussed in the generative literature to date. The conspiracy involves four processes: decomposition, simplification, depalatalization, and vowel retraction. These processes are united by the goal to eliminate palatalized labials from the surface representation. The article argues against bidirectional IDENT constraints and for the tenet of Derivational/Stratal OT that analysis must proceed in steps. The evidence comes from the nature of decomposition and from the fact that depalatalization constitutes a Duke-of-York derivation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to provide a brief overview of the past studies on negation, starting from Jespersen (1917) to the more recent ones that are elaborated within the generative grammar and based on Klima (1964). In the work of Klima (1964) and all subsequent works on the grammar of negation, such as Lasnik (1972), Pollock (1989), Laka (1990), Progovac (1994, 2005), Haegeman (1995) and Zanuttini (1997), attention has been confined to a formal means for expressing the meaning of sentence negation. Linguists have been trying to establish whether natural languages have a universal formal feature that corresponds to the meaning of negation. As a formal representation of negation they proposed the Neg symbol, the NegP projection and the Spec-Head relation. Furthermore, the focus of their studies has been onthe licensing of negative polarity items (henceforth, the NPI licensing), relative scope of negation and c-command. T he NPI licensing has been examined in terms of whether the licensing principles mainly syntactic in nature, semantic-pragmatic, or both, and whether it is autonomous in the sense that functions only for the NPI licensing or it is tied to the principles of other modules. Studies on relative scope of negation and c-command have been trying to determine to what extent, if at all, syntactic structures are responsible for the scope of negation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article presents a group of lexical bundles identified in a corpus of research article introductions as the first step in the analysis of these expressions in the different sections of the research article. A one-million word corpus of research article introductions from various disciplines was compiled and the lexical bundles identified in it were classified grammatically and functionally. The findings of these analyses agreed with previous studies in the most frequent types of grammatical correlates for these bundles and the most frequent functions performed but showed several new qualities for these expressions (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999; Biber & Conrad, 1999; Biber, Conrad, & Cortes, 2003, 2004). A further step in the analysis matched these lexical bundles to the moves and steps which are characteristic of research article introductions (Swales, 2004), discovering that a group of lexical bundles were exclusively linked to one move or step in a move while a second group occurred across several moves and steps. In addition, some of these expressions were used to trigger the steps that called for their use while others complemented other expressions and were used as comments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this work we would like to present a new teaching proposal for free relative clauses, with a comparative perspective. The proposal is addressed to Italian learners of Latin and German with an advanced knowledge of the morpho-syntax of the three languages and tries to combine the theories proposed within the Generative Grammar framework with the needs which emerge from school teaching experiences. In the path we will develop, the students will be led to get familiar with this construction, first in the native language and then in German and Latin. Students will be stimulated to analyze the syntactic constraints, which are different in the three languages, so as to develop a new grammatical awareness and be in a position to correctly handle complex syntactic structures such as free relative clauses. This will be helpful to adequately cope with this specific construction, but it will also improve the overall skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Breton, a language rich in compounds with both initial and final heads, provides a unique opportunity to study the relation between the head of a compound and the meaning of the compound. A novel approach is proposed. The relation between the head and the meaning of a compound is captured by the distinction between grammatical and logical head. The grammatical head determines the syntax of the compound. It gives the grammatical category of the compound and is the locus of inflection. The logical head is determined by the logical relation between the two terms of the compound. When the grammatical head corresponds to the logical head, we have endocentricity. When the grammatical head does not correspond to the logical head, we have exocentricity. In the latter case the head is grammatical or logical; hence there are no headless compounds. The concept of grammatical and logical head can also be applied to derivation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The author comments on the paper "Abstractions and Idealisations: The Construction of Modern Linguistics," by Martin Stokhof and Michiel van Lambalgen in which they argue that generative linguistics of the Chomskyan type crucially works with idealizations. He identifies some basic concepts that are not clear in the paper such as the concept of natural as opposed to cultural and that of an object of study. He explains why he cannot view an approach to grammatical structure that makes no use of abstractions as effective. He argues that the appearance of failure or of increasing diversity of approaches must be due to the rhetoric and presentation style of generative grammar.

This article delineates and analyzes the syntactic and semantic parameters of variation exhibited by English FILLER-GAP CONSTRUCTIONS. It demonstrates that a detailed, fully explicit account of the observed variation is available within a framework embracing the notion 'grammatical construction'. This account, which explicates similarities and differences among topicalization, interrogatives, relatives, exclamatives, and comparative correlatives in terms of linguistic types and hierarchical constraint inheritance, is articulated in detail within the framework of SIGN-BASED CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR (SBCG), a version of HEAD-DRIVEN PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR (HPSG) integrating key insights from Berkeley CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR. The results presented here stand as a challenge to any analysis incorporating transformational operations, especially proposals couched within Chomsky's 'Minimalist program'.* [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The P&P theory of UG has come under heavy criticism, lately, from outside but also from inside generative grammar. The claim is that the search for 'deep parameters' underlying clusters of properties across languages has led nowhere, and should be given up. I have revisited a theory, now two decades old, which explained ten syntactic differences between Insular and Mainland Scandinavian as the effects of a single parametric difference (in a series of works by C. Platzack and A. Holmberg). The theory is shown to be fundamentally right, descriptively and theoretically. Later developments in generative theory only serve to sharpen the formulations, adding another layer of explanatory depth to the earlier theory. The conclusion is that there are parameters of the traditional kind. The problems encountered when the theory is tested on more distantly related languages is discussed on the basis of facts from Finnish. P&P theory is perfectly consistent with the minimalist approach to UG and variation when parameters are seen as points of under-specification in UG, and restrictions on variation are seen as, in part, third factor effects, in the sense of Chomsky (Linguistic Inquiry 36: 1-22, 2005). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the forces behind the use of extra prepositions (by way of doubling or inserting a mismatched preposition) in relative and interrogative clause environments in Middle English. The author argues that in that period the explanation lies with both categorical and noncategorical (gradient) factors, with only the latter continuing beyond Middle English and into present-day English. Two noncategorical factors have affected English extra prepositions since the Middle English period: accessibility of wh-phrases and semantic connectedness between a verb and preposition. Semantic connectedness favors preposition stranding, while considerations of accessibility favor preposition pied-piping. The former is reflected in a bias toward adjacency of lexicalized units, the latter in a bias toward relative clauses, where the accessibility of a wh-phrase is by default low. Together, these findings provide support for lexicalist grammars that accommodate noncategorical constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-sentential utterances (NSUs), utterances that lack an overt verbal (more generally predicative) constituent, are common in adult speech. This paper presents the results of a corpus study of the emergence of certain classes of NSUs in child language, based primarily on data from the Manchester Corpus from CHILDES. Our principal finding is the LATE SHORT QUERY EFFECT: the main classes of non-sentential queries (NSQs) are acquired much later than non-sentential answers (NSAs). At a stage when the child has productive use of sentential queries, and has mastered elliptical declaratives and the polar lexemes 'yes' and 'no', non-sentential questions are virtually absent. This happens despite the fact that such questions are common in the speech of the child's caregivers and that the contexts are ones which should facilitate the production of such NSUs. We argue that these results are intrinsically problematic for analyses of NSUs in terms of a single, generalized mechanism of phonological reduction, as standard in generative grammar. We show how to model this effect within an approach of DIALOGUE-ORIENTED CONSTRUCTIONISM, wherein NSUs are grammatical words or constructions whose main predicate is a contextual parameter resolved in a manner akin to indexical terms, the relevant aspect of context being the discourse topic. We sketch an explanation for the order of acquisition of NSUs, based on a notion which combines accessibility of contextual parameters and complexity of content construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article considers to what extent sample based typological research may shed light on questions of central concern within the minimalist program of generative grammar. Focusing on the nature of the structure building operation assumed within the minimalist program (Merge), it is argued that typological data may be relevant to the question whether the product of Merge, a pair of sisters, is symmetric or asymmetric. To this end, a case study is presented showing a fundamental and universal asymmetry between the members of a binary noun phrase coordination, such that the relation between the two conjuncts is invariably marked on the second conjunct. Assuming coordination to present the product of ‘pure Merge’ (i.e. undisturbed by further movement operations or rearrangements of any other kind), the result suggests that Merge creates an asymmetric sister pair, in which linear order and morphological dependency marking are consistently patterned. The article argues that this is generally the case in contexts of ‘restricted syntax’, which might equally well be studied using large typological samples. The article furthermore argues that the asymmetry between members of sister pairs involves both phonological and semantic dependence, suggesting that the asymmetry originates within the central syntactic component of grammar. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Standard criticisms of unjustified grammaticality assignments in generative syntax are easily countered by reminders that grammaticality is a different notion from acceptability. In response, the criticisms are reformulated here in a way that interprets unjustified assignments as possible evidence of the predictive failure of current generative syntactic models, and not, as is standard, as evidence of an overly narrow evidentiary base. This is argued to invalidate appeals to the grammaticality/acceptability contrast, showing that the persistent anxieties about intuitive grammaticality assignments in generative methodology withstand the stock Chomskian defence. It is argued that if grammaticality assignments are as unreliable as critics of generativism often claim, their use conflicts with both the obvious theoretical goal of Minimalist syntax, and with its orientation as ‘Galilean’ science. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Harmonic Grammar (HG) and Optimality Theory (OT) are closely related formal frameworks for the study of language. In both, the structure of a given language is determined by the relative strengths of a set of constraints. They differ in how these strengths are represented: as numerical weights (HG) or as ranks (OT). Weighted constraints have advantages for the construction of accounts of language learning and other cognitive processes, partly because they allow for the adaptation of connectionist and statistical models. HG has been little studied in generative linguistics, however, largely due to influential claims that weighted constraints make incorrect predictions about the typology of natural languages, predictions that are not shared by the more popular OT. This paper makes the case that HG is in fact a promising framework for typological research, and reviews and extends the existing arguments for weighted over ranked constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the linguistic literature Hungarian infinitival clauses are claimed to project a full CP with all the left peripheral projections of a finite clause present, and the very same restrictions on the order of these constituents. However, in certain infinitival structures pointed out in the present paper the order of typical left peripheral phrases fails to obey the expected restrictions. Moreover, matrix constituents can mingle with constituents of the infinitival clause which may lead one to suppose a mono-clausal structure. This paper presents data that support a bi-clausal rather than a mono-clausal approach to restructuring. Adopting Hinterhölzl's (1999, 2006) bi-clausal approach to restructuring and his scope-based analysis of scrambling, an analysis will be proposed that captures the seemingly contradictory properties of the relevant infinitives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the field of language acquisition the term bootstrapping stands for the assumption that the child is genetically equipped with a specific program to get the process of language acquisition started. Originally set within the principles and parameters framework bootstrapping mechanism are considered as a linkage between properties of the specific language the child is exposed to and pre-existing linguistic knowledge provided by universal grammar. In a different view — primarily developed within the so-called prosodic bootstrapping account — bootstrapping mechanism direct the child's processing of the input thereby constraining the child's learning in a linguistically relevant way. Thus, the attendance to specific input cues provides the child with information to segment the input in linguistically relevant units which constitute restricted domains for more general learning mechanism like e.g., distributional learning. The paper will present a review of empirical findings that show that children are in fact equipped with highly sensitive and efficient mechanism to process their speech input which initially seem to be biased to prosodic information. It will be argued that further research within this framework has to deal with the reliability of the proposed relevant input cues despite crosslinguistic variation and with children's ability to overcome an initial reliance on single cues in favor of an integration of different sources of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a simple attribute graph grammar as a generative representation for man-made scenes such as buildings, hallways, kitchens, and living rooms and studies an effective top-down/bottom-up inference algorithm for parsing images in the process of maximizing a Bayesian posterior probability or equivalently minimizing a description length (MDL). This simple grammar has one class of primitives as its terminal nodes, i.e., the projection of planar rectangles in 3-space into the image plane, and six production rules for the spatial layout of the rectangular surfaces. All of the terminal and nonterminal nodes in the grammar are described by attributes for their geometric properties and image appearance. Each production rule is associated with some equations that constrain the attributes of a parent node and those of its children. Given an input image, the inference algorithm computes (or constructs) a parse graph, which includes a parse tree for the hierarchical decomposition and a number of spatial constraints. In the inference algorithm, the bottom-up step detects an excessive number of rectangles as weighted candidates, which are sorted in a certain order and activate top-down predictions of occluded or missing components through the grammar rules. The whole procedure is, in spirit, similar to the data-driven Markov chain Monte Carlo paradigm [39], [33], except that a greedy algorithm is adopted for simplicity. In the experiment, we show that the grammar and top-down inference can largely improve the performance of bottom-up detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides two arguments that error-driven constraint-based grammars should not be learned by directly mirroring the frequency of constraint violation and satisfaction in the target words of a language. The first argument comes from a class of stages attested in phonological development, called Intermediate Faith (IF) stages, in which children produce marked structures only in privileged positions. Two such stages are presented and analyzed, from the literature on English and French L1 acquisition, and their learning consequences are examined. The second argument concerns the degree of restrictiveness that a learner's end-state grammar encodes, using two hypothetical interactions between learner's assumptions about hidden structure and developing constraint rankings that can trick a learner into adopting a superset grammar. These two arguments are used to support an approach called Error-Selective Learning (ESL), in which errors are learned and stored gradually, in a way that relies on violation frequency, but rankings themselves are learned in a non-gradual way (relying on the algorithms of ). It is also shown that violation frequencies can still cause problems regardless of a learner's method of grammatical evaluation—either ranked constraints as in Optimality Theory, or weighted constraints as in Harmonic Grammar. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Many English transitive verbs, such as deliver, eat, know, read, and understand, can function without an object. The classification of these verbs has long been a challenge. An examination of both grammar reference books and textbooks finds both inconsistency and inaccuracy in the current treatment of these verbs, showing a need for a more accurate and consistent description of these verbs. Using an approach that combines syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic analysis, the author proposes a classification framework that provides a more accurate and systematic description of these verbs. It classifies English verbs used without an object into four categories: 1) pure intransitive verbs, such as arrive, rise, and sleep; 2) ergative intransitive verbs, such as break, increase, and open; 3) transitive-converted intransitive verbs of activity, such as eat, hunt, and read; 4) object-deleting verbs, warranted by discourse or situational context, such as know, notice, and promise. The object-deleting verbs are in turn divided into five sub-types according to their semantic features. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of this framework for writers of grammar reference books and textbooks and for English language learners in dealing with these verbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the relegation of the binding theory to the C-I interface (LF) is theoretically undesirable and empirically unwarranted. Recent minimalist research has sought to eliminate the binding theory from UG by reducing its conditions to narrow-syntactic operations ( Hornstein 2000, 2006 ; Reuland 2001, 2006 ; Kayne 2002 ; Zwart 2002, 2006 ; Hicks 2006 ). This approach remains controversial since the canonical minimalist binding theory ( Chomsky 1993 ; Chomsky & Lasnik 1993 ) views the binding conditions as interpretive rules applying at LF, supported by evidence that condition A interacts with other interpretive phenomena assumed to be determined at LF ( Lebeaux 1998 ; Fox & Nissenbaum 2004 ). While the interaction of anaphor binding and scope relations in particular is not disputed, I show that it is attributable to factors outside the binding theory, namely the requirement that variables (including anaphors) must be c-commanded by their binders at LF. Deprived of its strongest empirical argument, the LF binding theory can then be picked apart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates an argument-adjunct asymmetry in English as a second language (ESL) learners' acquisition of inversion in wh-questions. A generative approach ( DeVilliers, 1991 ; Stromswold, 1990 ) claims that inversion is acquired earlier in argument wh-questions than in adjunct wh-questions, the asymmetry resulting from their different structural properties. However, an input frequency approach ( Rowland & Pine, 2000, 2003 ; Rowland, Pine, Lieven, & Theakston, 2005 ) proposes that individual wh-word + auxiliary combinations are acquired based on their input frequency, with no argument-adjunct asymmetry being predicted other than as an indirect consequence of a frequency difference. Two studies were conducted: one acquisition study with a grammaticality judgment task and one input study with a corpus analysis of the learners' input sources. The results show that learners are more successful at subject-auxiliary inversion in argument wh-questions than in adjunct wh-questions and that the argument-adjunct asymmetry cannot be traced to input frequency. The results of the studies here run counter to the input frequency account but conform to the prediction of a structure-based generative approach: There exists an argument-adjunct asymmetry in the acquisition of inversion in wh-questions because of the different syntactic properties of two types of wh-phrases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of Chomsky's statement at a language teaching conference at Northeast University in the United States that linguistics has nothing to offer to the teaching of language, the efforts remain that the two disciplines are related and interrelated. Two of the grammars are used to analyze the English language. They are Structural Grammar and Transformational Grammar. Structuralists are concerned with "stimulus-response" relationship that governs the human language. They believe that language is acquired through a set of habits through ample practice and repetition of the nine basic patterns in which all English sentences are subjected to such patterns. Chomsky launched his approach to linguistics with a heavy attack on the Structural Grammar. Formally, Generative Grammar of Chomsky is defined as a finite set of rules that can be applied to generate exactly those sentences that are grammatical in a given language. Lynch, Larry says that Transformationalists view grammar as a theory of language structure rather than a description of actual sentences. They also add that grammar is a device for producing the structure, not of a particular language, but of the ability to produce and understand sentences in any and all languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1973, V. Virkkunen proved that propagating scattered context grammars which use leftmost derivations are as powerful as context-sensitive grammars. This paper brings a significantly simplified proof of this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of stereotype and grammatical information (masculine intended as generic) on the representation of gender in language was investigated using a sentence evaluation paradigm. The first sentence introduced a role name (e.g., The spies came out ...) and the second sentence contained explicit information about the gender of one or more of the characters (e.g., ...one of the women ...). The experiment was conducted in French, German, and English. In contrast to English, stereotypicality of role names had no influence on readers' male biased representations in French and German, where interpretations were dominated by the masculinity of the masculine (allegedly) intended as generic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A generalization of centralized and returning parallel communicating grammar systems with linear components (linear CPC grammar systems) is studied. It is known that linear CPC grammar systems are more powerful than regular CPC grammar systems and that CPC grammar systems with context-free components are more powerful than linear CPC grammar systems. Here, the intermediate model of metalinear CPC grammar systems is studied. This is a CPC grammar system where the master is allowed to use metalinear rules whereas the remaining components are restricted to use linear rules only. It turns out that metalinear CPC grammar systems are more powerful than linear CPC grammar systems and less powerful than CPC grammar systems with context-free components. Furthermore, it is shown that all languages generated by metalinear CPC grammar systems are semilinear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The special issue of The Linguistic Review on The Role of Linguistics in Cognitive Science presents a variety of viewpoints that complement or contrast with the perspective offered in Foundations of Language (Jackendoff 2002a). The present article is a response to the special issue. It discusses what it would mean to integrate linguistics into cognitive science, then shows how the parallel architecture proposed in Foundations seeks to accomplish this goal by altering certain fundamental assumptions of generative grammar. It defends this approach against criticisms both from mainstream generative grammar and from a variety of broader attacks on the generative enterprise, and it reflects on the nature of Universal Grammar. It then shows how the parallel architecture applies directly to processing and defends this construal against various critiques. Finally, it contrasts views in the special issue with that of Foundations with respect to what is unique about language among cognitive capacities, and it conjectures about the course of the evolution of the language faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]