Dynamic Syntax The Flow of Language Understanding

by Kempson, Ruth; Meyer-Viol, Wilfried; Gabbay, Dov M.

• ISBN13: 9780631176138
• ISBN10: 0631176136
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-12-22
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This ground-breaking volume sets out an original model of the dynamics of language processing, which can be used to explain the structural properties of language in a simple and elegant way. The model is introduced both informally and formally, and is applied to a range of languages. Alongside formal definitions, the authors use step-by-step derivations and detailed lexical definitions to illustrate this new form of syntactic analysis and to show how the model can be applied to a broad range of languages. In this way, the reader gets a sense of the rich potential the framework provides for general application to linguistic analysis. In bringing together explanations of knowledge of language, and the way language is used in parsing, the book challenges basic assumptions of linguistic theory, and is an essential read for anyone interested in what it means to know a language.

Author Biography

Ruth Kempson is Leverhulme Research Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Philosophy, King's College London. She is editor of Mental Representations (1988) and Deduction and Language (1995).

Wilfried Meyer-Viol is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at King's College London. He is a logician with a background in psychology who has published on cognitive psychology and on classical, intuitionistic and modal logic.

Dov Gabbay is Professor of Computer Science at King's College London. He is one of the world's foremost authorities on non-classical logics and their applications in computing. He has published over 170 papers and books on this subject, and initiated several currently active research areas in logic and computation.

Table of Contents

Preface
Towards a Syntactic Model of Interpretation	1	(17)
Natural Language as a Formal Language?	1	(2)
Underspecification in Language Processing	3	(4)
The Representational Theory of Mind	7	(2)
Pronominal Anaphora: Semantic Problems	9	(7)
The Problem of Multiple Ambiguity	9	(3)
The Problem of Uniqueness	12	(1)
The Problem of Indirect Reference	13	(2)
Quantification	15	(1)
Syntactic Processes of Anaphora	15	(1)
The Anaphora Solution -- Towards a Representational Account	16	(2)
The General Framework	18	(37)
A Preliminary Sketch	19	(8)
The Data Structures of the Parsing Model	27	(28)
Atomic Formulae	31	(5)
Tree Modalities	36	(3)
Basic Tree Structures	39	(2)
Partial Tree Structures	41	(1)
Requirements	42	(7)
Descriptions of Tree Structures	49	(6)
The Dynamics of Tree Building	55	(48)
The Parsing Process -- A Sketch	56	(20)
A Basic Example	56	(8)
A Left-Dislocation Example	64	(3)
Verb-final Languages and the Grammar-parser Problem	67	(9)
The Parsing Process Defined	76	(22)
Computational Rules	80	(9)
Lexical Transitions	89	(6)
Pragmatic Actions and Lexical Constraints	95	(3)
Summary	98	(5)
Linked Tree Structures	103	(47)
Relative Clauses -- Preliminaries	103	(6)
The LINK Relation	104	(1)
The Data Reviewed	105	(4)
The Analysis -- A Sketch for English	109	(12)
Defining Linked Tree Structures	110	(1)
Relativizers Annotating Unfixed Nodes	111	(10)
Relatives: Towards a Dynamic Typology	121	(23)
Relativizers Projecting a Requirement	121	(7)
Variation in Locality	128	(2)
Topic Structures and Relatives	130	(3)
Variation in Order -- Head-final Relatives	133	(6)
Head-internal Relatives	139	(3)
The Potential for Lexical Variation	142	(2)
Genitive Constructions as LINK Structures	144	(4)
Summary	148	(2)
Wh Questions: A General Perspective	150	(40)
Introduction	150	(1)
The Semantic Diversity of wh Questions	151	(5)
Scopal Properties of wh Expressions	154	(2)
Wh-initial vs wh-in-situ Structures	156	(7)
Wh-in-situ Structures	158	(3)
Wh-in-situ from a Dynamic Perspective	161	(2)
Expletive wh Structures	163	(23)
Partial Movement	163	(6)
Partial Movement as a Reflex of a Requirement	169	(17)
Wh Expressions and Scope Effects	186	(4)
Crossover Phenomena	190	(33)
Crossover -- The Problem	190	(6)
Crossover -- The Dynamic Account	196	(25)
Crossover in Relatives	196	(17)
Crossover Phenomena in Questions	213	(8)
Summary	221	(2)
Quantification Preliminaries	223	(30)
Introduction	223	(1)
Scope Effects and Indefinites	224	(7)
Quantification	231	(22)
Quantified NPs	234	(5)
Scope	239	(6)
Term Reconstructions	245	(4)
Applications -- E-type Anaphora	249	(4)
Reflections on Language Design	253	(15)
The Overall Perspective	253	(6)
Underspecification and the Formal Language Metaphor	259	(3)
English is not a Formal Language	260	(2)
Well-formedness and Availability of Interpretations	262	(2)
Universals and Language Variation	264	(2)
On Knowledge of Language	266	(2)
The Formal Framework	268	(58)
Introduction	268	(5)
Declarative Structure	273	(34)
Feature-decorated Tree Construction	273	(18)
Goal-directedness	291	(6)
The Structure of Goal-directed Partial Tree Models	297	(5)
Tree Descriptions	302	(5)
Procedural Structure	307	(10)
Actions over Goal-directed Partial Tree Models	308	(4)
Natural Languages	312	(5)
Axioms	317	(9)
Finite Binary Trees	317	(2)
Partial Trees	319	(1)
Requirements	320	(1)
Actions	321	(1)
Partial Order	322	(1)
Logical Forms	322	(1)
Computational Rules	323	(2)
Update Actions	325	(1)
Pragmatic Actions	325	(1)
Bibliography	326	(12)
General Index	338	(9)
Symbol Index	347