Dynamic Syntax The Flow of Language

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.

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.

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

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Dynamic Syntax The Flow of Language Understanding

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials