Extraction from NP, frequency, and minimalist gradient harmonic grammar
Extraction of a PP from an NP in German is possible only if the head noun and the governing verb together form a natural predicate. We show that this corresponds to collocational frequency of the verb-noun combinations in corpora, based on the metric of ΔP. From this we conclude that frequency shoul...
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De Gruyter
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Linguistics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2020-0049 |
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| author | Müller Gereon Englisch Johannes Opitz Andreas |
| author_facet | Müller Gereon Englisch Johannes Opitz Andreas |
| author_sort | Müller Gereon |
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| description | Extraction of a PP from an NP in German is possible only if the head noun and the governing verb together form a natural predicate. We show that this corresponds to collocational frequency of the verb-noun combinations in corpora, based on the metric of ΔP. From this we conclude that frequency should be conceived of as a language-external grammatical building block that can directly interact with language-internal grammatical building blocks (like triggers for movement and economy constraints blocking movement) in excitatory and inhibitory ways. Integrating frequency directly into the syntax is not an option in most current grammatical theories. However, things are different in Gradient Harmonic Grammar, a version of Optimality Theory where linguistic objects of various kinds can be assigned strength in the form of numerical values (weights). We show that by combining a Minimalist approach to syntactic derivations with a Gradient Harmonic Grammar approach of constraint evaluation, the role of frequency in licensing extraction from PP in German can be integrated straightforwardly, the only additional prerequisite being that (verb-noun) dependencies qualify as linguistic objects that can be assigned strength (based on their frequency). |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-fb214ee5a3cf4b26a170924af49895b1 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0024-3949 1613-396X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
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| series | Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj-art-fb214ee5a3cf4b26a170924af49895b12025-02-02T15:45:59ZengDe GruyterLinguistics0024-39491613-396X2022-09-016051619166210.1515/ling-2020-0049Extraction from NP, frequency, and minimalist gradient harmonic grammarMüller Gereon0Englisch Johannes1Opitz Andreas2Institut für Linguistik Universität Leipzig D-04081Leipzig, GermanyDepartment of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103Leipzig, GermanyHerder Institute, Universität Leipzig, GermanyExtraction of a PP from an NP in German is possible only if the head noun and the governing verb together form a natural predicate. We show that this corresponds to collocational frequency of the verb-noun combinations in corpora, based on the metric of ΔP. From this we conclude that frequency should be conceived of as a language-external grammatical building block that can directly interact with language-internal grammatical building blocks (like triggers for movement and economy constraints blocking movement) in excitatory and inhibitory ways. Integrating frequency directly into the syntax is not an option in most current grammatical theories. However, things are different in Gradient Harmonic Grammar, a version of Optimality Theory where linguistic objects of various kinds can be assigned strength in the form of numerical values (weights). We show that by combining a Minimalist approach to syntactic derivations with a Gradient Harmonic Grammar approach of constraint evaluation, the role of frequency in licensing extraction from PP in German can be integrated straightforwardly, the only additional prerequisite being that (verb-noun) dependencies qualify as linguistic objects that can be assigned strength (based on their frequency).https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2020-0049frequencygradient harmonic grammarislandsminimalismoptimality theory |
| spellingShingle | Müller Gereon Englisch Johannes Opitz Andreas Extraction from NP, frequency, and minimalist gradient harmonic grammar Linguistics frequency gradient harmonic grammar islands minimalism optimality theory |
| title | Extraction from NP, frequency, and minimalist gradient harmonic grammar |
| title_full | Extraction from NP, frequency, and minimalist gradient harmonic grammar |
| title_fullStr | Extraction from NP, frequency, and minimalist gradient harmonic grammar |
| title_full_unstemmed | Extraction from NP, frequency, and minimalist gradient harmonic grammar |
| title_short | Extraction from NP, frequency, and minimalist gradient harmonic grammar |
| title_sort | extraction from np frequency and minimalist gradient harmonic grammar |
| topic | frequency gradient harmonic grammar islands minimalism optimality theory |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2020-0049 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mullergereon extractionfromnpfrequencyandminimalistgradientharmonicgrammar AT englischjohannes extractionfromnpfrequencyandminimalistgradientharmonicgrammar AT opitzandreas extractionfromnpfrequencyandminimalistgradientharmonicgrammar |