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LINGUIST List 17.3513

Tue Nov 28 2006

Diss: Ling Theories/Syntax: Savova: 'Structures and Strings: A cons...'

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        1.    Virginia Savova, Structures and Strings: A constraint-based approach to linearizing dependency structures
Message 1: Structures and Strings: A constraint-based approach to linearizing dependency structures
Date: 28-Nov-2006
From: Virginia Savova <savovamit.edu>
Subject: Structures and Strings: A constraint-based approach to linearizing dependency structures


Institution: Johns Hopkins University
Program: Department of Cognitive Science
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2006

Author: Virginia Savova

Dissertation Title: Structures and Strings: A constraint-based approach to linearizing dependency structures

Dissertation URL: http://www.cog.jhu.edu/~savova/Dissertation.pdf

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
                            Computational Linguistics
                            Linguistic Theories
                            Syntax
                            Typology

Dissertation Director:
Robert Frank
Paul Smolensky

Dissertation Abstract:

A central question for linguistics is how strings and structures relate to
one another. The majority of frameworks that exist today assume that the
hidden structures contain complete information about word order. Hence, the
theory of grammar is only a theory of the structure-generating component.
However, it is possible to design a theory of grammar which views the
structure-generating component as separate from the linearization
component. As a result, structural descriptions can directly incorporate
multi-dominance, and consequently eliminate the need for transformational
devices like movement. Another benefit is that linearization can take into
account any combination of structural, morpho-phonological and discourse
features, paving the way for a word order typology in the style of
Optimality Theory.

This dissertation presents an analysis of basic word order typology in this
formalism, and suggests that cross-linguistic frequency of word orders can
be explained if constraints are viewed as priors for Bayesian iterative
learning. Finally, it discusses the role of information structure and
morpho-phonology for language-internal word order.


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