This dissertation examines the "free" word order or scrambling phenomena in German and Korean from the perspective of constraint interaction in Optimality Theory. To overcome the problems raised in single-component analyses in explaining word order variation, I propose an `interface' approach in which the constraints from several different components of grammar participate, compete, and interact with one another. That is, various word orders are considered to be motivated and constrained by interactions among syntactic, semantic, and discourse principles of these languages. As the constraints from different modules of grammar are highly conflicting, I utilize Optimality Theory to demonstrate how the constraints interact and resolve conflicts among one another. In this approach, each scrambled variant, i.e. a sentence with a particular word order, is conceived of as the "optimal" output, which instantiates the syntactic, semantic, and discourse-contextual information given in the input....

Abstract not found

This paper is drawn from my 1994 Stanford dissertation of the same name (copies of which are available from http://kinks.phil.cmu.edu/manning/papers/, or by contacting the author), which should be consulted for further information, acknowledgements and references.

Abstract not found

Abstract not found

this paper is to motivate the use of inheritance in lexical specification. To do this, we take a narrowly circumscribed phenomenon in English grammar--that of vp-complementtaking adjectives, as in hard + to deliver--and spell out the lexical specifications a thorough treatment demands. The sheer complexity of these specifications cries out for a redundancy-eliminating approach, and we propose a structured lexicon treatment. The grammatical analysis not only serves to motivate the general approach, it also illustrates several key issues in the design of structured lexicons, such as the use of default inheritance, the need for lexical rules, and the range of phenomena amenable to this sort of treatment

Since the pioneering work of Lees and Klima (1963), it has commonly been assumed that a single generalization determines the possible antecedents of anaphors (reflexive and reciprocal expressions) in English. The mechanisms proposed to express this generalization have evolved considerably over the last quarter century, but the transformations

In this paper, we propose an account of linking patterns that does away with intermediary mechanisms such as thematic or actor/undergoer hierarchies. Instead, constraints on word classes, defined by both syntactic and semantic criteria, encode generalizations between semantic roles and syntactic arguments. We show that the generalizations a linking theory needs to capture can be modeled via the same mechanisms as other lexical generalizations, using conditions specified within the hierarchy of word classes. Each condition provides a partial specification of the mapping between semantic roles and syntactic arguments. We argue that this constraint-based, verb-class-based view of linking offers several empirical advantages: partial regularities and exceptions are easily accomodated, fine-grained semantic distinctions relevant to linking are countenanced, and cross-cutting similarities between semantic and syntactic verb classes are economically captured.

Traditional approaches to quantifier scope typically need stipulation to exclude readings that are unavailable to human understanders. This paper

This paper is concerned with how information structure should be optimally integrated into grammar. It proposes an analysis with the following characteristics: (1) information structure is an integral part of grammar since it interacts in principled ways with both syntax and phonology, (2) the representation of information structure in the grammar is independent of its particular structural realisation in different languages, and (3) there is a direct analogous implementation of the relationship between information structure and prosody in English-type languages and between information structure and the word-order dimension in Catalan-type languages. The framework utilised is HPSG. HPSG's multidimensional constraint-based architecture lends itself very well to expressing the mutual constraints on interpretation, syntax, and phonology that so diversely characterise focus-ground in different languages. The study of information structure, we argue, is essential in addressing fundamental questions regarding grammar architecture. Our point of departure is the assumption, expressed in e.g. Chafe 1976, Prince 1986, that what underlies the focus-ground distinction is a need to `package' the information conveyed by a sentence so that hearers can easily identify which part of the sentence represents an actual contribution to their information state at the time of utterance, and which part represents material that is already subsumed by this information state. In particular, we adopt the proposal in Vallduví 1992, 1994 that these `ways of packaging' can be viewed as updating instructions or, equivalently, as types of transitions between information states. The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 provides a brief overview of information packaging. Section 3 discusses the st...