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The type of a minimalist grammar (MG) as introduced by Stabler [17] provides an attempt of a rigorous formalization of the perspectives adopted nowadays within the linguistic framework of transformational grammar. As shown in [11], MGs constitute a weakly equivalent subclass of linear context--free rewriting systems (LCFRSs) in the sense of Vijay--Shanker et al. [21]. Independent work of Harkema [5] and Michaelis [13] has proven the reverse to be true, as well. Hence, MGs as defined in [17] join to a series of formalism classes---among which there is e.g. the class of multicomponent tree adjoining grammars (MCTAGs) in their set--local variant of admitted adjunction (cf. [22])---all generating the same class of string languages. Inspired by current linguistic developments, a revised type of an MG as well as a certain type of a strict MG (SMG) has been proposed by Stabler [18]. Here we show that, in terms of derivable string languages, the revised MG--type as well as the SMG-type is not only subsumed by LCFRSs, but both also fall within a particular subclass of the latter: the righthand side of each rewriting rule of a corresponding LCFRS involves at most two nonterminals, and if two nonterminals appear on the righthand side then only simple strings of terminals are derivable from the first one. This result is in fact of specific interest, since conversely, in terms of weak equivalence, the corresponding LCFRS--subclass is provably subsumed by the class of revised MGs as well as the class of SMGs ([10]). Whether the inclusion of the respective classes of string languages derivable by the corresponding LCFRS--subclass and the class of all LCFRSs is proper or not seems to be an open problem. We briefly discuss what seems to constitute the crucial difference seen from the ...

This thesis investigates the implications of binding phenomena for the development of a reductionist theory of grammatical dependencies. The starting point is the analysis of binding and control in Hornstein (2001, 2009). A number of revisions are made to this framework in order to develop a simpler and empirically more successful account of binding phenomena. The major development is the rejection of economy-based accounts of Condition B effects. It is argued that Condition B effects derive directly from an anti-locality constraint on A-movement. Competition between different dependency types is crucial to the analysis, but is formulated in terms of a heavily revised version of Reinhart’s (2006) “No Sneaking” principle, rather than in terms of a simple economy preference for local over non-local dependencies. In contrast to Reinhart’s No Sneaking, the condition presented here (“Keeping Up Appear-ances”) has a phonologically rather than semantically specified comparison set. A key claim of the thesis is that the morphology of pronouns and reflexives is of little direct grammatical import. It is argued that much of the complexity

This chapter presents a grammar for a fragment of English A-movement. The constructions accounted for include raising, passivization, and control. Section 1 motivates our basic syntactic theory, culminating in an account of raising and passivization, along with a novel account of expletive it, which immediately explains the ban on superraising in terms of independently motivated notions of intervention and case assignment. Section 2 presents a directly compositional semantics for our syntactic theory, one which maps derivations incrementally to model-theoretic objects, making no reference to syntactic trees. We extend our fragment with quantifiers, and show how we can derive quantifier scope ambiguities without a seperate operation of quantifier raising (QR). The tense clause boundedness of QR is easily shown to be simply and directly replicable in our system in terms of independently motivated assumptions about feature checking. We extend our fragment once more to account for control, which, given our semantic operations, is naturally implemented in terms of movement to theta positions. This treatment

In this paper, I argue that the tools and techniques of grammar engineering provide a means to take the development and evaluation of syntactic hypothesis testing to a new level. Grammar engineering is the process of creating machine-readable implementations of formal

The study of evolution and language provides a unique opportunity for carefully examining basic questions about evolution, language, and the kinds of explanations available for sources of order in physical, biological, cognitive and cultural domains. Spring 2006 Syllabus The study of evolution and language provides a unique opportunity for carefully examining basic and important questions about evolution, language, and the kinds of explanations available for sources of order in physical, biological, cognitive and cultural domains. Human languages provide a kind of mirror on human thought, and so we want to understand the forces that have shaped the structures we see there. Evolution provides a source of structure at two levels. First, the human organism has evolved, with linguistic abilities of certain kinds, by genetic transmission and natural selection. And second, each particular language is a cultural artifact, transmitted by learning and selected by various cultural and natural forces. In each case, we can ask: what aspects of language structure can be explained by evolutionary forces? And what other forces are shaping human languages? These are fundamental questions that every thinking person is likely to be curious about,

In the context of the European Network of Excellence in Computational Logic (CoLogNet, http://www.colognet.org/), the European Association for Logic, Language and Computation (FoLLI, http://www.folli.org) has started a project on E-Learning in Computational Logic and the development of Dynamic Teaching Materials for its annual European Summer Schools (ESSLLIs). The project has a double aim: (i) to enhance the (re)usability of existing ESSLLI teaching materials by creating a richly structured repository; and (ii) to develop dynamic teaching materials for the upcoming ESSLLIs, integrating textual presentation, exercises, and computational tools (theorem provers, parsers) into a user-centered "living book". This paper presents the background of the project, gives some brief information about ESSLLI and describes the two subtasks in which the project is divided.