I obtained my PhD from the University of Reading in 2018 with a thesis entitled 'Aspects of Emergent Cyclicity in Language and Computation'. The focus of my work is the emergence of locality conditions in the grammar and the assignment of adequate structural descriptions for natural language sentences from a model-theoretic perspective. I argue for an approach to natural language syntax whereby sentences are assigned structural descriptions whose computational properties vary locally Supervisors: Dr. James Douglas Saddy (University of Reading) [PhD] and Dr. Manuel Leonetti (Universidad de Alcalá, Spain) [Licentiate degree]
Generative syntax was built on the foundations of Immediate Constituent (IC) analysis, and IC met... more Generative syntax was built on the foundations of Immediate Constituent (IC) analysis, and IC methods and heuristics were an important tool in the early days of the generative enterprise. However, developments in the theory entailed a departure from some fundamental IC assumptions: we will argue that structural descriptions in contemporary generative grammar (transformational and non-transformational) define not constituents, but strictly ordered sequences closer to arrays. We therefore define and characterise IC approaches to syntax as opposed to what we will call Array-Based (AB) approaches. IC grammars define distributional generalisations, and proper containment and is-a relations between indexed distributionally defined categories. AB grammars, in contrast, define strictly ordered sequences of categories. In this paper we introduce and define the fundamental properties of IC grammar, and the changes in the generative theory that introduced arrays in phrase structure. We argue that it is crucial to distinguish between IC and AB grammars when evaluating the empirical adequacy of structural descriptions used in current syntactic theorising, as structures in AB and IC grammars represent different relations between expressions and may be better suited for different purposes.
In this paper we provide an introduction to a set of tools for syntactic analysis based on graph ... more In this paper we provide an introduction to a set of tools for syntactic analysis based on graph theory, and apply them to the study of some properties of English accusativus cum infinitivo constructions, more commonly known as 'raising to object' or' exceptional case marking' structures. We focus on puzzling extraction asymmetries between base-generated objects and ‘raised’ objects and on the interaction between raising to object and Right Wrap. We argue that a lexicalised derivational grammar with grammatical functions as primitives delivers empirically adequate analyses.
In this paper we analyse the place of iconicity in the architecture of a generative grammar, in r... more In this paper we analyse the place of iconicity in the architecture of a generative grammar, in relation to the notion of diagrammatic iconicity. We will present the fundamental assumptions of current generative grammar about the relations between syntax, morpho-phonology, and semantics, and discuss the problems that arise when attempting to include a semiotic dimension in the generative architecture.
Recent work on structure building and mapping in Minimalist syntax makes explicit reference to wo... more Recent work on structure building and mapping in Minimalist syntax makes explicit reference to workspaces; however, it is still an underexplored area. This paper is an attempt to (a) analyse the notion of ‘workspace’ as used in current Minimalist syntax and (b) provide a definition of ‘syntactic workspace’ that can help us capture interesting empirical phenomena. In doing this, we confront set-theoretic and graph-theoretic approaches to syntactic structure in terms of the operations that can affect syntactic objects and how their properties are related to the definition of workspace. We analyse the consequences of conceptualising ‘syntax’ as a set of operations that affect local regions of the workspace, defining directed graphs.
Borealis: An international journal of Hispanic linguistics, 2022
En este trabajo examinaremos análisis existentes de las oraciones de relativo
(principalmente re... more En este trabajo examinaremos análisis existentes de las oraciones de relativo
(principalmente restrictivas), y propondremos un análisis para las relativas españolas desde la perspectiva de una gramática de adjunción (TAG) lexicalizada. Presentaremos un panorama de las principales propuestas existentes y examinaremos las preguntas a las que todo análisis de las oraciones de relativo debe responder. La propuesta que desarrollamos aquí sintetiza las ventajas descriptivas y teóricas de los modelos existentes (el análisis de núcleo externo, el análisis de ascenso, y el análisis de correspondencia), y ofrece una solución a algunos de los principales problemas que
han sido observados anteriormente en la bibliografía. Nos ocuparemos de la configuración interna de las oraciones de relativo, de su posición estructural, y de la categoría de la expresión 'que' en español.
Spanish auxiliary sequences as in 'Juan puede haber tenido que estar empezando a trabajar hasta t... more Spanish auxiliary sequences as in 'Juan puede haber tenido que estar empezando a trabajar hasta tarde' 'Juan may have had to be starting to work until late', traditionally termed auxiliary chains, have two properties that are not naturally captured in phrasestructure approaches to syntax: (i) they follow no a priori fixed order; auxiliary permutations have different meanings, none of which is any more basic than any other (cf. 'Juan puede estar trabajando' 'Juan may be working' and 'Juan está pudiendo trabajar' 'Juan is currently able to work'); and (ii) the syntactic and semantic relations established within a chain go beyond strict monotonicity or cumulative influence; rather, they present different kinds of syntactic relations in distinct local domains. We show that an alternative to syntax grounded in a modification of the categorial grammar introduced in Ajdukiewicz (1935) that closely follows Montague (1973), Dowty (1978, 1979, 2003), and Schmerling (1983a, b, 2019) provides effective tools for subsuming Spanish auxiliary chains in an explicit and explanatory grammar.
This paper deals with the syntactic and semantic properties of a specific kind of anaphoric devic... more This paper deals with the syntactic and semantic properties of a specific kind of anaphoric device (AD) in English, instantiated by Prn+SELF lexical items (himself/herself/itself…; ‘SELF’ henceforth), which do not behave like anaphors in the sense of Binding Theory either syntactically or semantically. These devices have received the name of intensives in the grammatical literature (Leskosky 1972; Siemund 2000, among many others). We will look at the syntactic behaviour of so-called intensives in different syntactic contexts, and refine the classification of these ADs taking into consideration (a) how each type of intensive is derived, (b) the kinds of syntactic rules that can affect them, and (c) their meaning.
Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 2019
Chains of auxiliary verbs in Spanish allow for the reconceptualization of well-known grammatical ... more Chains of auxiliary verbs in Spanish allow for the reconceptualization of well-known grammatical problems under the light of understudied structures. In this paper we will deal with issues regarding the position of subjects in declarative and interrogative sentences featuring auxiliary chains. It will become immediately evident that the dichotomy between pre- and post-verbal subjects results inadequate to provide adequate characterisations for the Spanish cases, in contrast to the situation in English. This is so because post-verbal subjects may appear, a priori, to the right of each auxiliary in a chain. These new data, which have received little attention, constitute a challenge for standard hypotheses about the position of subjects in Spanish.
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 2022
In this work we analyse some aspects of the interaction between coordination and clitic climbing ... more In this work we analyse some aspects of the interaction between coordination and clitic climbing in Spanish sentences with auxiliary verbs. We aim at shedding light on three kinds of structures, or ‘scenarios’: (1) those in which we find coordinated auxiliaries taking a single lexical verb as complement (Puede y debe hacerlo); (2) those in which a single auxiliary takes coordinated lexical verbs as complement (estás molestándonos y mirándonos), and (3) those in which coordinated auxiliaries take coordinated lexical verbs as complement (puede y debe terminarlo y entregarlo). Our proposal will involve a combination of Gapping and Across-the-Board rule application for Scenarios (1) and (2) and Right Node Raising for Scenario (3). We will argue that well-known syntactic constraints on long distance dependencies, such as those proposed in Ross (1967), can account for the facts without the need for ad hoc machinery.
In this paper we probe the interaction between sequential and hierarchical learning by investigat... more In this paper we probe the interaction between sequential and hierarchical learning by investigating implicit learning in a group of school-aged children. We administered a serial reaction time task, in the form of a modified Simon Task in which the stimuli were organised following the rules of two distinct artificial grammars, specifically Lindenmayer systems: the Fibonacci grammar (Fib) and the Skip grammar (a modification of the former). The choice of grammars is determined by the goal of this study, which is to investigate how sensitivity to structure emerges in the course of exposure to an input whose surface transitional properties (by hypothesis) bootstrap structure. The studies conducted to date have been mainly designed to investigate low-level superficial regularities, learnable in purely statistical terms, whereas hierarchical learning has not been effectively investigated yet. The possibility to directly pinpoint the interplay between sequential and hierarchical learning is instead at the core of our study: we presented children with two grammars, Fib and Skip, which share the same transitional regularities, thus providing identical opportunities for sequential learning, while crucially differing in their hierarchical structure. More particularly, there are specific points in the sequence (k-points), which, despite giving rise to the same transitional regularities in the two grammars, support hierarchical reconstruction in Fib but not in Skip. In our protocol, children were simply asked to perform a traditional Simon Task, and they were completely unaware of the real purposes of the task. Results indicate that sequential learning occurred in both grammars, as shown by the decrease in reaction times throughout the task, while differences were found in the sensitivity to k-points: these, we contend, play a role in hierarchical reconstruction in Fib, whereas they are devoid of structural significance in Skip. More particularly, we found that children were faster in correspondence to k-points in sequences produced by Fib, thus providing an entirely new kind of evidence for the hypothesis that implicit learning involves an early activation of strategies of hierarchical reconstruction, based on a straightforward interplay with the statistically-based computation of transitional regularities on the sequences of symbols.
Contemporary generative grammar assumes that syntactic structure is best described in terms of se... more Contemporary generative grammar assumes that syntactic structure is best described in terms of sets, and that locality conditions, as well as cross-linguistic variation, is determined at the level of designated functional heads. Syntactic operations (merge, MERGE, etc.) build a structure by deriving sets from lexical atoms and recursively (and monotonically) yielding sets of sets. Additional restrictions over the format of structural descriptions limit the number of elements involved in each operation to two at each derivational step, a head and a non-head. In this paper, we will explore an alternative direction for minimalist inquiry based on previous work, e.g., Frank (2002, 2006), albeit under novel assumptions. We propose a view of syntactic structure as a specification of relations in graphs, which correspond to the extended projection of lexical heads; these are elementary trees in Tree Adjoining Grammars. We present empirical motivation for a lexicalised approach to structure building, where the units of the grammar are elementary trees. Our proposal will be based on cross-linguistic evidence; we will consider the structure of elementary trees in Spanish, English and German. We will also explore the consequences of assuming that nodes in elementary trees are addresses for purposes of tree composition operations, substitution and adjunction.
This paper examines Minimal Search, an operation that is at the core of current Minimalist inquir... more This paper examines Minimal Search, an operation that is at the core of current Minimalist inquiry. We argue that, given Minimalist assumptions about structure building consisting of unordered set formation, there are serious difficulties in defining Minimal Search as a search algorithm. Furthermore, some problematic configurations for Minimal Search (namely, {XP, YP} and {X, Y}) are argued to be an artefact of these set-theoretic commitments. However, if unordered sets are given up as the format of structural descriptions in favour of directed graphs such that Merge(X, Y) creates an arc from X to Y, Minimal Search can be straightforwardly characterised as a sequential deterministic search algorithm: the total order required to define MS as a sequential search algorithm is provided by structure building.
In this paper, we will motivate the application of specific rules of inference from the propositi... more In this paper, we will motivate the application of specific rules of inference from the propositional calculus to natural language sentences. Specifically, we will analyse De Morgan’s laws, which pertain to the interaction of two central topics in syntactic research: negation and coordination. We will argue that the applicability of De Morgan’s laws to natural language structures can be derived from independently motivated operations of grammar and principles restricting the application of these operations. This has direct empirical consequences for the hypothesised relations between natural language and logic.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, 2017
Some years ago, one of the authors of this squib was working in a large organization with many la... more Some years ago, one of the authors of this squib was working in a large organization with many layers of management. It often happened that a manager who usually performed certain functions was unavailable to do so, and those functions were performed by a so-called backup, who was authorized to perform them in the manager's absence. It was common for a backup performing such a function to say a sentence like (1) to other employees, and those other employees might speak of the occasion using a sentence like (2).
Generative syntax was built on the foundations of Immediate Constituent (IC) analysis, and IC met... more Generative syntax was built on the foundations of Immediate Constituent (IC) analysis, and IC methods and heuristics were an important tool in the early days of the generative enterprise. However, developments in the theory entailed a departure from some fundamental IC assumptions: we will argue that structural descriptions in contemporary generative grammar (transformational and non-transformational) define not constituents, but strictly ordered sequences closer to arrays. We therefore define and characterise IC approaches to syntax as opposed to what we will call Array-Based (AB) approaches. IC grammars define distributional generalisations, and proper containment and is-a relations between indexed distributionally defined categories. AB grammars, in contrast, define strictly ordered sequences of categories. In this paper we introduce and define the fundamental properties of IC grammar, and the changes in the generative theory that introduced arrays in phrase structure. We argue that it is crucial to distinguish between IC and AB grammars when evaluating the empirical adequacy of structural descriptions used in current syntactic theorising, as structures in AB and IC grammars represent different relations between expressions and may be better suited for different purposes.
In this paper we provide an introduction to a set of tools for syntactic analysis based on graph ... more In this paper we provide an introduction to a set of tools for syntactic analysis based on graph theory, and apply them to the study of some properties of English accusativus cum infinitivo constructions, more commonly known as 'raising to object' or' exceptional case marking' structures. We focus on puzzling extraction asymmetries between base-generated objects and ‘raised’ objects and on the interaction between raising to object and Right Wrap. We argue that a lexicalised derivational grammar with grammatical functions as primitives delivers empirically adequate analyses.
In this paper we analyse the place of iconicity in the architecture of a generative grammar, in r... more In this paper we analyse the place of iconicity in the architecture of a generative grammar, in relation to the notion of diagrammatic iconicity. We will present the fundamental assumptions of current generative grammar about the relations between syntax, morpho-phonology, and semantics, and discuss the problems that arise when attempting to include a semiotic dimension in the generative architecture.
Recent work on structure building and mapping in Minimalist syntax makes explicit reference to wo... more Recent work on structure building and mapping in Minimalist syntax makes explicit reference to workspaces; however, it is still an underexplored area. This paper is an attempt to (a) analyse the notion of ‘workspace’ as used in current Minimalist syntax and (b) provide a definition of ‘syntactic workspace’ that can help us capture interesting empirical phenomena. In doing this, we confront set-theoretic and graph-theoretic approaches to syntactic structure in terms of the operations that can affect syntactic objects and how their properties are related to the definition of workspace. We analyse the consequences of conceptualising ‘syntax’ as a set of operations that affect local regions of the workspace, defining directed graphs.
Borealis: An international journal of Hispanic linguistics, 2022
En este trabajo examinaremos análisis existentes de las oraciones de relativo
(principalmente re... more En este trabajo examinaremos análisis existentes de las oraciones de relativo
(principalmente restrictivas), y propondremos un análisis para las relativas españolas desde la perspectiva de una gramática de adjunción (TAG) lexicalizada. Presentaremos un panorama de las principales propuestas existentes y examinaremos las preguntas a las que todo análisis de las oraciones de relativo debe responder. La propuesta que desarrollamos aquí sintetiza las ventajas descriptivas y teóricas de los modelos existentes (el análisis de núcleo externo, el análisis de ascenso, y el análisis de correspondencia), y ofrece una solución a algunos de los principales problemas que
han sido observados anteriormente en la bibliografía. Nos ocuparemos de la configuración interna de las oraciones de relativo, de su posición estructural, y de la categoría de la expresión 'que' en español.
Spanish auxiliary sequences as in 'Juan puede haber tenido que estar empezando a trabajar hasta t... more Spanish auxiliary sequences as in 'Juan puede haber tenido que estar empezando a trabajar hasta tarde' 'Juan may have had to be starting to work until late', traditionally termed auxiliary chains, have two properties that are not naturally captured in phrasestructure approaches to syntax: (i) they follow no a priori fixed order; auxiliary permutations have different meanings, none of which is any more basic than any other (cf. 'Juan puede estar trabajando' 'Juan may be working' and 'Juan está pudiendo trabajar' 'Juan is currently able to work'); and (ii) the syntactic and semantic relations established within a chain go beyond strict monotonicity or cumulative influence; rather, they present different kinds of syntactic relations in distinct local domains. We show that an alternative to syntax grounded in a modification of the categorial grammar introduced in Ajdukiewicz (1935) that closely follows Montague (1973), Dowty (1978, 1979, 2003), and Schmerling (1983a, b, 2019) provides effective tools for subsuming Spanish auxiliary chains in an explicit and explanatory grammar.
This paper deals with the syntactic and semantic properties of a specific kind of anaphoric devic... more This paper deals with the syntactic and semantic properties of a specific kind of anaphoric device (AD) in English, instantiated by Prn+SELF lexical items (himself/herself/itself…; ‘SELF’ henceforth), which do not behave like anaphors in the sense of Binding Theory either syntactically or semantically. These devices have received the name of intensives in the grammatical literature (Leskosky 1972; Siemund 2000, among many others). We will look at the syntactic behaviour of so-called intensives in different syntactic contexts, and refine the classification of these ADs taking into consideration (a) how each type of intensive is derived, (b) the kinds of syntactic rules that can affect them, and (c) their meaning.
Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 2019
Chains of auxiliary verbs in Spanish allow for the reconceptualization of well-known grammatical ... more Chains of auxiliary verbs in Spanish allow for the reconceptualization of well-known grammatical problems under the light of understudied structures. In this paper we will deal with issues regarding the position of subjects in declarative and interrogative sentences featuring auxiliary chains. It will become immediately evident that the dichotomy between pre- and post-verbal subjects results inadequate to provide adequate characterisations for the Spanish cases, in contrast to the situation in English. This is so because post-verbal subjects may appear, a priori, to the right of each auxiliary in a chain. These new data, which have received little attention, constitute a challenge for standard hypotheses about the position of subjects in Spanish.
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 2022
In this work we analyse some aspects of the interaction between coordination and clitic climbing ... more In this work we analyse some aspects of the interaction between coordination and clitic climbing in Spanish sentences with auxiliary verbs. We aim at shedding light on three kinds of structures, or ‘scenarios’: (1) those in which we find coordinated auxiliaries taking a single lexical verb as complement (Puede y debe hacerlo); (2) those in which a single auxiliary takes coordinated lexical verbs as complement (estás molestándonos y mirándonos), and (3) those in which coordinated auxiliaries take coordinated lexical verbs as complement (puede y debe terminarlo y entregarlo). Our proposal will involve a combination of Gapping and Across-the-Board rule application for Scenarios (1) and (2) and Right Node Raising for Scenario (3). We will argue that well-known syntactic constraints on long distance dependencies, such as those proposed in Ross (1967), can account for the facts without the need for ad hoc machinery.
In this paper we probe the interaction between sequential and hierarchical learning by investigat... more In this paper we probe the interaction between sequential and hierarchical learning by investigating implicit learning in a group of school-aged children. We administered a serial reaction time task, in the form of a modified Simon Task in which the stimuli were organised following the rules of two distinct artificial grammars, specifically Lindenmayer systems: the Fibonacci grammar (Fib) and the Skip grammar (a modification of the former). The choice of grammars is determined by the goal of this study, which is to investigate how sensitivity to structure emerges in the course of exposure to an input whose surface transitional properties (by hypothesis) bootstrap structure. The studies conducted to date have been mainly designed to investigate low-level superficial regularities, learnable in purely statistical terms, whereas hierarchical learning has not been effectively investigated yet. The possibility to directly pinpoint the interplay between sequential and hierarchical learning is instead at the core of our study: we presented children with two grammars, Fib and Skip, which share the same transitional regularities, thus providing identical opportunities for sequential learning, while crucially differing in their hierarchical structure. More particularly, there are specific points in the sequence (k-points), which, despite giving rise to the same transitional regularities in the two grammars, support hierarchical reconstruction in Fib but not in Skip. In our protocol, children were simply asked to perform a traditional Simon Task, and they were completely unaware of the real purposes of the task. Results indicate that sequential learning occurred in both grammars, as shown by the decrease in reaction times throughout the task, while differences were found in the sensitivity to k-points: these, we contend, play a role in hierarchical reconstruction in Fib, whereas they are devoid of structural significance in Skip. More particularly, we found that children were faster in correspondence to k-points in sequences produced by Fib, thus providing an entirely new kind of evidence for the hypothesis that implicit learning involves an early activation of strategies of hierarchical reconstruction, based on a straightforward interplay with the statistically-based computation of transitional regularities on the sequences of symbols.
Contemporary generative grammar assumes that syntactic structure is best described in terms of se... more Contemporary generative grammar assumes that syntactic structure is best described in terms of sets, and that locality conditions, as well as cross-linguistic variation, is determined at the level of designated functional heads. Syntactic operations (merge, MERGE, etc.) build a structure by deriving sets from lexical atoms and recursively (and monotonically) yielding sets of sets. Additional restrictions over the format of structural descriptions limit the number of elements involved in each operation to two at each derivational step, a head and a non-head. In this paper, we will explore an alternative direction for minimalist inquiry based on previous work, e.g., Frank (2002, 2006), albeit under novel assumptions. We propose a view of syntactic structure as a specification of relations in graphs, which correspond to the extended projection of lexical heads; these are elementary trees in Tree Adjoining Grammars. We present empirical motivation for a lexicalised approach to structure building, where the units of the grammar are elementary trees. Our proposal will be based on cross-linguistic evidence; we will consider the structure of elementary trees in Spanish, English and German. We will also explore the consequences of assuming that nodes in elementary trees are addresses for purposes of tree composition operations, substitution and adjunction.
This paper examines Minimal Search, an operation that is at the core of current Minimalist inquir... more This paper examines Minimal Search, an operation that is at the core of current Minimalist inquiry. We argue that, given Minimalist assumptions about structure building consisting of unordered set formation, there are serious difficulties in defining Minimal Search as a search algorithm. Furthermore, some problematic configurations for Minimal Search (namely, {XP, YP} and {X, Y}) are argued to be an artefact of these set-theoretic commitments. However, if unordered sets are given up as the format of structural descriptions in favour of directed graphs such that Merge(X, Y) creates an arc from X to Y, Minimal Search can be straightforwardly characterised as a sequential deterministic search algorithm: the total order required to define MS as a sequential search algorithm is provided by structure building.
In this paper, we will motivate the application of specific rules of inference from the propositi... more In this paper, we will motivate the application of specific rules of inference from the propositional calculus to natural language sentences. Specifically, we will analyse De Morgan’s laws, which pertain to the interaction of two central topics in syntactic research: negation and coordination. We will argue that the applicability of De Morgan’s laws to natural language structures can be derived from independently motivated operations of grammar and principles restricting the application of these operations. This has direct empirical consequences for the hypothesised relations between natural language and logic.
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, 2017
Some years ago, one of the authors of this squib was working in a large organization with many la... more Some years ago, one of the authors of this squib was working in a large organization with many layers of management. It often happened that a manager who usually performed certain functions was unavailable to do so, and those functions were performed by a so-called backup, who was authorized to perform them in the manager's absence. It was common for a backup performing such a function to say a sentence like (1) to other employees, and those other employees might speak of the occasion using a sentence like (2).
Original version of my PhD dissertation (University of Reading), a much shorter version of which ... more Original version of my PhD dissertation (University of Reading), a much shorter version of which (~ 60% shorter) was defended on 1/2018.
This work is a study of the nature of cognitive computation, with a focus on the relation between computation, linguistic theory, and grammar. We review traditional notions of computation and analyse their applicability to natural language, distinguishing the latter from formal languages as these are usually studied in computer science.
The main theoretical result of the thesis is that imposing a single computational template for the assignment of structural descriptions to natural language sentences, while long accepted, is both empirically inadequate and theoretically more costly than a strongly cyclic approach in which computational dependencies vary, oscillating up and down the Chomsky Hierarchy of formal grammars. Specifically, we defend the idea that such a system delivers the simplest possible structural description that captures semantic dependencies between syntactic objects in local substrings. This hypothesis will be referred to as the theory of mixed computation. The analysis of theories of computation starting with the seminal work of Alan Turing (1936) will reveal that the theory of computable functions must not be identified with the theory of effective computation; this then permits us to argue for the necessity of introducing aspects of interaction in the study of physically realized computational procedures which configure dynamical systems. We show that mixed computation lends itself naturally to modelling dynamical systems.
Empirically, we present evidence for mixed computation derived from an analysis of strong locality conditions in natural language syntax, that is, locality constraints whose violation cannot be repaired or ameliorated. Specifically, we set our focus on the Coordinate Structure Constraint (Ross, 1967), which pertains to the extraction of terms from coordinated structures and how it can be shown to arise from a mixed-computation analysis. Data from English, Spanish, and Latin support the identification of two kinds of coordinated structures: one is finite state in nature, and cannot be probed into. The other is phrase structural (context-free), and its internal complexity is visible to further syntactic operations, including extraction. We argue that data from locality conditions as well as cyclicity in natural-language syntax are accounted for naturally under a dynamical model of mixed computation.
What is the most descriptively and explanatorily adequate format for syntactic structures and how... more What is the most descriptively and explanatorily adequate format for syntactic structures and how are they constrained? Different theories of syntax have provided various answers: sets, feature structures, tree diagrams… Building on formal and empirical insights from a wide variety of approaches spanning more than 70 years (including Transformational Grammar, Relational Grammar, Lexical-Functional Grammar, and Tree Adjoining Grammar), this monograph develops a new, mathematically grounded, framework in which objects known as graphs, and the constraints that follow from them, are argued to provide the best characterisation of the system of expressions and relations that make up natural language grammars. This new approach is motivated and exemplified via detailed and formally explicit analyses of major syntactic phenomena in English and Spanish.
El objetivo de este libro es mirar una cuestión tradicional, las perífrasis verbales, de forma or... more El objetivo de este libro es mirar una cuestión tradicional, las perífrasis verbales, de forma original. Para ello, se adopta una perspectiva comparativa, se proporcionan datos del español y de lenguas relacionadas y no relacionadas tipológicamente y se le plantean al lector preguntas nuevas. Además, el libro propone una serie de ejercicios para que el lector pueda poner a prueba su adquisición de conocimientos; muchos de ellos exigen interactuar con bases de datos disponibles en internet, lo que permite iniciar nuevas vías de aprendizaje e investigación.
This monograph (written in Spanish) is a critical history of transformational generative models o... more This monograph (written in Spanish) is a critical history of transformational generative models of syntax, from Chomsky’s seminal Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory (1955) to current advances in Minimalism. The primary objective of the book is to explicitly and clearly explain the changes that Generative syntax has undergone in this period, and how these changes relate not only to the internal dynamics of the Generative field (for example, disagreements among different authors as to how to analyse a particular phenomenon), but also the relationship between the transformational generative enterprise and other theories of natural and formal languages (including American and European structuralist formalisms, for natural languages, and Post-Turing formalisms, for formal languages). The book presents the evolution of Generative Grammar as a continuous process, emphasizing the main theoretical developments and proceeding to the specifics while maintaining a sense of historical unity and continuity.
Este libro es una historia crítica de los modelos sintácticos en gramática generativa transformac... more Este libro es una historia crítica de los modelos sintácticos en gramática generativa transformacional. Se analizan las principales teorías que se han ido desarrollando entre 1957 y 2016 en el marco del programa de investigación iniciado por Noam Chomsky y otros investigadores en el Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) en la década de los ’50, fuertemente influenciados por el estructuralismo de Zellig Harris, las teorías computacionales de Alan Turing y Emil Post y el afán de explicitación y formalización que caracterizó los programas lógico-matemáticos de David Hilbert y Kurt Gödel, por mencionar sólo algunos.
Es importante notar que el libro no trata sobre los aspectos cognitivos o biológicos relacionados con la teoría generativa, ni tampoco sobre cuestiones de adquisición, o patología del lenguaje, aunque todos ellos sean aspectos que han recibido tratamiento dentro del programa generativo: el foco del presente libro es la historia del desarrollo de la teoría de la sintaxis y su relación con aspectos formales de computación, a la vez que con las teorías de la semántica y la morfofonología. No se trata de un manual de gramática, ni de una introducción a la lingüística general. Se verá en detalle cómo ha cambiado la concepción de la sintaxis en gramática generativa transformacional, lo que es y lo que hace, en el paso de reglas particulares a principios generales. El objetivo es que el lector adquiera las herramientas teóricas y metodológicas para acceder a los textos especializados en cualquiera de los modelos generativo-transformacionales. Se presentan, además, traducciones al español de citas tomadas de textos especializados que resultan cruciales para entender el desarrollo de la teoría, traducciones que en todos los casos nos pertenecen.
En la presente compilación hemos reunido los trabajos presentados en la
segunda edición... more En la presente compilación hemos reunido los trabajos presentados en la segunda edición de las Jornadas de Jóvenes Investigadores de la Antigüedad Grecolatina (JIJIAG), llevadas a cabo en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Buenos Aires los días 1 y 2 de agosto de 2013. En continuidad con la primera edición, las Jornadas tuvieron como objetivo principal construir un espacio de discusión sobre temáticas relacionadas con la Antigüedad Grecolatina desde el ámbito de la Filosofía, la Historia, las Letras, la Antropología y la Arqueología. En ellas contamos con la participación de una gran cantidad de expositores y asistentes de diversas áreas de los estudios clásicos, que fortalecieron con sus colaboraciones el carácter de diálogo interdisciplinario al que las Jornadas aspiran. En un intento por continuar generando un ámbito de intercambio académico entre los asistentes, en esta edición de las Jornadas se propusieron dos paneles de discusión para los cuales fueron convocadas la Dra. Claudia Mársico y la Dra. Elsa Rodríguez como investigadoras, y la profesora María Eugenia Steinberg, la Dra. Liliana Pégolo y la Dra. María Elena Díaz para integrar el panel de discusión sobre Didáctica de los estudios clásicos. En ambos casos se abordaron de forma dinámica y en diálogo con los asistentes temas de profundo interés para los estudiantes y graduados en estudios clásicos. Las Jornadas contaron también con dos conferencias a cargo de la Dra. María Angélica Fierro y al Dr. Carlos García Mac Gaw respectivamente, y con el Taller a cargo del Dr. Emiliano Buis "Haz el humor, no la guerra. Repercusiones y variaciones cómicas de la performance bélica en el teatro de Aristófanes", que con amplia asistencia dio cierre a las Jornadas. En relación con la organización del presente volumen, hemos distribuido los trabajos que lo integran en los siguientes ejes temáticos: “Economía y sociedad”, “Estrategias discursivas: retórica, verdad y persuasión”, “Kósmos, phýsis y metaphysiká: aproximaciones a las percepciones de la realidad”, “Poder, política y gobierno” y “Religión y culto”. De esta forma intentamos respetar la distribución original y reflejar el carácter interdisciplinario y polisémico del encuentro.
This collaborative book has a twofold purpose. On the one hand, the authors present a new framewo... more This collaborative book has a twofold purpose. On the one hand, the authors present a new framework – Radical Minimalism. The development of such a framework, with a strong basis on mathematics and physics, was born out of the conviction that, if language is really a natural object, there is no a priori reason to study it in isolation from other natural systems. On the other hand, this work represents a significant simplification of the theory of displacement and so-called «empty categories» within the latest development of Chomsky’s Strong Minimalist Hypothesis, applying Occam’s razor and fulfilling Lakatos’ requirements for scientific evolution. Radical Minimalism thus accounts not only for the phenomena orthodox minimalism has explanations for, but also for empirical problems that have not yet been taken into consideration.
Talk presented at the Third Conference on Biolinguistics and Language Acquisition, 2024
In this talk we look at two ways in which the development of internal representations and operati... more In this talk we look at two ways in which the development of internal representations and operations over these are constrained by neurophysiological and architectural conditions: information compression and resolution of conflict. Firstly, we will consider how information is represented and operated on given restricted resources: this involves a transition between low-level, item-based heuristics and higher-level, category-based processes (Radulescu et al., 2020). The development of categories, which act as variables that rules can refer to, involves abstracting features of individual tokens: what we will call information compression. Conditions that emerge from the dynamics of the computation as well as external conditions restrict the space of possible complex objects (explored by Piattelli-Palmarini in his talk, also Medeiros & Piattelli-Palmarini, 2018). We argue that these dynamics are common to several cognitive systems, including -but not limited to- language, and there is evidence to suggest that assuming a single mode of information encoding misses important features of these systems. We propose that systems can oscillate between modes of representing information, as driven by the complexity of the input and the availability of limited resources. Furthermore, we will explore the architectural conditions that give rise to such systems. A fundamental organisational principle that results in systems with the properties just described is one of the building blocks of chaotic regimes: the existence of a tension between mutually incompatible tendencies or conditions that hold simultaneously for a dynamical system, a dynamical frustration (Binder, 2008). We contend that information compression and frustration are manifestations of ‘Natural Law’ shaping cognitive systems.
Germanic Linguistics Seminar, University of Oxford, 2023
In this presentation we sketch an implementation of the idea that head movement, which (as Chomsk... more In this presentation we sketch an implementation of the idea that head movement, which (as Chomsky, 2020, 2021 has emphasised) is unformulable under strict set-theoretic Merge, is not an instance of Internal Merge (IM) but rather of External Merge (EM) given certain assumptions about the monotonic nature of derivational currents and the composition of complex heads. An analysis of transitive denominal verbs under these assumptions is provided.
Invited talk. First International Conference on Language and the Brain (Biolinguistics panel), 2023
The concept of ‘computation’ is, to make an understatement, multifaceted. ‘Computation’ in syntax... more The concept of ‘computation’ is, to make an understatement, multifaceted. ‘Computation’ in syntax, cognitive science, and computer science often receive drastically different definitions, sometimes at direct odds with each other. Are we defining closed input-output mappings over naturals? Are we integrating information from multiple sources interactively? What are the basic ingredients in a definition of ‘computation’ such that we can say that a digital computer and a human are doing it? In this talk we will examine some aspects of the relation between what ‘computation’ looks like in the theory of syntax, as well as in some aspects of neurocognition and computer science, and try to establish to what extent these approaches deal with the same kind of process. Asking these questions is important in order to bridge the gap between syntactic theory (which is concerned with providing empirically adequate structural descriptions for natural language sentences) and cognitive neuroscience (which is concerned with the neurocognitive underpinnings of what goes on in language production and processing). Building on the distinction between emulation and simulation, of long pedigree in computer science and AI research, we will focus on the basic properties of syntactic computation, analyse what we should require of a descriptively adequate grammar, and whether a correspondence with neurocognitive processes is not only possible, but even desirable.
Perhaps the most familiar way of representing hierarchical structure in theories of natural langu... more Perhaps the most familiar way of representing hierarchical structure in theories of natural language is by means of tree diagrams. These trees illustrate the derivations of sentences obtained by either top-down rewriting rules (as in Phrase Structure Grammars, expanding a sentential symbol) or bottom-up recursive discrete combinatorics (as in Minimalist syntax, combining syntactic objects stepwise): in both cases we are dealing with formal systems born out of the Immediate Constituency approach to syntax that dominated American structuralism and early generative grammar. Trees represent relations of containment and precedence between syntactic building blocks (words and phrases): branching nodes in a tree dominate segments that are linearly contiguous and also correspond to aspects of semantic interpretation (such that, for example, the semantic interpretation of a branching node is a function of the interpretation of its daughters). Formally, trees belong to the larger class of mathematical objects known as graphs; however, the use of graph theory in syntax has been at best marginal, in favour of set theory or classical formal language theory. In this talk we will consider different possible formats for structural descriptions of natural language sentences, and examine the consequences of adopting a graph-theoretic approach to the analysis of sentence structure in natural languages which departs from traditional (transformational and non-transformational) theories of syntax in a number of ways: nodes in the graphs will correspond to basic expressions and -in contrast with the strictly binary-branching and non-looping diagrams normally used in syntax- we will depart from the use of trees and aim at a maximisation of connections between expressions and a minimisation of nodes required to represent the structure of natural language sentences. We will define the expressions and relations that make up the grammar of a language in graph-theoretic terms and examine some of the empirical consequences of our approach.
4th Winter School in Linguistics, University of Verona, 2021
Introduction to the basics of Formal Language Theory, grammars in canonical form, and Lindenmayer... more Introduction to the basics of Formal Language Theory, grammars in canonical form, and Lindenmayer systems.
Workshop on Hierarchical Structure Processing (Geneva), 2020
In this talk we briefly present two approaches to Lindenmayer systems: the rule-based (or 'genera... more In this talk we briefly present two approaches to Lindenmayer systems: the rule-based (or 'generative') approach, which focuses on L-systems as Thue rewriting systems and a constraint-based (or 'model-theoretic') approach, in which rules are abandoned in favour of conditions over allowable expressions in the language (Pullum, 2019). We will argue that it is possible, for at least a subset of Lsystems and the languages they generate, to map string admissibility conditions to local tree admissibility conditions (cf. Rogers, 1997). This is equivalent to defining a model for those languages. We will work out how to construct structure assuming only superficial constraints on expressions, and define a set of constraints that well-formed expressions of specific L-languages must satisfy. Spoiler alert: we will see that some L-systems that other methods distinguish turn out to satisfy the same model.
International workshop in Negation - Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2021
We propose a lowering account of NOT-transportation as a syntactic rule. We use this approach to ... more We propose a lowering account of NOT-transportation as a syntactic rule. We use this approach to account for the interaction between NEG and embedded quantified phrases in subject position.
Arizona State University Syntax Reading Group, 2020
An examination of the concept of workspaces in current theoretical syntax and a proposal about ho... more An examination of the concept of workspaces in current theoretical syntax and a proposal about how we can make workspaces work for us when doing grammar. This presentation is a companion to the paper 'On workspaces in Syntax', also available here.
Dynamical systems and graph theoretical speculations about locality. Numerology with some grammar... more Dynamical systems and graph theoretical speculations about locality. Numerology with some grammar for good measure.
n this talk we review some foundational notions that underlie theories of natural language syntax... more n this talk we review some foundational notions that underlie theories of natural language syntax and, more generally, structure in formal symbolic systems. We introduce and explain the main features of the models that are used to characterise structure in a linguistic signal; these models are what we call grammars: finite sets of rules that operate over pre-defined alphabets of symbols and generate sequences, or strings. All grammars used in linguistic research and computer science belong in an inclusive hierarchy known as the Chomsky Hierarchy where they are classified depending on the properties of the structures they can generate (e.g,, is there embedding? Do we need some kind of memory buffer to account for dependencies in a signal? Can we have dependencies between non-adjacent symbols?): this is the space of normal grammars and the one we are most familiar with. We also venture into what lies outside the Chomsky Hierarchy, and explore the properties of systems that does not abide to the rules of normal grammars and thus cannot be pinpointed within the Chomsky Hierarchy: these are Lindenmayer grammars (L-grammars). We define, characterise, and classify L-grammars based on properties of the sets of rules defined in these formalisms and the kind of strings those rules generate. Just as the space of normal grammars is classified into Regular, Context-Free, Context-Sensitive, and Unrestricted (with proper containment relations holding among them; see Chomsky, 1959: Theorem 1), we contend here that the space of L-grammars is a very rich landscape of grammars which cluster into kinds that are not mutually translatable: symmetric and asymmetric grammars.
En esta conferencia relacionamos dos fenómenos aparentemente desconectados: la libertad posiciona... more En esta conferencia relacionamos dos fenómenos aparentemente desconectados: la libertad posicional de los modales españoles y el hecho de que la inversión sujeto-auxiliar puede afectar a más de un auxiliar cuando estamos frente a una cadena, pero no a un número predeterminado. Proponemos un análisis basado en una Gramática de Adjunción Lexicalizada (Lexicalised Tree Adjoining Grammar), con la innovación de que ciertos auxiliares (los que llamamos 'léxicos') pueden encabezar árboles elementales.
In this talk we explore the behaviour of Spanish verbal periphrases and, particularly, those comp... more In this talk we explore the behaviour of Spanish verbal periphrases and, particularly, those composed by more than a single auxiliary verb: that is, those in which we are in presence of an auxiliary chain. To this end, we provide data pertaining to displacement phenomena: specifically, fronting of a non-finite lexical verb and the concomitant problem of the surface position of the subject. We show that these instances of fronting pose both theoretical and empirical problems for orthodox approaches to phrase structure, which can be solved by adopting a view of displacement as multidominance within a lexicalised Tree Adjoining Grammar. We also argue that this solution can be extended to other areas of the grammar, including Wh-movement.
The focus of this talk is the nature of cognitive computation, and the relation between computati... more The focus of this talk is the nature of cognitive computation, and the relation between computation, linguistic theory, and dynamical systems. We will review traditional notions of computation and analyse their applicability to natural language, distinguishing it from formal languages as usually studied in Computer Science. The main theoretical result of the thesis is that imposing a single computational template for the assignment of structural descriptions to natural language sentences is not only empirically inadequate, but also theoretically more costly than assuming a strongly cyclic approach in which computational dependencies vary, oscillating up and down the Chomsky Hierarchy of formal grammars. The idea that the grammar assigns substrings the simplest possible structural description that captures semantic dependencies between syntactic objects will be referred to as mixed computation. The analysis of theories of computation will reveal that the theory of computable functions must not be identified with the theory of effective computation, and we will argue for the necessity to introduce aspects of interaction in the study of physically realized computational procedures, which configure dynamical systems of a very specific kind: those defined by the irreconcilable tension between opposing requirements.
An introductory summary of some aspects of formal language theory intended for an audience doing ... more An introductory summary of some aspects of formal language theory intended for an audience doing AGL experiments but without training on the formal side of things. Presented at the workshop 'Formal Grammars, Informally'. Reading, December, 2017.
Teaching material for the MA course 'Formal Syntax and Semantics: issues of computation, descript... more Teaching material for the MA course 'Formal Syntax and Semantics: issues of computation, description, and interpretation'. Universita di Verona, April - May 2020
*Basic and informal*, but it has proven quite useful for students with limited background in logi... more *Basic and informal*, but it has proven quite useful for students with limited background in logic and linguistics.
The course is based on Krivochen (2011b, 2012a, b) and Krivochen & Kosta (2013). For technical de... more The course is based on Krivochen (2011b, 2012a, b) and Krivochen & Kosta (2013). For technical details, please see the referred documents, available in Academia, LingBuzz and open access journals, where applicable.
This short paper deals with the syntactic and semantic properties of a specific kind of anaphoric... more This short paper deals with the syntactic and semantic properties of a specific kind of anaphoric device (AD) in English, instantiated by Prn+SELF lexical items (himself/herself/itself…; 'SELF' henceforth) which do not seem to behave like anaphors in the sense of Binding Theory either syntactically or semantically. These devices have received the name of intensives in the grammatical literature (Leskosky, 1972; Siemund, 2000, among many others). We will look at the syntactic behaviour of so-called intensives in different syntactic contexts, and refine the classification of these AD taking into consideration (a) how each type of intensive is derived, (b) the kinds of transformational rules that can affect them, and (c) their meaning.
v. 1.0.2: Numeration fixed. Also, minor corrections.
A squib about a syntactic copying transformation first formulated by Andy Rogers in the early '70... more A squib about a syntactic copying transformation first formulated by Andy Rogers in the early '70s, called 'Richard'.
This squib examines three sets of previously unexplained uses of the English progressive. We show... more This squib examines three sets of previously unexplained uses of the English progressive. We show how apparently problematic implications of NP's and AP's following "being" point to a semantic analysis where such NP's and AP's denote a property or property set that holds during a proper subinterval of the interval pertaining to the sentence as a whole; given such a semantic analysis, some apparently problematic implications can then be seen as Gricean conversational implicatures. We also look at two types of case where the progressive appears to be used with a stative VP and propose that these VP's denote achievements that are derived from cognate states by a general rule.
If you're interested in how I think the non-algorithmic approach should be pursued, do check the ... more If you're interested in how I think the non-algorithmic approach should be pursued, do check the section 'Work in progress', where you'll find snippets of my ongoing thesis.
The proposal we present has a simple, yet ambitious, purpose: we attempt to show that the basis o... more The proposal we present has a simple, yet ambitious, purpose: we attempt to show that the basis of cognition has locative nature; in other words, the foundations of complex thought are to be found in the spatial relations between entities. Such a conception of the structure of human cognition must be at the same time restricted enough to account for the representations licensed by the phenomenological world, and flexible enough to allow for the inclusion of further layers of information as required by determined faculties (all interpretative components of the mind, with neurological basis, respond to localist principles). Moreover, we claim that all variation between faculties is the result of the interpretative systems (or the absence of interpretation at all), since generation can be subsumed to a single concatenation algorithm to be applied in n-dimensional mental workspaces (Baddeley 1992; D’Espósito 2007). In language this has crucial consequences for the theory of syntax-semantics interface: generation is driven by the need to derive significant effects on the output, in particular, to increase the informational load. We intend to show that our proposal finds support in the characteristic properties of the three generative systems represented by language, mathematics (geometry) and music, i.e. we intend to show how all three are interconnected and locative in nature. We will use numerals as the bridge between language and the musical and arithmetical capacities.
[Old and outdated, but fun all the same. At the time, it was a reaction to Collins and Stabler's ... more [Old and outdated, but fun all the same. At the time, it was a reaction to Collins and Stabler's paper 'A formalization of Minimalist Syntax' (published in 2016). The few things that are worth keeping from this piece have been incorporated into my thesis and recent papers on graph theoretic analyses]
In this paper we attempt a logic-mathematical formalization of the program for (linguistic) investigation that we have called Radical Minimalism, in order to make the model fully explicit and reveal its potential to be applied not only sub-personally and to the language domain exclusively, but to any physical system one considers. For those purposes, we have devised a logical model of syntax (understood as a general-purpose free and unbounded generative algorithm), with which we capture the properties of mental workspaces and the cognitive organization of the phenomenological reality. We will combine our Strong Radically Minimalist Thesis with Tegmark’s (2007) Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, and analyze how both strengthen in interaction gaining in empirical coverage and theoretical weight. The aim is to formalize a possibility for the study of language as a physical system from an interdisciplinary perspective: a joint work between Formal Linguistics, Logic, Physics and Mathematics.
(Written in English) In this paper we analyze the phenomenon of raising-to-subject. After a very ... more (Written in English) In this paper we analyze the phenomenon of raising-to-subject. After a very brief introduction to the topic, we deal with two main problems: the underlying Relational Semantic Structure (Mateu, 2000, 2002, 2008) and its relevance to syntax, and the "narrow syntax" of raising. In the end, we propose a radically minimalist theory of raising in which we claim that we only have one clause with a Split TP instead of what has been traditionaly proposed, the presence of two clauses and an extraction from a subordinate TP or phi-domain (Chomsky, 1999, Hornstein, 2003, Grohmann, 2003, 2004), that is, we claim that there is no raising at all: "raising verbs" are in fact Modality expressions. Comments will be welcome.
Corrected version: 'Verbos de Ascenso como Expresiones Modales'
La noción de economía es fundamental en tanto rectora de todos los procesos cognitivos. En la Fac... more La noción de economía es fundamental en tanto rectora de todos los procesos cognitivos. En la Facultad del Lenguaje, desde la perspectiva minimalista, economía es eliminación de: (a) elementos superfluos de las representaciones y (b) pasos superfluos en las derivaciones, es decir, eliminación de todos aquellos elementos que aumenten la complejidad computacional sin estar estrictamente motivados por requerimientos de interfaz. La búsqueda de mecanismos derivacionales menos costosos computacionalmente ha llevado, a lo largo de la historia de la Gramática Generativa, a proponer diferentes maneras de establecer un ámbito derivacional restringido (i.e, local) para la aplicación de operaciones sintácticas. En este trabajo hacemos una revisión crítica de las concepciones principales sobre el concepto de fase (y conceptos afines y derivados), la restricción de localidad más importante en el PM. Luego de presentar los enfoques, y ventajas y desventajas de cada uno, propondremos una teoría de las fases aplicable a todos los módulos mentales que intenta eliminar la mayor cantidad posible de estipulaciones, persiguiendo un modelo “más minimalista”.
This paper deals with the derivation and interpretation of nominal expressions, from a Minimalist... more This paper deals with the derivation and interpretation of nominal expressions, from a Minimalist point of view, in the interface with Relevance Theory. We find common points between both theories and work in the syntax-semantics interface. Here, we anticipate some tenets of what would become Radical Minimalism (2011b, c). Parts of this paper are included in "The Syntax and Semantics of the Nominal Construction" (2012, Peter Lang Publishing Company)
Sakamoto (2022) presents an argument against a classical syntactic approach to NEG-raising along ... more Sakamoto (2022) presents an argument against a classical syntactic approach to NEG-raising along the lines of Fillmore (1963) and most recently Collins and Postal (2014, 2017, 2018) based on the interaction between NEG-raising and clausal pronominalisation. In this reply we argue that, like the data considered in earlier work by Jacobson (2018, 2020) that deals with ellipsis and pronominalisation, Sakamoto's data is unproblematic for a syntactic analysis where instead of being generated in the most embedded predicate and raising cyclically, NEG originates as a higher predicate and is subject to a cyclic rule of lowering.
A mostly informal note on how it is possible to recast head movement as external merge in contemp... more A mostly informal note on how it is possible to recast head movement as external merge in contemporary set-theoretic Minimalism (and some thoughts on why it may be a good idea to shift to graph theory, where the problems that have been identified do not arise).
Appendices to the paper 'The Search for Minimal Search', available here.
Appendix A: Some consi... more Appendices to the paper 'The Search for Minimal Search', available here.
Appendix A: Some considerations about 'distance' in Minimalism Appendix B: Restricting the probing space
This paper presents an analysis of sentences featuring superficial coordinations of unlike catego... more This paper presents an analysis of sentences featuring superficial coordinations of unlike categories in English, such as John is a Republican and proud of it (NP and AP) and Pat is stupid and a liar (AP and NP). We argue that, despite the fact that examples like these have been grouped in the literature on coordination of unlikes, there are significant syntactic differences that justify distinguishing between them representationally and derivationally. We propose two categories of coordination of unlikes: anaphoric and intersective coordinations. In particular, we will focus on how to formulate a structural description that gets the right reference for it in a Republican and proud of it, a point unexplored in many current proposals.
In this paper we will attempt to classify Lindenmayer systems based on properties of sets of rule... more In this paper we will attempt to classify Lindenmayer systems based on properties of sets of rules and the kind of strings those rules generate. This classification will be referred to as a 'parametrization' of the L-space: the L-space is the phase space in which all possible L-developments are represented. This space is infinite, because there is no halting algorithm for L-grammars; but it is also subjected to hard conditions, because there are grammars and developments which are not possible states of an L-system: a very well-known example is the space of normal grammars. Just as the space of normal grammars is parametrized into Regular, Context-Free, Context-Sensitive, and Unrestricted (with proper containment relations holding among them; see Chomsky, 1959: Theorem 1), we contend here that the L-space is a very rich landscape of grammars which cluster into kinds that are not mutually translatable.
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Papers by Diego Gabriel Krivochen
(principalmente restrictivas), y propondremos un análisis para las relativas españolas desde la perspectiva de una gramática de adjunción (TAG) lexicalizada. Presentaremos un panorama de las principales propuestas existentes y examinaremos las preguntas a las que todo análisis de las oraciones de relativo debe responder. La propuesta que desarrollamos aquí sintetiza las ventajas descriptivas y teóricas de los modelos existentes (el análisis de núcleo externo, el análisis de ascenso, y el análisis de correspondencia), y ofrece una solución a algunos de los principales problemas que
han sido observados anteriormente en la bibliografía. Nos ocuparemos de la configuración interna de las oraciones de relativo, de su posición estructural, y de la categoría de la expresión 'que' en español.
auxiliaries take coordinated lexical verbs as complement (puede y debe
terminarlo y entregarlo). Our proposal will involve a combination of Gapping and Across-the-Board rule application for Scenarios (1) and (2) and Right Node Raising for Scenario (3). We will argue that well-known syntactic constraints on long distance dependencies, such as those proposed in Ross (1967), can account for the facts without the need for ad hoc machinery.
(principalmente restrictivas), y propondremos un análisis para las relativas españolas desde la perspectiva de una gramática de adjunción (TAG) lexicalizada. Presentaremos un panorama de las principales propuestas existentes y examinaremos las preguntas a las que todo análisis de las oraciones de relativo debe responder. La propuesta que desarrollamos aquí sintetiza las ventajas descriptivas y teóricas de los modelos existentes (el análisis de núcleo externo, el análisis de ascenso, y el análisis de correspondencia), y ofrece una solución a algunos de los principales problemas que
han sido observados anteriormente en la bibliografía. Nos ocuparemos de la configuración interna de las oraciones de relativo, de su posición estructural, y de la categoría de la expresión 'que' en español.
auxiliaries take coordinated lexical verbs as complement (puede y debe
terminarlo y entregarlo). Our proposal will involve a combination of Gapping and Across-the-Board rule application for Scenarios (1) and (2) and Right Node Raising for Scenario (3). We will argue that well-known syntactic constraints on long distance dependencies, such as those proposed in Ross (1967), can account for the facts without the need for ad hoc machinery.
This work is a study of the nature of cognitive computation, with a focus on the relation between computation, linguistic theory, and grammar. We review traditional notions of computation and analyse their applicability to natural language, distinguishing the latter from formal languages as these are usually studied in computer science.
The main theoretical result of the thesis is that imposing a single computational template for the assignment of structural descriptions to natural language sentences, while long accepted, is both empirically inadequate and theoretically more costly than a strongly cyclic approach in which computational dependencies vary, oscillating up and down the Chomsky Hierarchy of formal grammars. Specifically, we defend the idea that such a system delivers the simplest possible structural description that captures semantic dependencies between syntactic objects in local substrings. This hypothesis will be referred to as the theory of mixed computation. The analysis of theories of computation starting with the seminal work of Alan Turing (1936) will reveal that the theory of computable functions must not be identified with the theory of effective computation; this then permits us to argue for the necessity of introducing aspects of interaction in the study of physically realized computational procedures which configure dynamical systems. We show that mixed computation lends itself naturally to modelling dynamical systems.
Empirically, we present evidence for mixed computation derived from an analysis of strong locality conditions in natural language syntax, that is, locality constraints whose violation cannot be repaired or ameliorated. Specifically, we set our focus on the Coordinate Structure Constraint (Ross, 1967), which pertains to the extraction of terms from coordinated structures and how it can be shown to arise from a mixed-computation analysis. Data from English, Spanish, and Latin support the identification of two kinds of coordinated structures: one is finite state in nature, and cannot be probed into. The other is phrase structural (context-free), and its internal complexity is visible to further syntactic operations, including extraction. We argue that data from locality conditions as well as cyclicity in natural-language syntax are accounted for naturally under a dynamical model of mixed computation.
Es importante notar que el libro no trata sobre los aspectos cognitivos o biológicos relacionados con la teoría generativa, ni tampoco sobre cuestiones de adquisición, o patología del lenguaje, aunque todos ellos sean aspectos que han recibido tratamiento dentro del programa generativo: el foco del presente libro es la historia del desarrollo de la teoría de la sintaxis y su relación con aspectos formales de computación, a la vez que con las teorías de la semántica y la morfofonología. No se trata de un manual de gramática, ni de una introducción a la lingüística general. Se verá en detalle cómo ha cambiado la concepción de la sintaxis en gramática generativa transformacional, lo que es y lo que hace, en el paso de reglas particulares a principios generales. El objetivo es que el lector adquiera las herramientas teóricas y metodológicas para acceder a los textos especializados en cualquiera de los modelos generativo-transformacionales. Se presentan, además, traducciones al español de citas tomadas de textos especializados que resultan cruciales para entender el desarrollo de la teoría, traducciones que en todos los casos nos pertenecen.
segunda edición de las Jornadas de Jóvenes Investigadores de la Antigüedad
Grecolatina (JIJIAG), llevadas a cabo en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de
la Universidad de Buenos Aires los días 1 y 2 de agosto de 2013. En
continuidad con la primera edición, las Jornadas tuvieron como objetivo
principal construir un espacio de discusión sobre temáticas relacionadas con la
Antigüedad Grecolatina desde el ámbito de la Filosofía, la Historia, las Letras,
la Antropología y la Arqueología. En ellas contamos con la participación de
una gran cantidad de expositores y asistentes de diversas áreas de los estudios
clásicos, que fortalecieron con sus colaboraciones el carácter de diálogo
interdisciplinario al que las Jornadas aspiran.
En un intento por continuar generando un ámbito de intercambio
académico entre los asistentes, en esta edición de las Jornadas se propusieron
dos paneles de discusión para los cuales fueron convocadas la Dra. Claudia
Mársico y la Dra. Elsa Rodríguez como investigadoras, y la profesora María
Eugenia Steinberg, la Dra. Liliana Pégolo y la Dra. María Elena Díaz para
integrar el panel de discusión sobre Didáctica de los estudios clásicos. En
ambos casos se abordaron de forma dinámica y en diálogo con los asistentes
temas de profundo interés para los estudiantes y graduados en estudios
clásicos. Las Jornadas contaron también con dos conferencias a cargo de la
Dra. María Angélica Fierro y al Dr. Carlos García Mac Gaw respectivamente,
y con el Taller a cargo del Dr. Emiliano Buis "Haz el humor, no la guerra.
Repercusiones y variaciones cómicas de la performance bélica en el teatro de
Aristófanes", que con amplia asistencia dio cierre a las Jornadas.
En relación con la organización del presente volumen, hemos distribuido
los trabajos que lo integran en los siguientes ejes temáticos: “Economía y
sociedad”, “Estrategias discursivas: retórica, verdad y persuasión”, “Kósmos,
phýsis y metaphysiká: aproximaciones a las percepciones de la realidad”,
“Poder, política y gobierno” y “Religión y culto”. De esta forma intentamos
respetar la distribución original y reflejar el carácter interdisciplinario y
polisémico del encuentro.
Conditions that emerge from the dynamics of the computation as well as external conditions restrict the space of possible complex objects (explored by Piattelli-Palmarini in his talk, also Medeiros & Piattelli-Palmarini, 2018). We argue that these dynamics are common to several cognitive systems, including -but not limited to- language, and there is evidence to suggest that assuming a single mode of information encoding misses important features of these systems. We propose that systems can oscillate between modes of representing information, as driven by the complexity of the input and the availability of limited resources. Furthermore, we will explore the architectural conditions that give rise to such systems. A fundamental organisational principle that results in systems with the properties just described is one of the building blocks of chaotic regimes: the existence of a tension between mutually incompatible tendencies or conditions that hold simultaneously for a dynamical system, a dynamical frustration (Binder, 2008). We contend that information compression and frustration are manifestations of ‘Natural Law’ shaping cognitive systems.
The main theoretical result of the thesis is that imposing a single computational template for the assignment of structural descriptions to natural language sentences is not only empirically inadequate, but also theoretically more costly than assuming a strongly cyclic approach in which computational dependencies vary, oscillating up and down the Chomsky Hierarchy of formal grammars. The idea that the grammar assigns substrings the simplest possible structural description that captures semantic dependencies between syntactic objects will be referred to as mixed computation. The analysis of theories of computation will reveal that the theory of computable functions must not be identified with the theory of effective computation, and we will argue for the necessity to introduce aspects of interaction in the study of physically realized computational procedures, which configure dynamical systems of a very specific kind: those defined by the irreconcilable tension between opposing requirements.
Presented at the workshop 'Formal Grammars, Informally'. Reading, December, 2017.
12/08/2015: Slightly revised version.
v. 1.0.2: Numeration fixed. Also, minor corrections.
In this paper we attempt a logic-mathematical formalization of the program for (linguistic) investigation that we have called Radical Minimalism, in order to make the model fully explicit and reveal its potential to be applied not only sub-personally and to the language domain exclusively, but to any physical system one considers. For those purposes, we have devised a logical model of syntax (understood as a general-purpose free and unbounded generative algorithm), with which we capture the properties of mental workspaces and the cognitive organization of the phenomenological reality. We will combine our Strong Radically Minimalist Thesis with Tegmark’s (2007) Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, and analyze how both strengthen in interaction gaining in empirical coverage and theoretical weight. The aim is to formalize a possibility for the study of language as a physical system from an interdisciplinary perspective: a joint work between Formal Linguistics, Logic, Physics and Mathematics.
Corrected version: 'Verbos de Ascenso como Expresiones Modales'
Parts of this paper are included in "The Syntax and Semantics of the Nominal Construction" (2012, Peter Lang Publishing Company)
Appendix A: Some considerations about 'distance' in Minimalism
Appendix B: Restricting the probing space