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Some Interdefinability Results for Syntactic Constraint Classes

  • Conference paper
The Mathematics of Language (MOL 2009, MOL 2007)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 6149))

Abstract

Choosing as my vantage point the linguistically motivated Müller-Sternefeld hierarchy [23], which classifies constraints according to their locality properties, I investigate the interplay of various syntactic constraint classes on a formal level. For non-comparative constraints, I use Rogers’s framework of multi-dimensional trees [31] to state Müller and Sternefeld’s definitions in general yet rigorous terms that are compatible with a wide range of syntactic theories, and I formulate conditions under which distinct non-comparative constraints are equivalent. Comparative constraints, on the other hand, are shown to be best understood in terms of optimality systems [5]. From this I derive that some of them are reducible to non-comparative constraints. The results jointly vindicate a broadly construed version of the Müller-Sternefeld hierarchy, yet they also support a refined picture of constraint interaction that has profound repercussions for both the study of locality phenomena in natural language and how the complexity of linguistic proposals is to be assessed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles

    Thomas Graf

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  1. Thomas Graf
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, University of Tuebingen, Wilhelmstrasse 19, 72074, Tuebingen, Germany

    Christian Ebert  & Gerhard Jäger  & 

  2. Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bielefeld, Postfach 100131, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany

    Jens Michaelis

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Graf, T. (2010). Some Interdefinability Results for Syntactic Constraint Classes. In: Ebert, C., Jäger, G., Michaelis, J. (eds) The Mathematics of Language. MOL MOL 2009 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 6149. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14322-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14322-9_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-14321-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-14322-9

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