Notes on computational linguistics.pdf - UCLA Department of ...

Stabler - Lx 185/209 2003
9.1.2 Second example: modifier orders
(12) Dimitrova-Vulchanova and Giusti (1998) observes some near symmetries in the nominal systems of
English and Romance, symmetries that have interesting variants in the Balkan languages. 42
It is interesting to consider whether the restricted grammars we have introduced – grammars with only
overt, phrasal movement – can at least get the basic word orders.
In fact, this turns out to be very easy to do. The adjectives in English order appear in the preferred
order,
poss>card>ord>qual>size>shape>color>nationality>n
with (partial) mirror constructions:
a. an expensive English fabric
b. un tissu anglais cher
(13) sometimes, though, other orders, as in Albanian:
a. një
a
fustan
dress
fantastik blu
fantastic blue
b. fustan-i fantastik blu
dress-the fantastic blue
(14) AP can sometimes appear on either side of the N, but with a (sometimes subtle) meaning change:
a. un bon chef (good at cooking)
b. un chef bon (good, more generally)
(15) scopal properties, e.g. obstinate>young in both
a. an obstinate young man
b. un jeune homme obstiné
To represent these possible selection possibilities elegantly, we use the notation >poss to indicate a
feature that is either poss or a feature that follows poss in this hierarchy. And similarly for the other
features, so >color indicates one of the features in the set >color={color,nat,n}.
We also put a feature (-f) in parentheses to indicate that it is optional.
% English % French
=>poss d -case a(n) =>poss d -case un
=>qual qual expensive =>qual +f qual (-f) cher
=>nat nat English =>nat +f nat (-f) anglais
n fabric n (-f) tissu
% Albanian
=>poss +f d -case i
=>poss d -case nje
=>qual (+f) qual fantastik
=>color color blu
n -f fustan
This grammar gets the word orders shown in (12-14).
=>qual (+f) qual (-f) bon
n (-f) chef
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