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

Stabler - Lx 185/209 2003
(37) With these foundations, it is easy to formalize i_command – sometimes called c-command:
α i-commands β iff α is immediately dominated by an ancestor of β, andα = β.
This is equivalent to the earlier formulation, since if the immediately dominating parent of Commander
dominates Node, then every node dominating Commander dominates Node. In our formal notation:
i_commands(Commander,Node) :- dominates(Ancestor,Node), imm_dominates(Ancestor,Commander), \+ Commander=Node.
(38) Consider the top left tree in 31. In this tree, the root IP has adjoined to itself, consequently, the moved
constituent has no sister. In fact, the node labeled x(i,2,[index:A],-) has no sister. The first
(39)
node that dominates it is the adjunction structure, and that adjunction structure does not immediately
dominate any other node. The trace is itself part of an extended adjunction structure, and has no sister,
and no i-commander.
We now have enough to define notions like L-marking, L-dependence, barriers, intervention and government.
5.3.5 Conclusion and prospects
(40) The tree manipulations and relations defined in this section are not trivial, but they are fully explicit
and implemented for computation. 23
(41) In the minimalist program, there are simpler approaches to movement that will be discussed in §9.1-§??,
below.
23 The formalization of movement relations in Rogers (1999) and in Kracht (1998) are mathematically more elegant, and it would be
interesting to consider whether an implementation of these formalizations could be nicer than the ones given here.
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