Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of language and linguistics 946privative oppositionoppositionPROAn abstract element in surface structure, which, as a phonologically empty category,syntactically represents the logical subject of an infinitive ( projection principle).Infinitival clauses are treated as whole sentences on the basis of the abstractrepresentation of the subject by PRO ( complementizer). In contrast to the emptycategory marked by pro, the PRO element is always ungoverned, i.e. it occupies aposition which no case-bearing NP could occupy. The distribution and semantic contentof PRO is governed by the theory of control.ReferencesVanden Wyngaerd, G.J. 1994. PRO-legomena: distribution and reference of infinitival subjects.Berlin and New York.controlpro-adverbpronominal adverbprobabilistic grammarGrammatical model developed by Salomaa (1969) and Suppes (1972) to describe social,regional, diachronic and situative variants in natural languages. On the basis of statisticalhypotheses that are strongly supported by empirical evidence, every linguistic rule isassigned a degree of probability that predicts its occurrence within the framework of a‘relational grammar’ which encompasses one of each variant. The development of suchgrammars, arranged according to probabilities, has proved to be a useful instrument fordescribing the processes of language change and language acquisition.ReferencesSalomaa, A. 1969. Probabilistic and weighted grammars. IC 15. 529–44.Sankoff, D. (ed.) 1978. Linguistic variation: models and methods. New York.