Word order phenomena in grammar design

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureWord order phenomena in grammar designAntske FokkensDepartment of Computational LinguisticsSaarland UniversityAntske Fokkens Word order phenomena 1 / 17

OutlineGeneral Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe future1 General Topic and Thesis overview2 Word Order Library in the MatrixAuxiliaries3 Current and near future work4 Related research questions5 The futureAntske Fokkens Word order phenomena 2 / 17

TopicGeneral Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureWorking title: Word Order phenomena in Grammar DesignFirst part of thesis: a "complete basic" word order libraryfor the grammar matrixSecond part of the thesis: to be determinedAntske Fokkens Word order phenomena 3 / 17

TimelineGeneral Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureEnd of summer:basic word order library finishedsecond part of thesis decided uponSummer 2010: bulk of PhD research doneAntske Fokkens Word order phenomena 4 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureAuxiliariesPrevious state of word order libraryThe six basic word orders: SOV, SVO, VSO, VOS, OVS,OSVVerb-final, Verb-initial, free word orderDeterminer-Noun orderAuxiliary-verbal complement (working for harmonic order)Antske Fokkens Word order phenomena 5 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureAuxiliariesAdditions to Word order libraryA v2-analysis (Warlpiri based)Auxiliary-verb analyses"Disharmonic" word order (where head-comp is different forverb-object and auxiliary-vcomp)V-complements, notably verbal clustersAntske Fokkens Word order phenomena 6 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureAuxiliaries: ImplementationsAuxiliariesAuxiliaries can precede or follow the verb for all basic wordorders, but v2For V2 languages, the auxiliary that heads the sentence isin second position, else their order is freeFor many combinations, word order depends on the kind ofcomplement the auxiliary has (v, vp, or s)Verb clusters (where all verbs must be adjacent) areformed for:Verb-initial and verb-final languages(Optionally) for VSO and OSV, and free word orderlanguagesAntske Fokkens Word order phenomena 7 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureAuxiliaries: QuestionsAuxiliariesWhat are auxiliaries?Word order and auxiliary complement (s, vp, v) are highlyrelated: is this right?Harmonic word order is straight-forward, non-harmonicorder for auxiliaries having a v-compl is tricky: but (howmuch) does this occur?V-clusters seem a natural phenomena: does the analysisreflect this?The verbal cluster feature registers whether a specificelement has been picked up by the head daughter: shouldit be more general?Antske Fokkens Word order phenomena 8 / 17

Auxiliaries: To DoGeneral Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureAuxiliariesFor (at least) free word order: it should be possible to haveauxiliaries that may precede or follow their complementFor other word orders: the possibility to havecomplement-preceding and complement-followingauxiliariesFor v2 languages: verbal cluster in second or final position:This occurs in Germanic languages: is the Austronesianbased v2 analysis right for them?Antske Fokkens Word order phenomena 9 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureCurrent workChecking word order related phenomena of negation,yes-no questions (+ add Germanic v2)Typological reading on auxiliary structuresTypological research on general word order phenomena(WALS)Antske Fokkens Word order phenomena 10 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futurePhenomena for the near futureAdpositionsAdjectivesDitransitive verbsFree subject-verb order, Free object-verb orderWord order interactions with optional complementsAntske Fokkens Word order phenomena 11 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futurePotential further extension of word order pageAdverbsSubordinate clausesCompositional semantics and how to cope withdiscontinuityInteraction between word order and other phenomena (e.g.Turkish fixed word order when nouns do not bear casemarking)Antske Fokkens Word order phenomena 12 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureTypological questionsWhat function does word order have?What limits are (typically) found in free word orderlanguages?The 2nd position:Are their languages that are ’predicate 2’, instead of justv2?What about the 2nd position for clitics in Slavic languages?How to use Typology?Antske Fokkens Word order phenomena 13 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureLanguage Description QuestionsDo language description methods provide insight topossibilities and limits, and frequencies of particular wordorder phenomena?To what extend is the questionnaire influenced by HPSG,LKB, or particular implementations?Can more general (’free’) description techniques beincorporated in the questionnaire, and be used to derive animplementation?Antske Fokkens Word order phenomena 14 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe future’Flexible’ restrictions on word orderHow free is free word order? How to incorporate notionssuch as ’gradient grammaticality’?The influence of context, information structure andprosodic factors in acceptabilityCan statistics be used when there are significant differencein acceptability?To guide generation and only form ’natural sounding’strings?To reduce spurious ambiguity and support disambiguationin parsingDo statistics correlate with the facility to process a stringfor human beings?Antske Fokkens Word order phenomena 15 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futurePossible future directionsContinue expanding the word order library: subordinates,relative clauses, adverbs, Finnish definiteness, Turkishinteractions with morphology (more possibilities than timeand space in one PhD)"Play with" other tools TRALE, XLEGradient grammaticality/Interaction with informationstructure (theoretically)Antske Fokkens Word order phenomena 16 / 17

General Topic and Thesis overviewWord Order Library in the MatrixCurrent and near future workRelated research questionsThe futureOther possible future directionsGradient grammaticality and parsing of ungrammaticalstrings: which constraints are often violated?Optimality for free word order and quasi-free word orderlanguages (what is the ideal implementation of free wordorder?)Generation from free word orderPsychological plausible parsingAntske Fokkens Word order phenomena 17 / 17