Parsing in the Minimalist Program: On SOV Languages and Relativization

2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 237-252
Author(s):  
Sandiway Fong
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Goal Theory ◽  
Main Design ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Syntactic Representation ◽  
To Come ◽  
Design Challenges ◽  
Linguistic Basis

AbstractI examine computational issues in the processing of SOV languages in the probe-goal theory of the Minimalist Program. A theory that minimizes search, such as the probe-goal theory, provides a strong linguistic basis for the investigation of efficient parsing architecture. For parsing, two main design challenges are presented: (i) how to limit search while incrementally recovering structure from input without the benefit of a pre-determined lexical array, and (ii) how to come up with a system that not only correctly resolves parsing ambiguities, but does so with mechanisms that are architecturally justified. I take as the starting point an existing probe-goal parser with features that allow it to compute syntactic representation without recourse to derivation history search. I extend this parser to handle pre-nominal relative clauses of the sort found in SOV languages. I provide a unified computational account of facts on possessor (and non-possessor) relativization and processing preferences in Turkish, Japanese, and Korean.

Non-restrictive relatives are not orphans

2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
DOUG ARNOLD
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Syntactic Representation ◽  
Restrictive Relative Clauses ◽  
Restrictive Relatives

According to a ‘radical orphanage’ approach, non-restrictive relative clauses are not part of the syntactic representation of the sentence that contains them. It is an appealing view, and seems to capture some important properties of non-restrictive relative clauses. Focusing mainly on empirical shortcomings, this paper aims to show that the appeal of such approaches is illusory. It also outlines an empirically superior ‘syntactically integrated’ account.

W. E. B. Du Bois

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Mills
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Racial Categorization ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
American Capitalism ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
To Come ◽  
Equal Citizenship ◽  
Modern Form

In this essay, Charles W. Mills seeks to catalyze a comparable recognition of Du Bois’s theoretical achievements in political philosophy. Since Du Bois engaged critically with many different forms of political thought, his beliefs do not neatly align with any one political philosophy, challenging scholarly orthodoxies to the point of exclusion by mainstream scholarship. However, recent work in slavery, American capitalism, and global economy has aligned with Du Bois’s theories, and his influence is increasingly acknowledged in shaping discussions of race. Mills argues that Western political philosophy, especially in its modern form, is heavily dependent on racial categorization and subjugation, despite its supposed commitment to free and equal citizenship for all. Du Bois recognized the need to reframe Western philosophical concepts in order to establish black political equality and critiqued this framework, providing a starting point for the black political thinkers to come after him.

Imagination in the Experience of Art

1972 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 88-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. K. Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Investigations ◽  
Visual Impression ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
As If ◽  
Art Critics

In this paper I shall not be concerned with the imagination as insight, but only with certain aspects of ‘magical’ imagination, that division of the concept which centres upon the notion of an image. In the Philosophical Investigations (II xi) Wittgenstein makes the extremely interesting remark that when a printed triangle is seen, for instance, as a mountain, it is as if an image came into contact, and for a time remained in contact, with the visual impression (i.e. with the object as seen by me). He goes on to say that in a picture a triangular figure may have some such aspect permanently — in the pictorial context we would read the figure at once as a mountain — but that we can make a distinction between ‘regarding’ and ‘seeing’ the figure as the thing meant. I take him to be contrasting those common experiences in which we see a figure in a picture as depicting a person, or as a ‘picture-person’, with those rarer experiences, referred to by art-critics when they talk of ‘presence’, in which it seems as if the person depicted in the picture is there before us ‘in the flesh’, and I assume that, like Sartre, Wittgenstein would suppose that imagination plays a part in experiences of this latter kind. In this paper I shall be concerned not with this sense of the presence of the object depicted, but chiefly with types of imaginal experience in which the image which seems to come into contact with what is perceived is an image of something which is not depicted or described in the work, but which nevertheless achieves a certain strength of presence. I shall consider, also, some types of imaginal experience which we would not naturally describe as an image's coming into contact with what is perceived. Though I shall relate some of the examples I discuss to my starting-point in Wittgenstein, I do not claim to be elaborating Wittgenstein's remark in a manner which would have been acceptable to him. My aims are to give some indication of the nature and scope of the imaginal experience of art, to defend the aesthetic relevance of this type of experience, and to suggest why the imaginal experience of art has been, and still is, valued.

Resumptivity and two types of A′‑dependencies in the Minimalist Program

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-78
Author(s):  
Victor Junnan Pan
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Locality Condition ◽  
Sharp Distinction ◽  
Crossover Effects ◽  
Locality Constraint ◽  
Left Dislocation ◽  
Semantic Properties

This paper examines the derivation of two types of A′-dependencies — relative clauses and Left-Dislocation structures — in the framework of Minimalist Program based on Mandarin data. Relatives and LD structures demonstrate many distinct syntactic and semantic properties when they contain a gap and a resumptive pronoun respectively. A thorough study of the relevant data reveals that when a gap strategy is adopted, island effects and crossover effects are always observed, irrespective of whether the relevant gap is embedded within a relative clause or within an LD structure; on the contrary, when the resumptive strategy is adopted, a sharp distinction is observed between these two structures. A resumptive relative clause gives rise to island effects and crossover effects systematically; by contrast, a resumptive LD structure never gives rise to these effects. In the Minimalist Program, island effects and crossover effects are not exclusively used as diagnostic tests for movement since the operation Agree is also subject to locality constraints. I will argue that a relative clause containing either a gap or an RP and an LD structure with gap are derived by Agree and they are subject to the locality condition whereas a resumptive LD structure is derived by Match that is an island free operation and it is not subject to the locality constraint. Multiple Transfer and multiple Spell-Out are possible in an Agree chain, but not in a Matching chain. The choice of the derivational mechanism depends on the interpretability of the formal features attached to the Probe and to the Goal in the relevant A′-dependencies.

The 2019 Social Protests in Latin America: Global Context and Ecuadorian Case-Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-43
Author(s):  
A. N. Pyatakov
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Online Mode ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Protests ◽  
To Come

The paper examines the phenomenon of global social protests that spread in 2019 across more than 20 countries. The author considers the most striking manifestations of this phenomenon that occurred in the Middle East, North Africa, Western Europe, and Asia. The paper provides a periodization of several waves of anti-globalization movement in the 21st century, whereby the current global unrest represents the third wave. The author identifies specific features of each stage and outlines a growing trend towards politicization and exacerbation of violence. Particular emphasis is made on how the protests in Latin America developed in time and space, as they spread to at least eight states of the region: Haiti, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Columbia. In each country, protests were triggered by a peculiar set of internal factors which are not susceptible to easy generalization. In order to come nearer to the understanding of the new global phenomenon the author puts forward several socio-philosophical hypotheses. In particular, the possibility of internationalization of the French ‘yellow vests’ movement, its transfer and adaptation to other countries affected by protests, is noted. In that regard the paper outlines certain ‘channels’ for exporting the French protests to Latin America, including migration and cultural ties. The author stresses that although socio-economic explanations of the global protest phenomenon that focus on such issues as the growth of inequality and social polarization, are correct, they are insufficient for a comprehensive understanding of the new and complex phenomenon. As an alternative, the author suggests using the concept of ‘social singularity’. The paper considers the key features of this concept, including the idea that contemporary global social sphere is functioning in an online mode, allowing for increased speed of social interaction and communication on a global scale. Finally, the paper examines the causes and the development of the social unrest that broke out in Ecuador and served as a starting point for escalating the protest movement in Latin America in 2019.

The City in China

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Urban Sociology ◽  
Chicago School ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Urban Research ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Chinese School ◽  
To Come ◽  
The City

In 2015, one hundred years passed since Robert Park penned his seminal article “The City: Suggestions for the investigation of human behaviour in the city environment” in the American Journal of Sociology. It provided an agenda for the Chicago school of urban sociology, which came to shape urban research for decades to come. Since 1915 much has changed, both in the urban world itself and in the urban research that reflects on those transformations. In today’s world of global cities, cities around the world have undergone dramatic development, and nowhere as dramatic as in China. In the world of urban research, Park’s human ecology approach has lost the appeal that it once had. Against this background, in this book specialists on urban China reflect on the relevance of Park’s article on “The City” – for cities in China, for urban research, and for questions about studying the social life of the city. The aim of the book is to take Park’s article as a point of departure for critical reflection on both the research on urban China and on the issues that Chinese cities face. The book offers readers a timely respite from the eruption of urban China research, to reflect on what the city in China contributes to urban studies more generally. Despite the shared starting point, the contributors represent a range of perspectives that would disrupt any notion of monolithic “Chinese school” while also pointing the way towards recurrent challenges, topics and approaches relevant for a contemporary urbanism.

scholarly journals The Syntax of Multiple Determination in Arabic: An anti- residual relative clause/close-apposition account

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleh Jarallah AlQahtani
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Determiner Phrase ◽  
Specific Analysis ◽  
Syntactic Representation ◽  
Multiple Determination ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon ◽  
Attributive Adjectives

This paper aims to give an account of the multiple determination (determiner spreading) phenomenon in Arabic. Determiner spreading is the syntactic representation and phonological realization of multiple determiners within the same determiner phrase. As a cross-linguistic phenomenon, determiner spreading has been investigated in other languages (e.g., Scandinavian and Greek); different accounts have been proposed. For Scandinavian languages, determiner spreading has been analyzed as a representation of different semantic interpretations. As far as Greek is concerned, some analyses have been proposed; however, two prominent ones have received considerable attention in the literature: (i) a residue of a reduced relative clause and (ii) an instantiation of close appositions. Contrary to those analyses, this paper claims that none of the two analyses is suitable for Arabic; thus, a language-specific analysis is required. To analyze determiner spreading in Arabic, the current paper posits the following research question: What is the linguistic purpose of the multiple determiners found in Arabic determiner phrases? Answering the research question, the paper claims that, in addition to its indispensable role in establishing agreement between nouns and adjectives within the Arabic determiner phrase, determiner spreading demarcates syntactic and semantic phrase boundaries. The paper takes Minimalist Program and Distributed Morphology as a theoretical framework to argue that attributive adjectives are projection of an agreement phrase headed by the definite article ʔal or by the indefinite phonological marker `nunation: -n’. This proposal requires no syntactic movements in the syntax proper. The ultimate linear order is achieved in the phonological components.

scholarly journals Construction of a Light Rail line to Wilanów

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (7) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Madrjas
Keyword(s):  
Feasibility Studies ◽  
Light Rail ◽  
Historical Aspects ◽  
Main Design ◽  
Rail Line ◽  
Design Ideas ◽  
Design Challenges

The paper describes main design ideas for a project of a tramway connection between districts of Warsaw: Wola, Ochota, Mokotów and Wilanów. Historical aspects, main spatial documents as well as feasibility studies are also discussed. Moreover, key design challenges are presented which concern routing options and limitations of passing through special locations.

scholarly journals Gli usi dell’articolo e del pro-aggettivo in alcuni tipi di sintagmi nominali italiani a confronto con lo sloveno

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-146
Author(s):  
Mirjam Premrl Podobnik
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Descriptive Information ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Universal Category ◽  
The Relationship

The article focuses on the relationship between postmodifiers in the form of noun phrases, relative and content clauses, and the use of articles or pro-adjectives in the nominal heads. The results of a qualitative analysis of Slovene and Italian texts and their translations into Italian and Slovene are presented, the main purpose of which was to identify markers of definiteness in Slovene and to predict the use of articles in Italian, thus showing the possibilities for Slovenes to express themselves appropriately in Italian. Assuming that definiteness is a universal category and therefore recognisable also in languages without articles (Slovene), and considering the author and the translator ideal speakers of Slovene and/or Italian, the Slovene texts served as the starting point of each analysis, while the Italian texts played the role of control. An article use is defined as cataphoric if the content of the postmodifier contributes to the definite interpretation of its head. Subordinate noun phrases can be divided into conceptual and argumentative. In Italian, the former, expressing a non-entity, are marked by a zero article and form a semantic unit with their heads, whereas the latter, expressing an entity, are marked by an article (included the zero one) and do not form a semantic unit with their heads. Related to definiteness is the restrictiveness of the clause, which consists in the article or pro-adjective determining the head including its postmodifier. Such heads can be both definite or indefinite. The analyses have shown instances of relative clauses that are placed between restrictive and non-restrictive ones. Conveying descriptive information, they occur after the heads preceded by an indefinite article. The definiteness of nominal heads preceded by a pro-adjective or without a determiner in Slovene texts is also discussed.

scholarly journals Situational Analysis on Access of Livelihood Capitals in Livelihoods of Poor Households

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubavel M
Keyword(s):  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
To Come ◽  
Livelihood Capitals

<p class="normal">Poverty is one of the major problem of developing countries, the United Nation organization taken up eliminating poverty is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The poverty has been addressed through various approaches, methods, schemes and programmes schemes in the past. This paper proposes a new dimension to address the poverty reduction and through promoting the livelihood for the poor households. The lacks of capitals are one of the major problems to start livelihood activities. The livelihood activities of poor households depend on the availability of livelihood capitals as a starting point, Poor households used to combine the resource run their livelihood activities, Livelihood capitals are important for running the livelihood activities. The availability and accessibility of livelihood capitals for poor households help to build up their livelihood activities. Livelihood capitals are such as natural, physical, human, financial and social capital. The improvement in these livelihood capitals can improve the livelihood outcomes. The accesses to these livelihood capitals are important in promoting and sustaining livelihood activities. Access to credit is one of the most important would help to come out of poverty. This paper explores the availability and accessibility of livelihood capital for the poor households and presents the empirical study conducted among 503 rural poor households who were involved in the livelihood activities of in Alathur Block of Perambalur District, Tamil Nadu, India.</p>

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