John Benjamins Publishing Company
Production and comprehension in context
Abstract
Freezing refers to a loss of word order freedom found across typologically very different languages. It occurs when argument identifying mechanisms such as agreement and case do not sufficiently distinguish verbal arguments. Word order can in such situations be said to be exceptionally used to unambiguously distinguish the arguments. In the optimality-theoretic literature it has been shown that a bidirectional grammar can elegantly capture this word order freezing. Bidirectional optimality-theoretic grammar, however, does not typically deal well with ambiguity and optionality. This leads to problems in modeling word order, where these two types of variation do appear. In this paper, I will show that by adopting a notion of grammaticality in Optimality Theory we shall call stratified strong bidirectionality and by looking more seriously at the role of the context and argument markedness in comprehension, we can successfully model both word order freezing and word order freedom in bidirectional Optimality Theory.
Abstract
Freezing refers to a loss of word order freedom found across typologically very different languages. It occurs when argument identifying mechanisms such as agreement and case do not sufficiently distinguish verbal arguments. Word order can in such situations be said to be exceptionally used to unambiguously distinguish the arguments. In the optimality-theoretic literature it has been shown that a bidirectional grammar can elegantly capture this word order freezing. Bidirectional optimality-theoretic grammar, however, does not typically deal well with ambiguity and optionality. This leads to problems in modeling word order, where these two types of variation do appear. In this paper, I will show that by adopting a notion of grammaticality in Optimality Theory we shall call stratified strong bidirectionality and by looking more seriously at the role of the context and argument markedness in comprehension, we can successfully model both word order freezing and word order freedom in bidirectional Optimality Theory.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Bidirectional Optimality Theory 1
- A programme for bidirectional phonology and phonetics and their acquisition and evolution 33
- A note on the emergence of subject salience 73
- Language acquisition and language change in bidirectional Optimality Theory 97
- Sense and simplicity 125
- On the interaction of tense, aspect and modality in Dutch 151
- Production and comprehension in context 169
- Bayesian interpretation and Optimality Theory 191
- Bidirectional grammar and bidirectional optimization 221
- On bidirectional Optimality Theory for dynamic contexts 249
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Bidirectional Optimality Theory 1
- A programme for bidirectional phonology and phonetics and their acquisition and evolution 33
- A note on the emergence of subject salience 73
- Language acquisition and language change in bidirectional Optimality Theory 97
- Sense and simplicity 125
- On the interaction of tense, aspect and modality in Dutch 151
- Production and comprehension in context 169
- Bayesian interpretation and Optimality Theory 191
- Bidirectional grammar and bidirectional optimization 221
- On bidirectional Optimality Theory for dynamic contexts 249
