Using instruments to understand argument structure: Evidence for gradient representation

Argument Structure: Representation and Processing

In a Principles and Parameters syntax framework sentences are derived by two operations, merger and movement. Merger takes two categories as input (e.g., V and NP) and merges them into a single, higher-order category (e.g., VP). There are, however, constraints on the categories that can be merged successfully. Consider the following pairs: 1a. [NP The girl] sneezed 1b. *[NP The girl] sneezed [N...

Using Knowledge Representation to Understand Interactive Systems

System migration presents a myriad of challenges in software maintenance. The user interfaces of interactive systems can undergo significant change during migration. Program understanding techniques can be used to create abstract models of the user interface that can be used to generate a new user interface on the target platform. Using a knowledge representation to model the abstractions has t...

Argument Molecules: A Functional Representation of Argument Structure

Understanding an utterance in an argument crucially requires determining the evidential relations it bears to prior and subsequent propositions in the argument (Birnbaum et al., 1980; Cohen, 1981). The memory representation of an argument should, accordingly, indicate which propositions a given proposition counts as evidence for (a support relation) or against (an attack relation), and which pr...

Argument structure: processing evidence for computation

Non-Verbal Argument Structure: Evidence from Tagalog

This dissertation examines the syntax and argument structure of non-verbal predicates (focusing primarily on adjectives) in Tagalog. Drawing on evidence from a variety of construction types (including Comparative, Existential, and Ellipsis constructions among others), I argue against the claim that adjectives differ from verbs in their ability to project an internal theme argument (Pesetsky 198...