ConTroll is a grammar development system which supports the implementation of current constraint-based theories. It uses strongly typed feature structures as its principal data structure and offers definite relations, universal constraints, and lexical rules to express grammar constraints. The aspects of ConTroll of relevance to the development of large grammars are discussed in detail. The sys...

Findings from the field of experimental linguistics have shown that a native speaker may judge a variant that is part of her grammar as unacceptable, but still use it productively in spontaneous speech. The process of eliciting acceptability judgments from speakers of non-standard languages is sometimes clouded by factors akin to prescriptive notions of grammatical correctness. It has been argu...

Can concepts from the theory of neural computation contribute to formal theories of the mind? Recent research has explored the implications of one principle of neural computation, optimization, for the theory of grammar. Optimization over symbolic linguistic structures provides the core of a new grammatical architecture, optimality theory. The proposition that grammaticality equals optimality s...

A way to derive morphological variation from UG principles is proposed. The speci c problem discussed is the variable in ectional behavior of polysyllabic nouns in Finnish. An example is naapuri-gen-pl `neighbor' which has several surface variants, including naapurien and naapureiden. Building on Optimality Theory, I construct a grammar which predicts in what circumstances variation may and may...

A critical study of the arguments for and against the hypothesis that human beings are born with an innate universal grammar, with some brief discussions of alternative theories.

published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

In this paper I want to look at what the evidence from Complex Predicates can tell us about the design parameters of an empirically adequate theory of Universal Grammar (UG). This is a fertile field for investigation because, according to the standard assumptions of the field, complex predicates are monoclausal with respect to some properties and multiclausal with respect to others and this ten...

One of Greenberg’s claims concerning the appearance of numerals as modifiers concerns the order of the elements, suggesting that post-nominal numerals are “favored in indefinite and approximate constructions”. Examining a small but representative body of data from a variety of languages, and one of the common grammaticalisation targets of singular numerals, the indefinite article, we conclude t...