This paper introduces the Syntax Game, a language game for exploring the origins of syntactic structure, specifically phrase structure. We define the game and propose a particular strategy for playing it. We show that this strategy leads to the emergence of a phrase structure grammar through the collective invention, adoption, and alignment of culturally established conventions.

Dependency structures do not have the information of phrase categories in phrase structure grammar. Thus, dependency parsing relies heavily on the lexical information of words. This paper discusses our investigation into the effectiveness of lexicalization in dependency parsing. Specifically, by restricting the degree of lexicalization in the training phase of a parser, we examine the change in...

This paper builds upon and extends certain ideas developed within the framework of Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG). ill A new descriptive device, the Category Cooccurrence Restriction (CCR), is introduced in analogy to existing devices of GPSG in order to express constraints on the cooccurrence of categories within local trees (i.e. trees of depth one) which at present are stated wi...

A central concern of linguistic theory is to account for how the arguments of a given lexical item are associated with positions in a syntactic structure. Many theorists hold that this mapping is mediated by a so-called thematic hierarchy. In Principles-and-Parameters style theories this typically works as follows. A verb selects arguments with certain thematic (θ-) roles. These θ−roles are ran...