ERIC Number: EJ851495
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Nov
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0090-6905
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Available Date: N/A
The Dependency Structure of Coordinate Phrases: A Corpus Approach
Temperley, David
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, v34 n6 p577-601 Nov 2005
Hudson (1990) proposes that each conjunct in a coordinate phrase forms dependency relations with heads or dependents outside the coordinate phrase (the "multi-head" view). This proposal is tested through corpus analysis of Wall Street Journal text. For right-branching constituents (such as direct-object NPs), a short-long preference for conjunct ordering is observed; this is predicted by the multi-head view, under the assumption that structures resulting in shorter dependencies are preferred. A short-long preference is also observed for left-branching constituents (such as subject NPs), which is less obviously accommodated by the multi-head view but not incompatible with it. The repetition of determiners was also examined (the dog and cat versus the dog and the cat), and a stronger preference was found for repetition with singular count nouns as opposed to mass or plural nouns; this accords well with the multi-head view, under the reasoning that single-determiner constructions require crossing dependencies with count nouns but not with plural or mass nouns.
Descriptors: Nouns, Morphemes, Computational Linguistics, Phrase Structure, Newspapers, Form Classes (Languages)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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