The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun

The word order of a sentence is shaped by multiple principles. The principle of syntactic dependency distance minimization is in conflict with the principle of surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) in single head syntactic dependency structures: while the former predicts that the h...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/428665
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/428665
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2024.2400847
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Word order
Surprisal minimization
Compression
Zipf’s law of abbreviation
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
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spelling The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and nounFerrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923XWord orderSurprisal minimizationCompressionZipf’s law of abbreviationÀrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge naturalThe word order of a sentence is shaped by multiple principles. The principle of syntactic dependency distance minimization is in conflict with the principle of surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) in single head syntactic dependency structures: while the former predicts that the head should be placed at the centre of the linear arrangement, the latter predicts that the head should be placed at one of the ends (either first or last). A critical question is when surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) should surpass syntactic dependency distance minimization. In the context of single head structures, it has been predicted that this is more likely to happen when two conditions are met, i.e. (a) fewer words are involved and (b) words are shorter. Here, we test the prediction on the noun phrase when it is composed of demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun. We find that, across preferred orders in languages, the noun tends to be placed at one of the ends, confirming the theoretical prediction. We also show evidence of anti-locality effects: syntactic dependency distances in preferred orders are longer than expected by chance.This research is supported by a recognition 2021 SGR-Cat (01266 LQMC) from AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya) and the grants AGRUPS-2022 and AGRUPS-2023 from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.Peer ReviewedTaylor & Francis Group20252025-01-0120252025-04-30journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501AMhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_ab4af688f83e57aainfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2117/428665https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2024.2400847reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPCinstname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)Inglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/4286652026-05-27T15:37:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun
title The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun
spellingShingle The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun
Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
Word order
Surprisal minimization
Compression
Zipf’s law of abbreviation
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
title_short The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun
title_full The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun
title_fullStr The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun
title_full_unstemmed The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun
title_sort The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
author Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
author_facet Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Word order
Surprisal minimization
Compression
Zipf’s law of abbreviation
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
topic Word order
Surprisal minimization
Compression
Zipf’s law of abbreviation
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
description The word order of a sentence is shaped by multiple principles. The principle of syntactic dependency distance minimization is in conflict with the principle of surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) in single head syntactic dependency structures: while the former predicts that the head should be placed at the centre of the linear arrangement, the latter predicts that the head should be placed at one of the ends (either first or last). A critical question is when surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) should surpass syntactic dependency distance minimization. In the context of single head structures, it has been predicted that this is more likely to happen when two conditions are met, i.e. (a) fewer words are involved and (b) words are shorter. Here, we test the prediction on the noun phrase when it is composed of demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun. We find that, across preferred orders in languages, the noun tends to be placed at one of the ends, confirming the theoretical prediction. We also show evidence of anti-locality effects: syntactic dependency distances in preferred orders are longer than expected by chance.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2025-01-01
2025
2025-04-30
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
AM
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_ab4af688f83e57aa
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2117/428665
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2024.2400847
url https://hdl.handle.net/2117/428665
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2024.2400847
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Taylor & Francis Group
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Taylor & Francis Group
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
instname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
instname_str Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
reponame_str UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
collection UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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