• Jens Michaelis & Christian Wartena. How linguistic constraints on movement conspire to yield languages analyzable with a restricted form of LIGs. Appeared in G.J.M. Kruijff, G.V. Morrill, and R.T. Oehrle (eds.), Formal Grammar 1997. Linguistic Aspects of Logical and Computational Perspectives on Language, pp. 158-168. Proceedings of the Conference, Aix-en-Provence, August 9-10, 1997.

Abstract

Within a GB-like framework movement out of an object seems to be a valid concept for the description of natural languages whereas movement out of subjects and adjuncts is almost impossible. In a framework in which the notion object is determined configurationally, this condition on movement restricts the class of licensed structures. We will argue that this condition restricts as well the class of languages that can be generated. In order to study formal properties we transfer this condition to linear indexed grammars and define two new formalisms: right linear indexed grammars and extended right linear indexed grammar. The classes of languages generated are proper subclasses of the class of linear indexed languages. In fact, we show that right linear indexed grammars are weakly equivalent to context free grammars, despite of the possibility to have in a derivation for each nonterminal an associated index stack (of unbounded depth).

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