A head-driven treatment of asymmetric coordination and apposition

Abstract

In Pollard & Sag (1994) and in Ginzburg & Sag (2000) phrases are either headed or non-headed, and if they are headed, there is a relation of selection between the daughters: either the head daughter selects its non-head sister(s), as in the phrases of type ˋhead-complements', or the non-head daughter selects its head sister, as in the phrases of type ˋhead-adjunct'. In the non-headed phrases, by contrast, there is no selection; in a coordinate structure, for instance, there is no relation of selection, neither between the conjuncts nor between the conjunction and the conjuncts. The central claim of this paper is that there are also phrases which are headed but in which neither daughter selects the other. To model such phrases I propose a new type, called ˋhead-independent'. Its properties are spelled out and its range of application is illustrated with various examples, including asymmetric coordination and apposition.