How hard a problem would this be to solve?

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21248/hpsg.2009.9

Abstract

This paper analyzes the interrelation of two understudied phenomena of English: discontinuous modifier phenomenon (so willing to help out that they called early; more ready for what was coming than I was) and the complex pre-determination phenomenon (this delicious a lasagna; How hard a problem (was it)?). Despite their independence, they frequently occur intertwined, as in too heavy {a trunk} (for me) to lift and so lovely a melody that some people cried. This paper presents a declarative analysis of these and related facts that avoids syntactic movement in favor of monotonic constraint satisfaction. It demonstrates how an explicit, sign-based, constructional approach to grammatical structure captures linguistic generalizations, while at the same time accounting for idiosyncratic facts in this seemingly complex grammatical domain.

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Published

2009-10-14

How to Cite

Kay, Paul & Sag, Ivan A. 2009. How hard a problem would this be to solve?. Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar 171–191. (doi:10.21248/hpsg.2009.9) (https://proceedings.hpsg.xyz/article/view/719) (Accessed March 29, 2024.)