Constituent Structure Sets II
Dirk Bury, Hiroyuki Uchida · 2012
Abstract This chapter replaces traditional phrase structure trees with a new type of set-based representations. Typical labelled trees permit copying of one category onto distinct syntactic nodes and excessive copying possibilities need to be filtered out by independent measures. Such additional means not only increase the complexity of the grammar but also blur the distinction between syntactic and semantic constraints. Thus, is presented an alternative structure representation system that can express syntactic copying only in one specific configuration, whose importance is exemplified by German V2 data. The system is incompatible with certain current approaches to phrasal movement, namely with multidominance systems and with (certain versions of) the copy theory of movement. Its implications are discussed with regard to wh-extraction and reconstruction. Finally, the chapter compares the authors' representation system with dependency graphs as well as other set-based structure representations proposed in Chomskyan syntax.