[Author Login]
[Home]
ROA:424
Title:Linking, Optionality, and Ambiguity in Marathi
Authors:Ash Asudeh
Comment:File removed. Published as: Asudeh, Ash (2001). Linking, optionality, and ambiguity in Marathi. In Peter Sells (ed.), Formal and empirical issues in optimality-theoretic syntax. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
Length:42
Abstract:Optimality Theory (OT) has problems with ineffability, optionality,

and ambiguity, because OT grammars typically pick exactly one winner

for any input. This paper take steps to accommodate ambiguity and

optionality in Optimality Theory syntax. I briefly present the basic

architecture of standard Optimality Theory and how it relates to

ineffability, ambiguity, and optionality, and I argue that optionality

and ambiguity in OT are formally the same, the first operating in

production and the second in comprehension. After discussing four

possible ways of capturing optionality and ambiguity in OT, I argue

that Boersma\'s stochastic OT model provides the most satisfactory way

of dealing with these two phenomena in OT. Lexical Functional Grammar

(LFG) provides a formalization of the inputs, GEN, and the candidates

for OT syntax. My analysis is thus formalized with a stochastic OT-LFG

model.



Using this model with Dowty\'s theory of proto-roles, I give an

analysis of optionality in linking arguments to grammatical functions

in Marathi. In doing so, I will illustrate four main points. The first

is that linking can be achieved with a small set of

cross-linguisically plausible, violable constraints. Second,

optionality can be captured in OT syntax by modifying the architecture

of the theory only slightly. Third, in comprehension-directed

optimization, the same OT constraints that are used to capture the

linking optionality in production can also capture the resulting

ambiguity in the Marathi strings that correspond to the winning

candidates in production. Fourth, this OT approach to linking has

interesting implications for proto-role theory.
Type:Paper/tech report
Area/Keywords:
Article:This article has been withdrawn.