Optimal Growth in Phrase Structure

Abstract: This article claims that some familiar properties of phrase structure reflect laws of form. It is shown that optimal sequencing of recursive Merge operations so as to dynamically minimize c-command and containment relations in unlabeled branching forms leads to structural correlates of projection. Thus, a tendency for syntactic structures to pattern according to the X-bar schema (or other shapes exhibiting endocentricity and maximality of ‘non-head daughters’) is plausibly an emergent epiphenomenon of efficient computation. The specifier-head-complement configuration of X-bar theory is shown to be intimately connected to the Fibonacci sequence, suggesting connections with similar mathematical properties in optimal arboration and optimal packing elsewhere in nature. https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/8639

Angaben zum Objekt

• Standort: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Umfang: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Optimal Growth in Phrase Structure ; volume:2 ; number:2-3 ; day:23 ; month:09 ; year:2008 ; Biolinguistics ; 2, Heft 2-3 (23.09.2008)

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Urheber: Medeiros, David P.

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: 10.5964/bioling.8639
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2022110709273834518285
• Rechteinformation: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 15.08.2025, 07:37 MESZ