Information Density and Syntactic Repetition
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| Title: | Information Density and Syntactic Repetition |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Temperley, David, Gildea, Daniel |
| Source: | Cognitive Science. Nov 2015 39(8):1802-1823. |
| Availability: | Wiley-Blackwell. 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. Tel: 800-835-6770; Tel: 781-388-8598; Fax: 781-388-8232; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 22 |
| Publication Date: | 2015 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Syntax, Repetition, Nouns, Probability, Language Processing, Sentences |
| DOI: | 10.1111/cogs.12215 |
| ISSN: | 0364-0213 |
| Abstract: | In noun phrase (NP) coordinate constructions (e.g., NP and NP), there is a strong tendency for the syntactic structure of the second conjunct to match that of the first; the second conjunct in such constructions is therefore low in syntactic information. The theory of uniform information density predicts that low-information syntactic constructions will be counterbalanced by high information in other aspects of that part of the sentence, and high-information constructions will be counterbalanced by other low-information components. Three predictions follow: (a) lexical probabilities (measured by N-gram probabilities and head-dependent probabilities) will be lower in second conjuncts than first conjuncts; (b) lexical probabilities will be lower in matching second conjuncts (those whose syntactic expansions match the first conjunct) than nonmatching ones; and (c) syntactic repetition should be especially common for low-frequency NP expansions. Corpus analysis provides support for all three of these predictions. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2016 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1087774 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| Abstract: | In noun phrase (NP) coordinate constructions (e.g., NP and NP), there is a strong tendency for the syntactic structure of the second conjunct to match that of the first; the second conjunct in such constructions is therefore low in syntactic information. The theory of uniform information density predicts that low-information syntactic constructions will be counterbalanced by high information in other aspects of that part of the sentence, and high-information constructions will be counterbalanced by other low-information components. Three predictions follow: (a) lexical probabilities (measured by N-gram probabilities and head-dependent probabilities) will be lower in second conjuncts than first conjuncts; (b) lexical probabilities will be lower in matching second conjuncts (those whose syntactic expansions match the first conjunct) than nonmatching ones; and (c) syntactic repetition should be especially common for low-frequency NP expansions. Corpus analysis provides support for all three of these predictions. |
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| ISSN: | 0364-0213 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/cogs.12215 |
