{"product_id":"syntax","title":"Syntax","description":"\u003cb\u003eA simple grammar formalism--dependency grammar--motivated by the observation that longer distance connections between words are harder to make.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eSyntax\u003c\/i\u003e provides a cognitive basis for syntactic structures across languages. Edward Gibson observes that there is a cognitive cost associated with connecting words that increases with the dependency length, such that shorter connections are preferred. A transparent formalism to represent this observation is dependency grammar, in which a word is simply connected to another word via a dependency arc to form a larger compositional meaning. This formalism can explain numerous aspects of word order universals across languages. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis book contrasts dependency grammar with the industry standard going back to Chomsky's phrase structure grammar with transformations. Dependency grammar is a simpler formalism: It does not posit the existence of categories that combine words. Furthermore, there are no transformations. Gibson argues that a construction-based dependency grammar is not only simpler than a phrase structure with transformations approach, but it also accounts for language phenomena more effectively.","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50010362085626,"sku":"9780262553575","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0840\/1253\/1962\/files\/imageloader_9a2cf0aa-aa97-49b8-9e61-4cd94a887c5b.jpg?v=1786131107","url":"https:\/\/mindsourcebooks.com\/products\/syntax","provider":"Mind Source Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}