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2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Studies on Computational Complexity/Load as a Metric for the Economy Principles in the Theory of Generative Grammar

Research Project

Project/Area Number 14510626
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field 言語学・音声学
Research InstitutionKyushu Institute of Technology

Principal Investigator

TOYOSHIMA Takashi  Kyushu Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, Associate Professor, 情報工学部, 助教授 (40311857)

Project Period (FY) 2002 – 2005
KeywordsGenerative Grammar / Minimalism / Economy Principles / Head Movement / Wh-Movement / Breton / Complexity Metric / Computational Complexity
Research Abstract

Possibilities are investigated of the application of the computational complexity theory and the descriptive complexity theory in computer science and discrete mathematics, as the metric for the economy principles in the Minimalist Program, the current theoretical framework in the tradition of transformational generative grammar.
In order to measure the complexity of computational operations in human language, the nature of the operations itself needs to be determined, and the problematic head-to-head movement can be, and by the minimalist assumption, must be reformulated as head-to-spec movement, which yields better empirical coverage of phenomena noticed, but left unaccounted for in principled terms.
By reducing all the movement operations to just one that moves to a specifier position, it can be considered to be a species of the Merge operation. Then, in turn, we can begin to consider the computational complexity of the economy principles that employ just the two types of the Merge operation, Internal Merge and External Merge.
The economy principles in the Minimalist Program can be divided into two types, Derivational Economy and Representational Economy, both of which can be understood as discrete optimization problems. Once so understood, the issues of derivational economy become not of an either-or questions between local vs. global as often alluded in the literature, but rather whether local constraints can solve the global optimization problems, which is the nature of derivational system of human language.
It has been found that the notion of locality must be distinguished for derivational economy and representational economy, and the computational one-step "look-ahead" is essential for human language, contra commonly held views. What must be avoided is "look-far-ahead" of more than one step in computation, which inevitably ends up with combinatorial explosion of exponential order.

  • Research Products

    (12 results)

All 2006 2005 2004 Other

All Journal Article (12 results)

  • [Journal Article] Non-Finite Verb Fronting in South/West Slavic and Germanic2006

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      The 37^<th> Poznan Linguistic Meeting (PLM 2006) Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu : Poznan, Poland. (accepted for oral presentation on April 21, 2006)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Dynamic Economy of Derivation2006

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      A Conference on Interfaces in Current Syntactic Theory : InterPhases. University of Cyprus : Nicosia, Cyprus. (accepted for oral presentation on May 18, 2006)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Preemptive Move Toward Elimination of Lexical Subarray : Dynamic Economy2005

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the Israel Association for Theoretical Linguistics World Wide Web 21

      Pages: http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~english/lATL/21/

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Preemptive Move Toward Elimination of Lexical Subarray : Dynamic Economy.2005

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      The Proceedings of the Israel Association for Theoretical Linguistics 21. World Wide Web : (http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~english/IATL/21/)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Wh-Tideland2004

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      The 2nd International Theoretical East Asian Linguistics Workshop ポスター発表

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Wh-Tideland2004

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      Poster presentation; The 2nd International Theoretical East Asian Linguistics Workshop. National Tsing Hua University : Hsinchu, Taiwan

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Breton VI Construction : Evidence for Head-to-Spec Movement

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the II Encuentro de Gramatica Generativa (CD-ROM)(2003年12月脱稿済み)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Breton Verb-Aux Construction

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      Actes de Sixiemes Journees Linguitique Nationales de Maroc : Bare Structures and Functional Projections (近刊)(2005年2月脱稿済み)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Non-Finite Verb Fronting in South/West Slavic and Germanic

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      The 37th Poznan Linguistic Meeting (PLM2006) (口頭発表)(2006年4月21日予定:採択済)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Dynamic Economy of Derivation

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      A Conference on Interfaces in Current Syntactic Theory : InterPhases (口頭発表)(2006年5月18日予定:採択済)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Breton VI Construction : Evidence for Head-to-Spec Movement.

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      The Proceedings of the II Encuentro de Gramatica Generativa (CD-ROM)(To appear)(accepted 2003)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Breton Verb-Aux Construction.

    • Author(s)
      Toyoshima, Takashi
    • Journal Title

      Actes de Sixiemes Journees Linguitique Nationales de Maroc : Bare Structures and Functional Projections. (To appear) (accepted 2005)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より

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Published: 2007-12-13  

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