Dependency (UML)

Emergent grammar

Word order

Dependency grammar

Philosophy

Artificial intelligence

Set (abstract data type)

Programming language

Natural language processing

Grammar

Locality

Computer science

Linguistics

Word grammar

Linguistic universal

Generative grammar

Relational grammar

Word (group theory)

Link grammar

Language

This work focuses on explaining both grammatical universals of word order and quantitative word-order preferences in usage by means of a simple efficiency principle: dependency locality. In its simplest form, dependency locality holds that words linked in a syntactic dependency (any head–dependent relationship) should be close in linear order. We give large-scale corpus evidence that dependency locality predicts word order in both grammar and usage, beyond what would be expected from independently motivated principles, and demonstrate a means for dissociating grammar and usage in corpus studies. Finally, we discuss previously undocumented variation in dependency length and how it correlates with other linguistic features such as head direction, providing a rich set of explananda for future linguistic theories.

Dependency locality as an explanatory principle for word order