Branching Split Obliqueness at the Syntax-Semantics Interface

In th i s p a p e r it is a rgued t h a t the, accuracy of the syntax-semant ics interfhce is improw',d by a d o p t i n g u nonl inea r ob l iqueness h i e r a rchy [br subcategor ized a rguments . 0 I n t r o d u c t i o n In the context of the emerg ing research a rea o[' c o m p u t a t i o n a l s eman t i c s , topics r e l a t e d to the s y n t a x s e m a n t i c s interf ime have deserved special a t ten t ion . One such topic is the SUBCAT fbature and the inIbrmat ion encoded in it. In IIPS(] framework, this Ibatuce has been shown to be a cr i t ical point of a r t icu la t ion t)etween highly au tononmus pr inc ip le-based syn tax and semant ics cmnponents (vd. a.(). F rank and l{(',yl(; 1995). ()n the one hand, the SU//CAT l is t records in[brnmtion abou t s t r i c t s u b c a t e g o r i z a t i o n p rope r t i e s of the cor respond ing p red ica to r th rough the na tu re and n u m b e r of i t s e l ements . On the o ther hand, by m e a n s of' the l i nea r o rder h i e r a r chy ass igned to these elements , syntact ic genera l iza t ions concerned with word order, binding, a l te rna t ions , etc. are also regist, ered (I)ollard and Sag 1987, Ch. 5). Recen t r e s e a r c h , n a m e l y by l ida, Manning , () 'Nell and Sag (1994) and Sag and ( iodard (1994), b rough t t;<) l ight evidence tha t , con t r a ry Lo what was or ig ina l ly a s sumed in ( l 'o l la rd and Sag 1987; 1994), those di[ 'ferent syntact ic genera l iza t ions may not be encoded by one and the same ordering of the subca tegor ized e lements . This issue was di rec t ly a d d r e s s e d by M a n n i n g and Sag (1995), who proposed to recas t the SUBCAT in tbrmat ion into two diffi;rent lists. ()ne of the l i s t s d i s p l a y s the subca t ego r i zed e l e m e n t s according to an order r e l evan t to the i r l i nea r surl~tce conca tena t ion . This "valence" list r e su l t s from the a p p e n d of S[}BJ, SPEC and (X)MI)S lists, which are but the resul t of a previous s e g m e n t a t i o n of the SUB(' ,AT list proposed by Borsley (1987) and t aken u I) by Pollard and Sag ( 1994, ('J~. 9). The other list, in Lurn, orders the subcategor ized e lements uccm'ding to a h i e ra rchy r e l ewmt U) se[ up the b ind ing r e l a t i ons be tween them. This "argument" list is the va lue o[' the new ARG-S fbature. In th is connection, the crucial poin t i w a n t to m'gue li)r in this paper is that , in order to increase the s y n t a x s e m a n t i c s i n t e r f a c e accu racy , the reshutI l ing of the old SUBCAT list mus t be [hr ther ex t ended . In p a r t i c u l a r , on a p a r wi th i t s segmentation, into subl i s t s and its splillin4; into p o s s i b l y d i f f e r e n t o t ) l iqueness h i e r a r c h i e s , a branch, in, g ol) l iqueness o rde r ing should be also admit ted . This paper is deveh)ped along th ree par ts . Fi,'st, the mat n a r t u merits ef Mann i ng and Sag (1995) fi)r the d issocia t ion be tween the o rde r ing flu' l inear surface concatenat ion and the order ing tbr b inding are br ief ly reviewed. Second, I p resen t empir ica l jus t i f ica t ion [i)r the adopt ion of a nonl inear order /'or the ARG-S wflue. Thi rd , the de f in i t ion of e -command is specif ied lbr th is new obl iqueness [brmat. 1 E m p i r i c a l M o t i v a t i o n f o r S p l i t O b l i q u e n e s s The main a rgumen t s p resen ted by Mann inv and Sag (1995) for sp l i t t i ng obl iqueness into valence obliquene.ss and b ind ing obl iqueness r e s t on the ana lys i s of two l inguist ic phenmnena: reflexives in Toba Batak, a wes tern ausLrenesian language, and. reflexives in J a p a n e s e causat ive constructions. 1.1 Toba Batak re f l ex ives The pa i r <)t' senLences in (1) i l l u s t r a t e s t i le d i s t inc t ion be tween the object ive voice, in ( l )a . ,