Open AccessAn HPSG approach to the who/whom puzzle
Author(s) -
Takafumi Maekawa
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
proceedings of the international conference on head-driven phrase structure grammar
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1535-1793
DOI - 10.21248/hpsg.2005.16
Subject(s) - interrogative , constraint (computer aided design) , focus (optics) , linearization , word order , interrogative word , order (exchange) , computer science , linguistics , distribution (mathematics) , mathematics , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , nonlinear system , philosophy , physics , economics , geometry , mathematical analysis , finance , quantum mechanics , optics
Order domains were originally proposed to deal with constituent order, buthave recently been concerned with more than just linearization. This paperseeks to contribute to this discussion by considering the possibility ofanalysing word forms in terms of order domains. We focus on thedistribution of the English relative and interrogative pronouns who andwhom. It is shown that a small number of constraints can accommodate theseemingly complex body of data. In particular, a linearization-basedconstraint can provide a straightforward account for the quite puzzlingdistribution which who and whom show in one of the register types.