The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun

arXiv:2402.10311v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The word order of a sentence is shaped by multiple principles. The principle of syntactic dependency distance minimization is in conflict with the principle of surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) in single head syntactic dependency structures: while the former predicts that the head should be placed at the center of the linear arrangement, the latter predicts that the head should be placed at one of the ends (either first or last). A critical question is …

abstract arxiv case conflict cs.cl head multiple physics.soc-ph placement type word