Ultrametric Distance in Syntax

SU > DO > IO > OBL > GEN > OCOMP

Figure 15: The accessibility hierarchy

7 Other Linguistic Hierarchies

7.1 The Accessibility Hierarchy

A relative clause (RC) is a clause that modifies a noun or pronoun that
occurs elsewhere in a sentence. The accessibility hierarchy (AH) for relative
clauses is given by Keenan and Comrie (1977) [21] Noun phrases (NP) occurring
to the left of “>” are more accessible than those on the right. SU is short for
subject, DO for direct ob ject, IO for indirect object, OBL for major oblique case
NP, GEN for genitive NP, OCOMP for object of comparison. The properties of
the accessible hierarchy are contained in two sets of constraints.

The accessible hierarchy constraints (AHCs) are:

AHC1) A language must be able to relativize subjects.

ACH2) Any RC forming strategy must apply to a continuous segment of the
AH.

ACH3) Strategies that apply at one point of the AH may in principle cease to
apply at any lower point.

The primary relativization constraints (PRCs) are

PRC1) A language must have a primary RC-forming strategy.

PRC2) If a primary strategy in a given language can apply to a low position
on the AH, then it can apply to all higher positions.

PRC3) A primary strategy may cut off at any point on the AH.

For a given language a deployment that can be used to relativize a clause at
a specified place on the AH can also be used to relativize all more accessible
clauses. The type of relativization varies from language to language. There
appears to be nothing known on how the skill to deploy a relativization develops
in an individual. One would expect that when a given method is applied the less
accessible would take longer to process. There seems to be no psycholinguistic
tests done to see if this is indeed the case.

7.2 The Berlin-Kay Universal Colour Partial Ordering

The perception of colour often involves the deployment of a colour name strat-
egy. The effect of this is to alter the way the colour is perceived. The five
principles of colour perception are:

CP1)The communicability of a referent in an array and for a particular com-
munity is very closely related to the memorability of that referent in the same
array and for members of the same community.

CP2) In the total domain of colour there are eleven small focal areas in which
are found the best instances of the colour categories named in any particular
language. The focal areas are human universals, but languages differ in the
number of basic colour terms they have: they vary from two to eleven.

18

<<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   >>

More intriguing information