Showing papers on "Antisymmetry published in 2015"
TL;DR: This work gives an antisymmetrization theory, called inter-exchange (iExg) theory, by dividing molecular antisyMMetrizations to those within atoms and between atoms, which creates a natural antisympetrizated method that is useful for large molecules.
Abstract: The Schrodinger equation (SE) and the antisymmetry principle constitute the governing principle of chemistry. A general method of solving the SE was presented before as the free complement (FC) theory, which gave highly accurate solutions for small atoms and molecules. We assume here to use the FC theory starting from the local valence bond wave function. When this theory is applied to larger molecules, antisymmetrizations of electronic wave functions become time-consuming and therefore, an additional breakthrough is necessary concerning the antisymmetry principle. Usually, in molecular calculations, we first construct the wave function to satisfy the antisymmetry rule, “electronic wave functions must be prescribed to be antisymmetric for all exchanges of electrons, otherwise bosonic interference may disturb the basis of the science.” Starting from determinantal wave functions is typical. Here, we give an antisymmetrization theory, called inter-exchange (iExg) theory, by dividing molecular antisymmetrizations to those within atoms and between atoms. For the electrons belonging to distant atoms in a molecule, only partial antisymmetrizations or even no antisymmetrizations are necessary, depending on the distance between the atoms. So, the above antisymmetry rule is not necessarily followed strictly to get the results of a desired accuracy. For this and other reasons, the necessary parts of the antisymmetrization operations become very small as molecules become larger, leading finally to the operation counts of lower orders of N, the number of electrons. This theory creates a natural antisymmetrization method that is useful for large molecules.
14 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, a number of theoretical approaches to heavy NP shift (HNPS) across Germanic are discussed, and the antisymmetric approach correctly predicts HNPS to be a focus construction.
Abstract: This paper will be somewhat unusual among modern syntax articles in that it very precisely identifies an analytical problem and describes a clear empirical result, but will not attempt to give a full solution to the problem.1 Instead, I would like to make the problem as clear as possible and spell out a number of elements that the correct solution must incorporate, even though the correct solution is difficult to state under current theoretical assumptions. In the first section below I introduce a number of theoretical approaches to “Heavy NP Shift” (HNPS) across Germanic, and argue in favor of a particular antisymmetric approach. Section 2 discusses the information structure of HNPS, and the antisymmetric approach correctly predicts HNPS to be a focus construction. In section 3 I show a surprising diachronic result which challenges the antisymmetric account, and then section 4 discusses this conclusion further in the light of synchronic data. Finally, I offer some conclusions concerning the different possible analyses.
13 citations
TL;DR: This paper suggests an account which lies with syntax and also with the psycholinguistics of bilingualism, and sees that word order is not fixed in a syntactic tree but it is set in the production process, and much information of word order rests in the processor.
Abstract: In bilingual code-switching which involves language-pairs with contrasting head-complement orders (i.e. head-initial vs head-final), a head may be lexicalized from both languages with its complement sandwiched in the middle. These so-called “portmanteau” sentences (Nishimura, 1985, 1986; Sankoff, Poplack, and Vanniarajan, 1990, etc.) have been attested for decades, but they had never received a systematic, formal analysis in terms of current syntactic theory before a few recent attempts (Hicks, 2010, 2012). Notwithstanding this lack of attention, these structures are in fact highly relevant to theories of linearization and phrase structure. More specifically, they challenge binary-branching (Kayne, 1994, 2004, 2005) as well as the Antisymmetry hypothesis (ibid.). Not explained by current grammatical models of code-switching, including the Equivalence Constraint (Poplack, 1980), the Matrix Language Frame Model (Myers-Scotton, 1993, 2002, etc.), and the Bilingual Speech Model (Muysken, 2000, 2013), the portmanteau construction indeed looks uncommon or abnormal, defying any systematic account. However, the recurrence of these structures in various datasets and constraints on them do call for an explanation. This paper suggests an account which lies with syntax and also with the psycholinguistics of bilingualism. Assuming that linearization is a process at the Sensori-Motor (SM) interface (Chomsky, 2005; 2013), this paper sees that word order is not fixed in a syntactic tree but it is set in the production process, and much information of word order rests in the processor, for instance, outputting a head before its complement (i.e. head-initial word order) or the reverse (i.e. head-final word order). As for the portmanteau construction, it is the output of bilingual speakers co-activating two sets of head-complement orders which summon the phonetic forms of the same word in both languages. Under this proposal, the underlying structure of a portmanteau construction is as simple as an XP in which a head X merges with its complement YP and projects an XP (i.e. X YP → [XP X YP]).
9 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: This article argued that the asymmetric direction of language production and parsing undoubtedly influenced the evolution of the FL, but that this need not entail asymmetry either in syntactic derivation or in default constituent order.
Abstract: Kayne (The antisymmetry of syntax. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1994, Studies in Chinese Linguistics 34(1):3–37, 2013) proposes that natural language is asymmetrical in syntactic structure, and that the universal default constituent order is Specifier-Head-Complement. Kayne states that the posited asymmetry is due to the inherently asymmetric nature of syntactic derivation within the Faculty of Language (FL), induced by the asymmetric, directional property of language production and parsing (Kayne, Studies in Chinese Linguistics 34(1):3–37, 2013: 19). In this paper I argue that the asymmetric direction of language production and parsing undoubtedly have influenced the evolution of the FL, but that this need not entail asymmetry either in syntactic derivation or in default constituent order, and that the claim of Specifier-Head-Complement as default constituent order is fundamentally unmotivated. I suggest instead that FL asymmetry is manifest in the well-known asymmetric order of information flow (old precedes new), and that a dissociation between syntactic derivation and information flow is possible because the ordering of old and new information is iconic, while syntactic derivation is symbolic. This, I argue, frees syntactic derivation from the strictures of old-new information flow order. To support this claim, I first describe the phenomenon of spatial asymmetry in Mandarin (e.g., Xu, Asymmetry in the expression of space in Chinese – the Chinese language meets typology. In Xu D. (ed) Space in languages of China: cross-linguistic, synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 175–198, 2008) to demonstrate how the asymmetry of space follows from the iconic, asymmetric order of spatial states as experienced by humans. I then demonstrate, following Tai (Temporal sequence and Chinese word order. In Haiman J (ed) Iconicity in syntax. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp 49–72, 1983, Iconicity: motivations in Chinese grammar. In Eid M, Iverson, G (eds) Principles and prediction: the analysis of natural language. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp 153–173, 1993), that the expression of temporal order in Mandarin is also asymmetrical, resulting from the iconic, asymmetric, human perception of temporal order. I then argue that the well-known tendency for old information to be ordered before new information is manifestly iconic as well, because old events are always perceived as occurring before new events.
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that prosodic properties may be useful in choosing between two competing syntactic phrasings of an expression when no other independent criteria is available, and that there is isomorphism between syntax and prosody and it should be explored as a way of evaluating hypothetical syntactic representations.
Abstract: Here I consider two important theoretical proposals of generative grammar tradition, both developed on independent grounds: Kayne (1995), about the antisymmetric character of syntax, and Selkirk (1980), about the theory of prosodic domains. The goal in this paper is to demonstrate that there exists a fundamental relationship between these two theoretical proposals, one of cause and consequence. I argue in favor of the claim that hierarchical prosodic domains are an expression of hierarchical domains established within syntactic structures and that, as a consequence, there is isomorphism between syntax and prosody and it should be explored as a way of evaluating hypothetical syntactic representations. In order words, prosodic properties may be useful in choosing between two competing syntactic phrasings of an expression when no other independent criteria is available.