Cross-Serial Dependencies #

@cite{bresnan-etal-1982}

Empirical data on cross-serial dependencies in Dutch verb clusters, first described in @cite{bresnan-etal-1982}.

The Phenomenon #

In Dutch subordinate clauses, multiple NPs can precede multiple verbs, with each NP interpreted as the argument of a corresponding verb:

"... dat Jan Piet Marie zag helpen zwemmen" "... that Jan Piet Marie saw help swim" = "that Jan saw Piet help Marie swim"

The dependencies are cross-serial (not nested): NP₁ NP₂ NP₃ V₁ V₂ V₃ └────────────┘ └────────────┘ └────────────┘

Cross-serial word order alone is context-free — @cite{gazdar-pullum-1982} exhibit a CF-PSG (grammar 29) generating the correct Dutch strings with proper verb subcategorization (formalized in PullumGazdar1982). What takes this beyond CF power is cross-serial order PLUS case agreement: requiring dative NPs to match dative verbs and accusative NPs to match accusative verbs across unbounded depth. This was proven for Swiss German by @cite{shieber-1985} (formalized in Shieber1985). CCG handles the full pattern via generalized composition.

Contrast with German #

German has nested dependencies (can be handled by CFG): NP₁ NP₂ NP₃ V₃ V₂ V₁ └────────────────────┘ └────────────┘ └────┘

Note on attribution #

The Dutch cross-serial data is from @cite{bresnan-etal-1982}. The formal proof that cross-serial dependencies with case-marking are beyond CFG power is @cite{shieber-1985}, formalized in Shieber1985. The distinction matters: @cite{bresnan-etal-1982}'s argument relied on constituency assumptions (refuted by @cite{gazdar-pullum-1982}), whereas @cite{shieber-1985}'s string-set argument via Swiss German case-marking is purely formal and irrefutable.

source

structure Phenomena.WordOrder.CrossSerial.VerbClusterExample :

Type

A verb cluster example with NP-verb dependency data.

Used for both Dutch cross-serial and German nested dependency patterns. Surface string, gloss, and translation document the example; the binding encodes the structural claim as a permutation σ : Fin n → Fin n. The dependency pattern is derived from the binding via binding.pattern.

n : ℕ
Number of NP-verb pairs
language : String
Language name
surface : String
Surface string
gloss : String
English gloss
translation : String
English translation
nps : List String
NPs in order
verbs : List String
Verbs in order
binding : Features.VerbClusterBinding self.n
The NP-verb binding permutation