Asymmetry theory and asymmetry based parsing

Abstract

We consider the properties of an integrated competence-performance model where the grammar generates the asymmetrical relations underlying linguistic expressions and the parser recovers these asymmetries. This model relates Asymmetry Theory, which is a theory of the Language Faculty, and asymmetry-based parsing, which is a theory of language use. We discuss the derivation and parsing of morphological and syntactic argument structure dependencies under the world level and above in order to show that the grammar generates these dependencies and that the parser recovers them. The integrated competence-performance model is sensitive to the configurational and featural asymmetries underlying linguistic expressions and contributes to reduce the complexity. Lastly, we draw consequences for natural language understanding.