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1500 questions
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Earley Parser: Ambiguity
I've got a pretty basic question concerning the Earley parser: In case of syntactic ambiguity ( S -> NP VP(V NP(NP PP)) vs. S -> NP VP(VP((V NP) PP) ), are both parses stored in one chart or in two?
the grammar im talking about is the following:
S…
bngschmnd
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Why are the plural and singular first person forms of the verb "go" so different in the Romance languages?
In many Romance languages, the first person plural and singular forms are completely different:
French (aller): je vais, nous allons
Italian (andare): io vado, noi andiamo
Catalan (anar): jo vaig, nosaltres anem
There seems to be something…
terdon
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How exactly do the sounds of Arabic "ﻕ" and Georgian "ყ" differ?
The Arabic letter ﻕ and the Georgian letter ყ are often described as being similar, also they are both transliterated using q.
... the Georgian letter ყ is difficult for most Westerners to pronounce. It is similar to the Arabic "qaf" (ﻕ)
So how is…
hippietrail
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Can words have multiple, different origins
In the yoga context, it is common for gurus to give multiple origins of a specific word in order to 'dig' a deep meaning.
For example, let us take the word मन्त्र.
Here is a first explanation from Wikipedia: The Sanskrit word mantra-
(m.; also n.…
allesklar
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How does the reaction against gender-specific pronouns relate to a languages' use of gender?
This is a question out of gross ignorance, so I may be way off the mark here. If that's the case, the answer should be easy to provide in the negative.
My background
I'm an American, I spent the first ~29 years of my life monolingual, as most…
Flimzy
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7
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2 answers
Why is a matrix clause called "matrix"?
I understand what a matrix clause is, but was curious why it's called a "matrix" clause.
Adam_G
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7
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2 answers
Why are syntax trees binary trees?
In p.26 of An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis by Sportiche et al. (2013), the authors specify that syntax trees aren't allowed to have more than two children:
We never find morphological trees in which:
i. a given node has more than one…
Lou
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7
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5 answers
Can a vowel and a consonant be allophones of the same phoneme?
Are there languages where a vowel and a consonant can be allophones of the same phoneme?
Danylo Mysak
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How did the first words arise?
As far as I know linguists consider language arbitrary. If so, how does etymology work? We have a word and we trace it back to its origins. Then, we find that it either comes from a different language or originated at a certain time. But then what?…
Mark
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What makes a language identifiable and distinguishable from other languages and their dialects?
Old English has neither common pronunciation, nor alphabet (written letters), nor most words with modern English.
What made Old English to be identifiable as English?
What separates a language from other languages and dialects?
7
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Finding the root of an Aramaic or Hebrew word
I'm trying to make a dictionary on the web where people can automatically look up words in a text they're reading online. While I have the words and their definitions, the problem is that many times the word in the text won't be in it's root form -…
PopularIsn'tRight
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7
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2 answers
Does any language using the Latin alphabet have a unique name for "w"?
In English, we call w "double-u", referring to the original representation of [w], which looked like uu, or two us. Then, in French, they pronounce it "double-veh", presumably because the modern form looks like two vs or "veh".
The question is: do…
Lou
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3 answers
List of French minimal pairs
I recently asked a general question about minimal pairs (i.e. words that differ by one phoneme) and got a link to a website that provides a comprehensive list of English minimal pairs.
Is there a place where I can find a similar list for French…
Christian
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3 answers
How is an intervocalic "g" pronounced in Andean Spanish?
It seems that at least in the Andes, a lot of people say e.g. [awa] for "agua"[agwa]. What's the phonological rule behind this? Is it really [w]? Why did this happen in the first place?
żaba
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7
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Is it usual for facultative phenomenons to be socially connoted?
The sandhi phenomenon known as liaison in French bears a strong social connotation, that is to say when its realisation is facultative, it is a marker of a high social class.
Are there facultative phenomenons that bears no social connotation?
Evpok
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