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Preliminary Recommendations

Introduction

Usually, it can be considered that grammar is the proper place to describe how different elements of the subcategorisation frame of the lexical elements can be realised or instantiated in a real sentence, together with other non subcategorised elements. In particular, the different regularities concerning the possible linear order of different elements are part of the grammatical knowledge which is not encoded in the lexicon, as well as possible perturbations of the usual order. Grammar, in particular, describes the different ordering constraints (if there are any), which constrain the possible relative positions of different constituents or different functions within the sentence. Grammatical knowledge of general properties of a particular language (expressed outside the lexicon description) usually is enough to deal with most linear ordering limitations. Furthermore, in most cases, syntactic frames associated with the lexicon have no need to have more information about order between slots or slot realisations in the same frame or about order relative to self, mainly because order constraints are usually general and independent of lexical entries.

However, there are great variations concerning ordering constraints depending on the language involved. For some lexical units and for some languages, particularly when aiming for a fine-grained lexical description, some verbs may constrain the possible order of their slots or slot realisations more than others (even if the same slots or slot realisations are involved). This then means that grammar (which cannot deal with such specific ordering) and lexicon together are incomplete unless the specific ordering constraints are explicitly present within the lexical description. The level of the frame is the proper place to encode such constraints when necessary, as the order of different syntactic objects linked to the lexical unit is at issue.

The slots are ordered in a conventional or canonical order. This order does not concern the linear ordering of realisations in real sentences. Surface order is supposed to be described outside the lexicon, unless special constraints are lexically dependent.



next up previous contents
Next: Order of realisations relative Up: Relative and independent order Previous: Relative and independent order