Abstract
In this paper, I consider the use of the algebraic specification language ASL ([10]) in treating dependent clause word order in English, German and Dutch. ASL is a wide-spectrum language, in which one can write loose specifications, admitting of non-isomorphic models. Within the language, one can describe the relationship between one's abstract, inspecific notion of the properties a grammar should have, and the specific grammars which one employs in seeking to test and refine this notion. A loose specification can also act as a parameter in a specification embodying formally the idea that a grammatical contruction, intended to account, say, for a particular linguistic phenomenon, could be made to work equally well in a variety of grammatical frameworks, or in accounting for a variety of natural languages.
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