The Optimal Placement of the Head in the Noun Phrase. The Case of Demonstrative, Numeral, Adjective and Noun

Abstract

ABSTRACT The word order of a sentence is shaped by multiple principles. The principle of syntactic dependency distance minimization is in conflict with the principle of surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) in single head syntactic dependency structures: while the former predicts that the head should be placed at the centre of the linear arrangement, the latter predicts that the head should be placed at one of the ends (either first or last). A critical question is when surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) should surpass syntactic dependency distance minimization. In the context of single head structures, it has been predicted that this is more likely to happen when two conditions are met, i.e. (a) fewer words are involved and (b) words are shorter. Here, we test the prediction on the noun phrase when it is composed of demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun. We find that, across preferred orders in languages, the noun tends to be placed at one of the ends, confirming the theoretical prediction. We also show evidence of anti-locality effects: syntactic dependency distances in preferred orders are longer than expected by chance.