resource-scarce language

Mediaeval and Modern Welsh Series

To use the terminology Wilhelm von Hum-boldt used in the 1830s, the speaker makes infinite use of finite means. Hisgrammar must, then, contain a finite system of rules that generates infinitelymany deep and surface structures, appropriately related. I

It seems that one of the innovations of the Port-RoyalGrammar of 1660 – the work that initiated the tradition of philosophical gram-mar – was its recognition of the importance of the notion of the phrase as agrammatical unit.

A striking example is the so-called rule of Vaugelas,which involves the relation between indefinite articles and relative clauses inFrench.

An island grammar precisely defines only a subset of a language syntax (islands), whilethe rest of the syntax (water) is defined imprecisely. Usually water is defined as thenegation of islands. Albeit simple, such a definition of water is na ̈ıve and impedescomposition of islands. When developing an island grammar, sooner or later a languageengineer has to create water tailored to each individual island