Graph Theory - Computational Linguistics and Talking Robots - page 178

The DBS graph analysis has six nodes and the degree sequence 222211. The
signature is given by our intuitions about functor-argument and coordination.
These intuitions are language-independent in the sense that speakers of differ-
ent languages can agree where two graph structures are alike and where they
differ, for example, because of different lexicalization or different syntactic-
semantic coding such as the ergative . 7
The German surface realization walks down the left side of the NAG to re-
alize the nouns, then back up on the right side to realize the verbs. Multiple
traversals and multiple realizations (9.1.7) are evenly spread. Each arc is vis-
ited once and the traversal begins and ends with the main verb.
In comparison, consider the English counterpart:

9.3.4 E NGLISH REALIZATION OF CONTENT 9.3.3

The man who loves the woman who feeds the child sings.
Because English subclauses have the verb in post-nominative position (in con-
trast to the verb-final position in German subclauses), the first relative clause
may be completed before the second begins. Therefore almost all nouns and
verbs may be realized on the way down the left side of the NAG in 9.3.3:

9.3.5 E NGLISH SURFACE REALIZATION OF RELATIVE CLAUSES

surface realization (English, unmarked)

1 2 3 4 5 6−7−8−9−10

.

The man who_loves the_woman who_feeds the_child sings_

Going back up on the right side of the NAG, there is nothing left to do except
at the very end (arc 10), when the main verb and the full stop are realized.
Another possibility of English word order is the extraposition of a relative
clause, as in the following variant of 9.3.5:

9.3.6 S URFACE REALIZATION WITH EXTRAPOSED RELATIVE CLAUSE

surface realization (English, extraposed, marked)

1 10 1−2 3 4 5 6−7−8−9−10

.

The_man who_loves the_woman who_feeds the_child
The realization of this surface requires a multiple visit . After realizing the
man in arc 1, the navigation returns to the verb and realizes sings in arc 10.
From there, there is no choice but to traverse arc 1 again (multiple visit) and
continue with arc 2 to the relative clause. Then the navigation travels down the

sings