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Scope, structure, and expert systems: A reply to Kuno et al.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Joseph Aoun  and
Yen-hui Audrey Li
Joseph Aoun*
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
Yen-hui Audrey Li*
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
*
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1693 [aoun@usc.edu]
[audreyli@usc.edu]
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Abstract

This article is a reply to Kuno et al. 1999, which claims that a structural approach to scope should be replaced by an expert system. But the alleged theoretical and empirical problems faced by the structural accounts for scope are based on assumptions or interpretations that are not adopted in the structural accounts. Further, there are problems with the characterization and execution of the expert system, causing difficulty in the understanding and application of the system intra- and interlinguistically; the expert system is not empirically adequate and does not accommodate idiolectal variations. Finally, the expert system misses important correlations between scope and other properties in the grammar, such as binding, that follow straightforwardly from a structural approach. A structural approach to scope should not be abandoned in favor of an expert system.

Information

Type
Discussion Note
Information
Language , Volume 76 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 133 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 Linguistic Society of America

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