Cyclic Pregroups and Natural Language: a computational algebraic analysis

In this paper we propose an extension of the calculus of pregroups, developed by J. Lambek, by introducing appropriate cyclic rules that will allow the grammar to formally analyze and compute word order and movement phenomena in different languages such as Persian, French, Italian, Dutch and Hungarian. This cross-linguistic analysis, although necessarily limited and not at all exhaustive, will allow the reader to grasp the essentials of a pregroup grammar, with particular reference to its straightforward way of computing linguistic information. Faculty of Psychology, Chieti University, IT - casadio@unich.it Computing Laboratory, Oxford University, UK - mehrs@comlab.ox.ac.uk