The Grammar Does the Work: Functional vs. Lexical Dependency Length Minimization Across Universal Dependencies
Dependency length minimization (DLM) is a well-documented processing universal, but previous studies report a single mean dependency distance (MDD) per language, obscuring variation across syntactic relation types. We analyze 122 languages in UD and SUD (version 2.17), showing that DLM operates on two distinct levels. Grammar-driven optimization targets functional dependencies (det, case, aux), which are universally short (mean 1.71, $σ$ = 0.33) and invariant across typologically diverse languages. Processing-driven optimization operates on lexical dependencies (nsubj, obj, obl), which are lon
Lineage graph
Paper → model → repo connections mined from source citations (Tier-1 exact match).
Why these links exist
Every edge carries a method, confidence, and the source snippet that justified it — so bad links are debuggable.
- PossiblePossibly related (embedding) · 46%thu-pacman/chitu →
- PossiblePossibly related (embedding) · 45%minimal-diffusion-lm →
- LinkedLinked via arxiv author · 85%Kim Gerdes →
“The Grammar Does the Work: Functional vs. Lexical Dependency Length Minimization Across Universal Dependencies”