Eckhard Bick - VISL

Portuguese rules use more (distant) context, even in the unbounded case 125 . Thus, for
the English CG, the -1 context accounts for 81.9% of all left contexts, and the +1
context for 87% of all right contexts. For the Portuguese CG, the figures are 72.7% and
71.9%, respectively, for syntax, and 70.4% and 81.2% for the whole grammar. The fact
that the -1/left percentages are lower than the +1/right percentages for both languages,
suggests that the left hand context is not only overrepresented, but also extends further
away from the target position, - both possibly due to the linearity feature of language
discussed above.
125 Of course, the Portuguese rules may use a larger window and still be just as "heuristic" as their Englich counterparts, if it
could be shown that Portuguese needs a larger window due to lower structural cohesion.
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