--- title: "Book Reviews: English Word Grammar — paper by Cahill (1992)" description: "The book presents Word Grammar (WG), formerly called Dependency Grammar and Daughter-Dependency Grammar, as a… 8 references." authors: ["Lynne J. Cahill"] year: 1992 venue: "Computational Linguistics" source: "https://aclanthology.org/J92-1006/" licence: "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/cahill-1992-book-reviews-english-word-grammar/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/cahill-1992-book-reviews-english-word-grammar/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [1992](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1992/) / Book Reviews: English Word Grammar # Book Reviews: English Word Grammar **Authors:** [Lynne J. Cahill](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/lynne-cahill/) · **Year:** 1992 · **Venue:** [Computational Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/cl/) ([Computational Linguistics 1992](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/cl/1992/)) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/J92-1006/) · [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/J92-1006.pdf) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W3088851263) **Citations:** 0 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) ## Summary This is Lynne Cahill's 1992 review of Richard Hudson's book *English Word Grammar* (Blackwell, 1990). The book presents Word Grammar (WG), formerly called Dependency Grammar and Daughter-Dependency Grammar, as a theory that avoids phrases and clauses. All syntax is stated as dependencies between words. WG now also claims to be a general theory of knowledge, linguistic and nonlinguistic alike. That knowledge sits in an inheritance hierarchy similar to a semantic net, with default inheritance. Cahill credits Hudson for trying to bring WG closer to computational linguistics and AI. She finds the argument that language knowledge is continuous with world knowledge worth pursuing. Her criticisms are these: - The English-like formalism is clumsy and hard to compute. - The book covers only syntax in depth. Its morphology is limited to regular suffixation, and it gives no phonology. - It offers no grammar statistics and only a small grammar listing. - It brings in constituent structure ("word-string") just for coordination. The review matters as an early assessment of dependency-based grammar from a computational point of view. ## Key points - The book has 445 pages. Seven chapters define the theory, and seven apply it to English, mostly syntax with a little morphology and semantics. - In WG, *black dogs eat cats* gets three word-to-word dependencies: black–dogs, eat–dogs and eat–cats. - Inheritance is blocked by explicit "NOT" propositions, unlike DATR's rule that more specific values override general ones. For example, *go* has the past form *went*, and a NOT statement blocks the regular stem + ed form. For *dream*, leaving out the NOT lets both *dreamt* and *dreamed* through. - The appendices list only 14 verb entries and 22 noun entries. Partial implementations exist (Hudson 1989; Fraser 1987–1989), but the book does not discuss them. - Coordination is the one place where WG uses a constituent-like unit, the "word-string". ## Interesting ideas - Using explicit blocking statements instead of automatic override means a regular and an irregular form can coexist when the block is left out, which suits genuine variation like dreamt/dreamed. - Treating linguistic knowledge as a special case of general world knowledge means one inheritance network could hold word facts and world facts together. - The reviewer argues that a coordination mechanism should fit the main framework rather than be a special constituent device, a design caution relevant to any dependency system. - Cahill asks for figures, such as how many irregular entries need blocking versus how many need multiple forms, before accepting the cost of a design. - She warns that a formalism written in the same language it analyzes, such as using "it" as a variable, invites confusion. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (tokens): the en lemmatizer/generator could keep irregular forms as overrides with an explicit "block regular" flag, so that variant pairs simply omit the flag and both forms stay valid. - **I2** (world): the compiled ontology and the lexicon could share one default-inheritance hierarchy, so verb-class and entity facts are inherited and explained in the same way. - **I3** (tree): handling conj/cc inside the ordinary UD dependency scheme, with only small adjustments, keeps parser and frame extraction uniform instead of adding a separate phrase layer for coordination. - **I4** (learn): when adopting a rule mechanism, count how many lexicon entries actually need it, as a cheap check of whether the mechanism earns its complexity. - **I5** (frames): keep frame and role notation clearly distinct from English surface words, so pronoun coreference in the text is never mixed up with references inside the formalism. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* 📚 Shelves (2): [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 17,450 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 17,296 works 🧭 Topics (1): [English](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/english/) · 2,379 works ## Cite Cite as: Lynne J. Cahill. 1992. Book Reviews: English Word Grammar. Computational Linguistics. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @article{cahill1992book, title = {{Book Reviews: English Word Grammar}}, author = {Lynne J. Cahill}, journal = {Computational Linguistics}, year = {1992}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/J92-1006/} } ``` - [← previous The KANT perspective: a critique of pure transfer (and pure interlingua, pure statistics, .. )](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/carbonell-1992-kant-perspective-critique-pure-transfer/) - [next → Hans G. MUKAROVSKY (ed.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Hamito-Semitic Congress. (Veröffentlichungen der Institute für Afrikanistik und Egiptologie der Universität Wien, 56-57) Wien: Afro-Pub 1991,Volumes I (274 pp.) and II (344 pp.), AS 850.](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/pilaszewicz-1992-hans-g-mukarovsky-ed-proceedings/) - [↑ back to papers of 1992](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1992/) ## References 8 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Evans, Roger, and Gazdar, Gerald (1989a). "Inference in DATR." Proceedings, 4th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association of Computational Linguistics. Manchester, England. 66--71. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Evans%2C+Roger%2C+and+Gazdar%2C+Gerald+%281989a%29%2E+%22Inference+in+DATR%2E%22+Proceedings%2C+4th+Conference+of+the+European+Chapter+of+the+Association+of+Computational+Linguistics%2E+Manchester%2C+England%2E+66%2D%2D71%2E) 2. Evans, Roger, and Gazdar, Gerald (1989b). "The Semantics of DATR." Proceedings, 7th Conference of the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour. Sussex, England. 79-88. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Evans%2C+Roger%2C+and+Gazdar%2C+Gerald+%281989b%29%2E+%22The+Semantics+of+DATR%2E%22+Proceedings%2C+7th+Conference+of+the+Society+for+the+Study+of+Artificial+Intelligence+and+Simulation+of+Behaviour%2E+Sussex%2C+England%2E+79%2D) 3. Evans, Roger, and Gazdar, Gerald (1990). "The DATR papers." Cognitive Studies Research Paper No. CSRP139, University of Sussex. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Evans%2C+Roger%2C+and+Gazdar%2C+Gerald+%281990%29%2E+%22The+DATR+papers%2E%22+Cognitive+Studies+Research+Paper+No%2E+CSRP139%2C+University+of+Sussex%2E) 4. Fraser, N. (1987). "A word grammar parser. Lynne Cahill is a Research Fellow at the University of Sussex, where she is working on the parsing of ill-formed input and constructing computational lexicons. She received her D.Phil. from the University of Sussex for work on morphology. Cahill's address is: School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, U.K.; e-mail: lynneca@cogs.susx.ac.uk Volume 18, Number 1 Progress report 1." University College London. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Fraser%2C+N%2E+%281987%29%2E+%22A+word+grammar+parser%2E+Lynne+Cahill+is+a+Research+Fellow+at+the+University+of+Sussex%2C+where+she+is+working+on+the+parsing+of+ill%2Dformed+input+and+constructing+computational+lexicon) 5. Fraser, N. (1988a). "A word grammar parser. Progress report 2." University College London. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Fraser%2C+N%2E+%281988a%29%2E+%22A+word+grammar+parser%2E+Progress+report+2%2E%22+University+College+London%2E) 6. Fraser, N. (1988b). "A word grammar parser. Progress report 3." University College London. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Fraser%2C+N%2E+%281988b%29%2E+%22A+word+grammar+parser%2E+Progress+report+3%2E%22+University+College+London%2E) 7. Fraser, N. (1989). "A word grammar parser. Progress report 4." University College London. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Fraser%2C+N%2E+%281989%29%2E+%22A+word+grammar+parser%2E+Progress+report+4%2E%22+University+College+London%2E) 8. Hudson, Richard (1989). "Towards a computer-testable Word Grammar of English." UCL Working Papers in Linguistics, 1, 321-339. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Hudson%2C+Richard+%281989%29%2E+%22Towards+a+computer%2Dtestable+Word+Grammar+of+English%2E%22+UCL+Working+Papers+in+Linguistics%2C+1%2C+321%2D339%2E) *Updated 2 November 2026*