Corpus studies and probabilistic grammar

This chapter discusses some new light on the way in which syntax is related to semantics on the interdependencies between syntactic regularities and semantic distinctions. It establishes a systematic link between syntax and semantics. The chapter discusses three examples to illustrate this: The first case deals with indicators of future time that occur in connection with verbal constructions which express futurity in English. The second concerns the dependencies between subjects and verbal constructions which signal future time. The third deals with syntactic correlates of various functions of any in English. The close correspondence between syntax and semantics has very often been neglected in the past. As a result, the traditional domain of intuitive methods in the analysis of semantics can be replaced by more objective methods. In the description of the indefinite pronouns some and any there has been a strong tendency to stress a clear-cut relation between syntax and semantics.