[Lingtyp] syntactic construction formula

[Christian Lehmann]

Dear all,

Guillermo González Campos and I are garnishing our (future) Cabecar 
grammar with formulas of syntactic structure. Each representation layer 
(like "structural", "semantic", ...) is one-dimensional. The structural 
layer involves symbols representing significative components plus 
indexed brackets. Some constructions comprise a component C which is 
obligatory, but may occur in different positions. Sometimes a "basic" 
position may be identified, of which other positions are optional 
permutations. If so, I can provide a formula for the basic position and 
add a prose sentence on the variation. Now suppose there is no such 
basic position. A possibility of representing such a state of affairs is 
to provide a construction formula for each of the variants, like:

X C Y

X Y C

Rather space-consuming and less than elegant. Is there a notation which 
allows one to write something like

X C Y C

to mean that C can and must occupy either of the two positions? 
(Ordinary parentheses would not work, in my view, as they imply 
optionality.)

Thanks for advice,

Christian

-- 

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland

Tel.: 	+49/361/2113417
E-Post: 	christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
Web: 	https://www.christianlehmann.eu

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