Formaldepending
Formaldepending is a term used in linguistics to describe a type of dependency in which the form of a dependent element is determined by the formal properties of its governing element. The concept draws on dependency grammar and morphology, and contrasts with dependencies governed primarily by meaning or discourse function.
Definition and scope: In a formaldepending relation, features such as case, number, gender, or agreement on a
Examples: In Spanish, the adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun: libro rojo vs libros
Applications: In natural language processing and computational linguistics, formaldepending informs morphological parsers and dependency analyzers by
Limitations and research: Not all dependencies are purely formal; semantics, discourse context, and historical change also
See also: dependency grammar; morphological agreement; concord.