Drawing the syntactic space: choices in diagrammatic reasoning

This paper focuses on syntactic diagrams, i.e. formalized graphical representations (inscriptions) of dependency-based syntactic knowledge. In a simplified way, syntax can be described as the combination of three kinds of information: word order, dependencies and relations between equivalent terms. In the graphical space, pieces of information related to those different aspects combine. Hence, diagrams can be used as tools to investigate the interactions between them. Because of the graphical nature of the diagrams, some of their components are more salient than others. That fact implies that diagrams that represent similar information may differ in thecontents to which they actually draw attention.