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This study investigates dependency length minimization (DLM) across 122 languages, revealing that DLM operates at two distinct levels: grammar-driven optimization for functional dependencies and processing-driven optimization for lexical dependencies. The analysis shows that functional dependencies are consistently short and invariant across languages, while lexical dependencies exhibit greater variability and are influenced by word-order typology. The findings suggest that grammatical structures facilitate minimization by prioritizing local functional attachments, while processing pressures dictate the arrangement of lexical elements.
Functional dependencies are universally short, while lexical dependencies reveal significant variability, highlighting a crucial distinction in how languages manage dependency length.
Dependency length minimization (DLM) is a well-documented processing universal, but previous studies report a single mean dependency distance (MDD) per language, obscuring variation across syntactic relation types. We analyze 122 languages in UD and SUD (version 2.17), showing that DLM operates on two distinct levels. Grammar-driven optimization targets functional dependencies (det, case, aux), which are universally short (mean 1.71, $\sigma$ = 0.33) and invariant across typologically diverse languages. Processing-driven optimization operates on lexical dependencies (nsubj, obj, obl), which are longer (mean 2.87), highly variable ($\sigma$ = 0.63), and constrained by word-order typology. This asymmetry holds in SUD despite reversed head direction (r = 0.92). We conclude that''the grammar does the work''of minimization by scaffolding sentences with local functional attachments, leaving processing pressures to determine the ordering of lexical heads.
