arc (n.)

A convention used in RELATIONAL GRAMMAR to represent a directional DEPENDENCY relation between a SYNTACTIC UNIT (or GOVERNOR) and the entities which constitute the relational STRUCTURE of that unit. The ‘arcs’ in a ‘relational network’ are represented by curved arrows; alternatively, the dependency relations can be shown as a dependency TREE. Arcs are also an important device in NETWORK GRAMMARS. Relationships can be postulated between pairs of arcs, and these pairs of arcs can then in turn be interrelated in ‘pair networks’ (as is found in arc-pair grammar, a formalized development of relational grammar proposed in the mid-1970s).