# A stronger null hypothesis for crossing dependencies

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.5485 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1410.5485/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 20 Oct 2014.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [The Linear Arrangement Library. A new tool for research on syntactic dependency structures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.02512/) (2021)
- [The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10311/) (2024)
- [How to measure the optimality of word or gesture order with respect to the principle of swap distance minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.01938/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The syntactic structure of a sentence can be modeled as a tree where vertices are words and edges indicate syntactic dependencies between words. It is well-known that those edges normally do not cross when drawn over the sentence. Here a new null hypothesis for the number of edge crossings of a sentence is presented. That null hypothesis takes into account the length of the pair of edges that may cross and predicts the relative number of crossings in random trees with a small error, suggesting that a ban of crossings or a principle of minimization of crossings are not needed in general to explain the origins of non-crossing dependencies. Our work paves the way for more powerful null hypotheses to investigate the origins of non-crossing dependencies in nature.