This brief paper, which is itself an extended abstract for a forthcoming paper, describes a metric that can be easily computed during either b o t t o m - u p or top-down construction of a parse tree for ranking the desirability of alternative parses. In its simplest form, the metric tends to p r e f e r trees in which constituents are pushed as far down a s possible, but by appropriate modification of a c o n s t a n t in the formula other behavior can be obtained also. This paper includes an.
