Proceedings of the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
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In search of epistemic primitives in the English Resource Grammar (or Why HPSG can\u27t live without higher-order datatypes)
Get PDFThis paper seeks to improve HPSG engineering through the design of more terse,
readable and intuitive type signatures. It argues against the exclusive use of
IS-A networks and, with reference to the English Resource Grammar, demonstrates
that a collection of higher-order datatypes are already acutely in demand in
contemporary HPSG design. Some default specification conventions to assist in
maximizing the utility of higher-order type constructors are also discussed
Verb-particle constructions in a computational grammar of English
Get PDFIn this paper we investigate the phenomenon of verb-particle constructions, discussing their characteristics and the challenges that they present for a computational grammar. We concentrate our discussion on the treatment adopted in a wide-coverage HPSG grammar: the LinGO ERG. Given the constantly growing number of verb-particle combinations, possible ways of extending this treatment are investigated, taking into account the regular patterns found in some productive combinations of verbs and particles. We analyse possible ways of identifying regular patterns using different resources. One possible way to try to capture these is by means of lexical rules, and we discuss the difficulties encountered when adopting such an approach. We also investigate how to restrict the productivity of lexical rules to deal with subregularities and exceptions to the patterns found
Differences between externally and internally headed relative clause constructions
Get PDFIn terms of truth conditional meanings, there is no clear difference between (Korean) IHRCs (internally head relative) and EHRCs (externally headed relative). In the analysis of IHRCs, of central interest are thus (a) how we can analyze the constructions in syntax and (b) how we can associate the internal head of the IHRC clause with the matrix predicate so that the head can function as its semantic argument, and (c) what makes the differences between the two constructions. This paper is an attempt to provide answers to such recurring questions within the framework of HPSG
Downward unbounded discontinuities in Korean: An HPSG analysis of concord adverbial constructions
Get PDFObject-to-subject-raising and lexical rule: An analysis of the German passive
Get PDFIt is a much-debated issue whether one should assume separate lexical
entries for participles used in passive and perfect constructions
or whether there is just one lexical entry that is used in different
ways depending on whether a passive or perfect auxiliary is present in the clause.
In previous work I criticized approaches trying to analyze the passive
with one lexical entry for making empirically wrong predictions
and suggested a lexical-rule based approach were two different
lexical items for the participle are licensed.
In this paper I show how Heinz and Matiasek\u27s (1994) formalizations of Haider\u27s (1986) ideas
can be extended and modified in a way that both modal infinitives and control constructions
can be captured correctly. The suggested analysis needs only one lexical item
for participles, base form infinitives, and zu infinitives irrespective
of their usage in active or passive like structures
Adjunct valents, cumulative scopings and impossible descriptions
Get PDFMy focus in this talk is on the consequences of different approaches to extraction phenomena for hypotheses about the syntactic status of adjuncts. So we need to start by looking at the two leading approaches to extraction currently on offer in the HPSG theoretical marketplace
Semantically transparent linking in HPSG
Get PDFMost researchers now agree that subcategorization correlates
significantly with semantics. But this semantic component of linking has
proved elusive. Most, if not all, theories of linking have, in pratice,
resorted to constructs that are syntactic diacritics. We show in this
paper that the implicit syntactic diacritics that plague the basic
linking constraints posited in at least some of these theories can be
eliminated, provided that (i) the metalanguage in which linguistic
constraints are written allows for true implicational statements; (ii)
one is willing to slightly increase the number of linking constraints.
We focus in particular on the linking theory presented in Davis and
Koenig 2000, Davis 2001, and Koenig and Davis 2000, but we maintain that
our arguments apply, mutatis mutandis, to many other linking theories.
We note some of the consequences of this view of linking, including:
linking constraints are stated in terms of semantically natural classes
of situations, a single entailment of a verb\u27s argument is sufficient to
determine its linking, and interaction among linking constraints
restricts the range of possible lexical items
Non-transitive information flow in Japanese noun-classifier matching
Get PDFIn Japanese, as in other classifier languages like Chinese and Malay, numerals
do not directly quantize nouns, but first combine with a classifier to form a
measure phrase (MP; cf. Aikhenvald 2000). From the perspective of
constraint-based approaches to syntax/semantics, the mutual selective
restriction between classifiers and nouns can be stated in terms of
information-sharing and featural identity, to some extent parallel to the
treatment of gender/number agreement (between determiner and noun, for
instance) (cf. Pollard and Sag 1994; Kathol 1999). There are, however, data
that challenge this line of approach to noun-classifier matching. We
demonstrate in this paper that it is possible that a single noun is associated
with different types of classifier, and show why they are problematic for
unification-based approaches, similar to the situation with case syncretism in
European languages (Ingria 1990 and others). Later in the paper, we argue that
information-sharing between noun, predicate and classifier is not completely
transitive, and present a formal analysis which models multiple selectional
requirements with sets