Academic literature on the topic 'Phrase structure grammar'

A large proportion of computationally-oriented theories of grammar operate within the confines of monostratality (i.e. there is only one level of syntactic analysis), compositionality (i.e. the meaning of an expression is determined by the meanings of its syntactic parts, plus their manner of combination), and adjacency (i.e. the only operation on terminal strings is concatenation). This thesis looks at two major approaches falling within these bounds: that based on phrase structure grammar (e.g. Gazdar), and that based on categorial grammar (e.g. Steedman). The theories are examined with reference to extraction and coordination constructions; crucially a range of 'compound' extraction and coordination phenomena are brought to bear. It is argued that the early phrase structure grammar metarules can characterise operations generating compound phenomena, but in so doing require a categorial-like category system. It is also argued that while categorial grammar contains an adequate category apparatus, Steedman's primitives such as composition do not extend to cover the full range of data. A theory is therefore presented integrating the approaches of Gazdar and Steedman. The central issue as regards processing is derivational equivalence: the grammars under consideration typically generate many semantically equivalent derivations of an expression. This problem is addressed by showing how to axiomatise derivational equivalence, and a parser is presented which employs the axiomatisation to avoid following equivalent paths.

Implementations of grammatical theory have traditionally been based upon Context- Free Grammar (CFG) formalisms which all but ignore questions of learnability. Even implementations which are based upon theories of Generative Grammar (GG), a paradigm which is supposedly motivated by learnability, rarely address such questions. In this thesis we will examine a GG theory which has been formulated primarily to address questions of learnability and present an implementation based upon this theory. The theory argues from Chomsky's definition of epistemological priority that principles which match elements and structures from prelinguistic systems with elements and structures in linguistic systems are preferable to those which are defined purely linguistically or non-linguistically. A procedure for constructing phrase-structure representations from prelinguistic relations using principles of node percolation (rather than the traditional X-theory of GG theories or phrase-structure rules of CFG theories) is presented and this procedure integrated into a left-right, primarily bottom-up parsing mechanism. Specifically, we present a parsing mechanism which derives phrase-structure representations of sentences from Case- and 0-relations using a small number of Percolation Principles. These Percolation Principles simply determine the categorial features of the dominant node of any two adjacent nodes in a representational tree, doing away with explicit phrase structure rules altogether. The parsing mechanism also instantiates appropriate empty categories using a filler-driven paradigm for leftward argument and non-argument movement. Procedures modelling learnability are not implemented in this work, but the applicability of the presented model to a computational model of language is discussed.<br>Science, Faculty of<br>Computer Science, Department of<br>Graduate

This thesis proposes and defends a let of analyses of various aspects of the phrase structure of colloquial Egyptian Arabic (EA) clause structure, using the Generalised Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG) framework of Gazdar, Klein, Pullum and Sag (1985). In the first chapter the constituency of simple clause types is examined and it is argued that EA is a "configurational" SVO language with a VP constituent. These two proposals form the basis for the analyses developed in subsequent chapters. The second chapter pursues the themes of the first, examining the syntax of so-called "nominal" (verbless) sentences, and offering a unified account of both verbal and nominal sentence types. Chapter 3 is concerned with clausal complementation, and shows that under certain assumptions motivated in earlier chapters, the GPSG framework allows for a concise account of a number of hitherto problematic constructions. Chapter 4 is devoted to the syntax of subjects, and in particular to a discussion of "pro-drop" in EA. The relationship between the possibility of missing subjects, word order, and inflection is investigated, and an analysis of cliticisation is proposed which has implications for other areas of the grammar especially relative clauses, which are the subject of Chapter 5.The final chapter is concerned exclusively with the synta~ of relative clauses. A grammar for relative clauses is formulated, in which resumptive pronouns are generated using the feature SLASH. Under the analysis of relative clauses proposed here, the syntax of both subject and object relatives falls out from the interaction of a number of independent facts about EA grammar, and requires no special statement. Throughout the work the aim is to highlight important issues in the syntax of EA, and to offer accounts of these aspects of the grammar which involve the smallest amount of syntactic machinery and achieve maximum generality.

The present dissertation is a study of the syntactic structure of the Albanian determiner phrase (DP) in the generative framework. Generally, the concern has been to outline the findings made up to now and propose a unified account in order to provide a better understanding of this language in generative terms. While in a more specific manner, following the recent minimalist analysis of Manzini and Savoia (2007), I will provide an insight of the morphosyntax of the Albanian extended noun phrase (NP). In order to account for the productivity of the Albanian NP, Abney’s pioneering proposal (1987), according to which the noun phrase is headed by a functional element, namely the D(eterminer), represents a fine model to analyse the comparatively considerable number of noun-modifying functional words crucial to the Albanian DPs. There will follow an analysis of the Albanian adjectival phrase (AP) in its distribution and an attempt for a classification of the articulated adjectives and the status of this kind of article.

The aim of this work is show how certain aspects of Syrian phrases and clauses can be analyzed within the Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) framework. This is a framework developed and advanced by Carl Pollard, Ivan Sag and others. This approach draws on many recent theories such as Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, and Government and Binding. I will be mainly concerned in this work with the revised version of HPSG advanced in Borsley (1986,1987, forthcoming), on which ideas of this study are based. In chapter one, some theoretical matters will be discussed which are worth considering in relation to the topic of this study. I will more specifically be concerned with a brief description of distinguishing features of Phrase Structure Grammar. I will also introduce some ideas of Categorial Grammar which is one of the main influences on HPSG. In chapter two, I will discuss the important role verb phrases play in Syrian. I will also look at clitic facts. The analysis that I will propose will be based on the revised version of HPSG. Chapter three will be devoted to prepositional phrases. I will consider a variety of Syrian prepositions and argue in great length that they are heads of prepositional phrases. As in the verb phrases chapter, clitics will be a major concern. In chapter four, I will study adjective phrases and show that adjectives can be used predicatively and attributively. In chapter five, I will introduce some noun phrase data and investigate their internal structure. I will show that nouns in Syrian, unlike in English, can take noun phrases which always follow the head noun they modify. In other words, I will show that Syrian noun phrases have what might be called a 'subject' preceded by the head noun and followed by a complement. The reason for calling them 'subjects' is that they seem to occupy a similar position in noun phrases to subjects in verb initial clauses and are interpreted in the same way as a subject when the noun is derived from a verb. However, I will argue that they are not 'subjects', but in fact complements. I will also assume that the definite article is essentially a kind of clitic. That is, it can be analyzed as a realization, like clitics, of the clitic feature. As I did in the previous chapters, I will consider clitics. In chapter six, I will discuss the structure of Syrian clauses. I will look at ordinary clauses where I will argue that Syrian has two possible word order: subject-verb-object, which is the unmarked word order, and verb-subject-object which is also used very frequently. I will proceed to consider -v- English' small clauses and Syrian verbless clauses. It is not too surprising, perhaps, that some similarities and some differences will be found between the two languages. In chapter seven, I will study and analyze 'Unbounded Dependency Constructions'. This is a term introduced in Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar during the last decade to refer to a class of constructions standardly analyzed by transformational grammarians as involving WH-Movement. For English, such constructions include Topicalization, Relative Clauses, wh- Questions, etc. It is used because it does not suggest that the correct analysis involves movement. I will also introduce Pollard and Sag's (forthcoming) approach to unbounded dependency constructions. Finally, in chapter eight, I will sum up this work and look at topics for further research.