Unification-based grammars and linguistic description I
This course provides an introduction to those linguistic theories which are
based on (i) feature structures as the primary representational device and (ii)
unification as the main operation for combining them into complex objects,
models of language expressions.
Such theories (also called `constraint-based') include Generalized Phrase
Structure Grammar (GPSG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), Categorial
Unification Grammar (CUG), and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG).
First, the elementary concepts of feature structure, unification, subsumption
and structure sharing will be explained in the course of implementing toy
grammars concerned with elementary linguistic notions: grammar rules and lexicon
entries, agreement, subcategorization, and semantic interpretation.
This will enable better insight into the basic mechanisms and consequences of
the theories, of which LFG will be selected for a more detailed treatment.
The course continues in the summer semester as Unification-based grammars and
linguistic description II.
Syllabus:
- 1.
- Introduction: explanation of elementary concepts
(feature structure, subsumption, unification, structure sharing, coindexation),
why are these concepts attractive for linguists, how the concepts can modify the traditional understanding of grammar and lexicon
- 2.
- Entensions of the basic set of formal tools: templates, disjunction, negation, types, relations, quantification, default inheritance, lexical rules
- 3.
- The use of some implemented grammar formalisms for grammar writing: DCG, PATR-II, Xerox LFG Grammar Writer's Workbench
- 4.
- Application of the framework to sample linguistic phenomena from syntax, lexicon, morphology and transfer (in machine translation)