Dealing with optional complements in HPSG-based grammar implementations
- This paper discusses how the English Resource Grammar (ERG) captures the optionality of certain complements of verbs based on a single lexical entry coupled with an ontology of markings distinguishing optional from obligatory as well as unrealized from realized elements. Subject-head and head-complement structures are modified accordingly, but due to the lack of a possibility to express and use relational goals in grammars implemented in the LKB system, the ERG encoding falls short of the goal of treating optional complements in a general way. Instead, it requires two new types of ˋauxiliary' phrases which are otherwise unmotivated. We show that the problem can be overcome by using a recursive relation selecting a member from a list. The use of a lean implementation platform not supporting such relational goals, such as the LKB, thus results in a loss of generality of the grammars that can be expressed, which undermines the closeness of the implemented grammar to current linguistic analyses as one of the hallmarks of HPSG-based grammar implementation. The case study presented in this paper thus supports the position argued in Götz and Meurers (1997) that a system for the implementation of HPSG-based grammars should include both universal implicational principles as well as definite clauses over feature terms.
Author: | Kordula De KuthyORCiDGND, W. Detmar MeurersORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-708833 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.21248/hpsg.2003.5 |
ISSN: | 1535-1793 |
Parent Title (English): | Proceedings of the ... International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) |
Publisher: | CSLI Publications |
Place of publication: | Stanford, CA |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2003/10/01 |
Year of first Publication: | 2003 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Contributing Corporation: | International Conference on Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (10 : 2003 : East Lansing, Mich.) |
Release Date: | 2024/08/30 |
GND Keyword: | Argumentstruktur; Head-driven phrase structure grammar |
Volume: | 10.2003 |
Issue: | 1 |
Page Number: | 9 |
First Page: | 88 |
Last Page: | 96 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache |
4 Sprache / 41 Linguistik / 410 Linguistik | |
4 Sprache / 42 Englisch, Altenglisch / 420 Englisch, Altenglisch | |
Sammlungen: | Linguistik |
Linguistik-Klassifikation: | Linguistik-Klassifikation: Syntax |
Licence (German): | ![]() |