Constraint-based Syntax 2: Week 2: Difference between revisions

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=== The Argument Realization Principle (ARP) ===
=== Parts of Speech ===
 
Our online grammar uses the following type hierarchy for parts of speech (the values of the feature HEAD):
 
[[File:pos-jpg.jpg]]
 
The hierarchy differs from that in GS in containing the part of speech ''adverb''. The following table lists the parts of speech, their features, and the function of the features:
 
a. The maximal part of speech types are the following:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Type !! Full name !! Examples
|-
| ''v'' || verb || snore, like, must, to
|-
| ''g'' || gerund || snoring, liking
|-
| ''c'' || complementizer || that, whether, if
|-
| ''a'' || adjective || big, new, red
|-
| ''p'' || preposition || to, of, with
|-
| ''n'' || noun || Lilly, she
|-
| ''d'' || determiner || the, a, any
|-
| ''adv'' || adverb || early, very, not
|-
|}
 
Note that ''v'' and ''g'' are grouped together, since verbs and gerunds behave very similarly. Perhaps surprisingly, complementizers are also grouped together with verbs and gerunds, so that all three parts of speech share the head features VFORM (verb form) and IC (independent clause). We will see later why that is useful.
 
==== Head Features ====
 
The next table lists all the head features of all the parts of speech and explains their function:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Feature !! Value type!! Function of the feature
|-
| PRED(icative) || ''boolean'' || Is the sign predicative or not?
|-
|  MOD(ification) || ''mod-synsem'' || Can the sign modify and if yes, what kind of ''synsem''?
|-
| VFORM (verb form) || ''vform'' || What is the verb's verb form?
|-
|  IC (independent clause) || ''boolean'' || Is the sign (the head of) an independent clause?
|-
| AUX || ''boolean'' || Is the sign (the head of) an auxiliary construction?
|-
|  INV(erted) || ''boolean'' || Is the sign an inverted auxiliary (construction)?
|-
|  POL(arized) || ''boolean'' || Is the verb a polarized auxiliary (''not'', ''TOO'', ''so'')?
|-
|  P(reposition)FORM || ''form'' || Which preposition is it?
|-
|  CASE || ''case'' || What case does the nominal sign carry?
|-
|  SPEC(ifying) || ''sem-obj'' || Which semantic object does the D specify?
|-
|  NEG(ation) || ''boolean'' || Is the adverb the negation ''not''?
|-
|}
 
==== The ''verb form'' hierarchy ====
 
The different verb forms that the framework makes available form another important aspect of the theory: 
 
[[File:GS-p24-nr10.jpg]]
 
In the text, GS also talk about a verb form ''subjunctive'' which is supposed to be used in imperative and subjunctive clauses. They do, however, not include that verb form in their grammar specification. In order to analyze these sentence types, the online grammar for this course adds a verb form ''sbjn" (= subjunctive) to the type hierarchy above. It assumes that ''sbjn" is another immediate subtype of ''clausal", so that ''clausal'' has the three immediate subtypes ''sbjn", ''fin(ite), and ''inf(initive''). There will be a constraint that clauses are required to have a clausal part of speech, which means that only words with VFORM ''sbjn", ''fin(ite), or ''inf(initive'') can head clauses.
 
The table below gives an overview of all verb forms with examples:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Verb form !! Full name !! Examples
|-
| ''sbjn'' || subjunctive || be, dance, call
|-
|  ''fin'' || finite (indicative) || is, must, dances, dance (non-third person singular), danced (past tense)
|-
| ''inf'' || infinitive || to (the infinitive marker)
|-
|  ''base'' || base form (= bare infinitive) ||be, dance, call
|-
| ''prp'' || present participle || being, dancing, calling
|-
|  ''pfp'' || perfect participle || been, danced, given
|-
|  ''pas'' || passive participle || invited, rumored, introduced
|-
|}
 
== Valence ==
 
In Week 1 we saw that all signs carry the 3 valence features SUBJ, SPR, and COMPS, which are list-valued. Corresponding to each valence feature, there is a phrase type: ''hd-subj-ph'', ''hd-spr-ph'', and ''hd-comp-ph''. As the names suggest, each phrase has a head daughter and additionally a SUBJ, SPR, or one or two COMPS daughters. The projection of these phrases is driven by the head daughters valence features as illustrated in Week 1.
 
The linguistic objects on the valence lists (i.e. the valents) are of type ''synsem''. In order to simplify the representations of the valents, we use the following abbreviations:
 
VP = a ''phrase'' of part of speech ''v'' which is COMPS <> , SPR <>, and SUBJ <''synsem''>
 
AP = a ''phrase'' of part of speech ''a'' which is COMPS <> , SPR <>, and SUBJ <''synsem''>
 
S = a ''phrase'' of part of speech ''v'' which is COMPS <>, SPR <>, and SUBJ <>
 
NP = a ''phrase'' of part of speech ''n'' which is COMPS <>
 
PP =  a ''phrase'' of part of speech ''p'' which is COMPS <> , SPR <>, and SUBJ <>
 
This permits us to write valence lists like the following, where the information in the brackets further specify inflectional properties of the valents which should be self-explanatory:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Example !! SUBJ !! COMPS
|-
| snores || <NP[''nom'']> || <>
|-
|  likes || <NP[''nom'']> || <NP[''acc'']>
|-
| put || <NP> || <NP[''acc''],PP>
|-
| persuade || <NP> || <NP[''acc''],VP[''inf'']>
|-
|  afraid || <NP> || <PP>
|-
| of || <> || <NP[''acc'']>
|-
|  that (C) || <> || <S[''fin'']>
|-
|}
 
== Words ==
 
So far, we have introduced the following concepts:
 
* Our grammar deals with signs which are either words or phrases. 
* Every sign belongs to a maximal part of speech, which may have features.
* Signs also have the 3 valence attributes SUBJ, SPR, and COMPS which contain a description of the syntactic and semantic information of other signs.
* These valence features drive the formation of specific phrases.
 
In preparation of a more detailed look at phrases, look at the lexical entries of the words in the table below in the online grammar. Where applicable, try out different inflectional forms, e.g. ''snores, snoring, snored'' or ''she, her''. Pay attention to the part of speech, its features, and the 3 valence features of each word:
 
[http://141.2.159.95:7002/wt/ Online Grammar for Chapter 2: HPSG Background]
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Type !! Full name !! Examples
|-
| ''v'' || verb || snore, like, must, to
|-
| ''g'' || gerund || snoring, liking
|-
| ''c'' || complementizer || that, whether, if
|-
| ''a'' || adjective || big, new, red
|-
| ''p'' || preposition || to, of, with
|-
| ''n'' || noun || Lilly, she
|-
| ''d'' || determiner || the, a, any
|-
| ''adv'' || adverb || early, very, not
|-
|}
 
<!--
 
== Maximal phrase types ==
 
In Week 1, the following 3 phrase types were introduced: hd-subj-ph, hd-spr-ph, and hd-comp-ph.
 
== Head-Specifier Phrases ==
 
Exercise: parse the 3 expressions ''cat'', ''a'', and ''a cat'' in order to see how the valence features of the noun drive the formation of the hd-spr-ph ''the cat''.
 
[http://141.2.159.95:7002/wt/ Online Grammar for Chapter 2: HPSG Background]
 
For the moment, there is little more to say about head-specifier phrases.
 
== Clauses and non-clauses ==
 
Following traditional grammar, GS make use of the concept of clauses, i.e. declarative clauses, interrogative clauses, etc. All clauses are phrases, but there are of course non-clausal phrases as well, for instance, VPs, NPs, APs, and PPs. In order to license these non-clausal phrases, GS postulate the following subtypes of ''hd-comp-ph'', to which we have added the subtype ''sbjn-vp'' to license subjunctive VPs:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Subtype !! Full name !! Example
|-
| ''fin-vp'' || Finite verb phrase || snores, likes Fido
|-
| ''sbjn-vp'' || Subjunctive verb phrase || dance, smile
|-
|  ''nf-hc-ph'' || Non-finite head-complement phrase || dancing, depended on Fido, afraid of Fido, picture of Lilly
|-
| ''cp-ph'' || Complementizer phrase || that Lilly danced, for Lilly to like Fido
|-
|}
 
Exercise: parse all of the examples above and examine the structure of the respective phrases and how they are licensed by the information in the head daughter (HEAD, VFORM, and COMPS).
 
[http://141.2.159.95:7002/wt/ Online Grammar for Chapter 2: HPSG Background]
 
=== Clauses ===
 
 
 
All clauses have in common that they are phrases and that they must have a content of type ''message'', as follows:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Clause type !! Full name !! Content value !! Examples
|-
| ''decl-clause'' || declarative clause || ''austinian'' || Lilly danced.
|-
| ''inter-clause'' || interrogative clause || ''question''  || Does Lilly dance?, Who danced?
|-
| ''imp-clause'' || imperative clause || ''outcome'' || Dance!
|-
| ''excl-clause'' || exclamative clause || ''fact'' ||What a cat!, Is Lilly smart!
|-
|}
 
== Head-Complement Phrases ==
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Recall that in GS the syntactic arguments of a word are in a sense represented twice: once on the ARG-ST (argument structure) list which, among others, is used for Binding Theory, and again on one of the valence lists SUBJ, SPR, and COMPS.  Rather than being arbitrary, the relationship between the ARG-S and the valence lists is governed by the '''Argument Realization Principle''':


[[File:GS-p23-nr7.jpg]]<br>


In words, the principle says that the ARG-ST list is the result of merging the three valence lists into one list, with the elements of the SUBJ list coming first, followed by the elements on the SPR list, followed by the elements on the COMPS list.


Besides the ARP, the valence properties of words depend on their part of speech. Thus, all words of part of speech ''v'' must have a SUBJ list with exactly one element on it and a SPR list which is empty. In combination with the ARP, verbs of part of speech ''v'' thus must have the following properties:


# The ARG-ST must have at least one element on it.
# The first element of the ARG-ST is also the single element on the SUBJ list.
# If there are additional elements on the ARG-ST, then these elements also occur on the COMPS list.
# The elements which appear both on the ARG-ST and the COMPS list, appear in the same order on both lists.


The following [[Exercises_on_the_Append_relation|<span style="color: red>Exercises on the  ''append'' relation</span>]] have the purpose of showing that the 4 statements above must be true.


[[Exercises_on_the_Argument_Realization_Principle|<span style="color: red>Exercises on the Argument Realization Principle</span>]]




=== Head Features ===


The parts of speech are divided into two classes, the substantive parts of speech and the functional parts of speech.


==== The parts of speech ''v'' and ''g'' ====
<!--
==== The part of speech ''v'' ====


''v'' is the part of speech of all verbs and auxiliaries, including the infinitive marker ''to''.  ''g'' represents verbal gerunds.
''v'' is the part of speech of all verbs and auxiliaries, including the infinitive marker ''to''.   


The table below is to be interpreted as follows. In the leftmost column, we find parts of speech. The top-to-bottom order represents the immediate subtype relationship, i.e. ''verbal'' is an immediate subtype of ''subst'', ''verb'' is an immediate subtype of ''verbal'', and both ''v'' and ''g'' are immediate subtypes of ''verb''.
The table below is to be interpreted as follows. In the leftmost column, we find parts of speech. The top-to-bottom order represents the immediate subtype relationship, i.e. ''verbal'' is an immediate subtype of ''subst'', ''verb'' is an immediate subtype of ''verbal'', and ''v'' is an immediate subtype of ''verb''.


The second column lists the features introduced by each part of speech, followed in the third column by the value type of the feature, and finally a short statement of the function of the feature in distinguishing different subgroups of the part(s) of speech under discussion.
The second column lists the features introduced by each part of speech, followed in the third column by the value type of the feature, and finally a short statement of the function of the feature in distinguishing different subgroups of the part(s) of speech under discussion.
Line 38: Line 275:
! Part of speech !! Feature !! Value type!! Function of the feature
! Part of speech !! Feature !! Value type!! Function of the feature
|-
|-
| ''subst'' || PRED || ''boolean'' || predicative expression
| ''subst'' || PRED || ''boolean'' || Is the expression predicative or not?
|-
|-
|  || MOD || ''mod-synsem'' || modified ''synsem'' or ''none''
|  || MOD || ''mod-synsem'' || Can the expression modify and if yes, what kind of ''synsem''?
|-
|-
| ''verbal'' || VFORM || ''vform'' || verb form
| ''verbal'' || VFORM || ''vform'' || What is the verb's verb form?
|-
|-
|  || IC || ''boolean'' || independent clause
|  || IC || ''boolean'' || Is the expression (the head of) an independent clause?
|-
|-
| ''verb'' || AUX || ''boolean'' || auxiliary construction
| ''verb'' || AUX || ''boolean'' || Is the expression (the head of) an auxiliary construction?
|-
|-
|  || POL || ''boolean'' || polarized auxiliary (''not'', ''TOO'', ''so'')
|  || POL || ''boolean'' || Is the verb a polarized auxiliary (''not'', ''TOO'', ''so'')?
|-
|-
|  || INV || ''boolean'' || inverted auxiliary
|  || INV || ''boolean'' || Is the expression an inverted auxiliary (construction)?
|-
|-
| ''v'',  ''g'' ||  ||  ||  
| ''v'' ||  ||  ||  
|-
|-
|}
|}
Line 70: Line 307:
[POL ''boolean'']
[POL ''boolean'']


[INV ''boolean'']]
[INV ''boolean'']]<br>
 
<span style="color: red>Task:</span> go to [http://141.2.159.95:7001/wt/ the online grammar] and parse the following words in order to see the values for their head features:
 
a. ''like, likes, liked, liking''
 
Note that those verb forms which can serve as the complement of the verb ''be'' (the passive ''liked'' and the progressive ''liking'') are [PRED plus], whereas all the remaining forms are [PRED minus]. Also, all main verbs are [AUX ''minus''], from which it follows that they cannot occur in auxiliary constructions.
 
b. ''does''
 
The forms of the unstressed auxiliary ''do'' are the only words of English which are restricted to occurring in auxiliary constructions. Thus, they are all marked [AUX ''plus'']. Note that all the forms of the auxiliary ''do'' are finite.


&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
You get two solutions when you parse ''does'', one which is [POL ''minus''] and a second one which is [POL ''plus'']. You will notice that this contrast goes along with a difference in COMPs lists of the two verbs. The non-polarized verb has a single complement, namely a VP, whereas the polarized word selects an additional complement, namely a polarized adverb (one of the words ''not'', ''TOO'', or ''so'').
 
c. ''will''
 
This is a typical modal verb. Like the other modals, it has only finite forms. Again you get two solutions, a polarized and a non-polarized one. An intriguing difference between ''will'' and the unstressed ''do'' discussed above, is that ''will'' can occur in auxiliary constructions (and then is [AUX ''plus'']), but it can also occur in constructions where main verbs can occur as well (and then, like the main verbs, will be [AUX ''minus'']. In order to be compatible with both values of the feature AUX, ''will'', it takes the neutral value [AUX ''boolean''] in its lexical entry. All verbs that can appear in auxiliary constructions except for the forms of the unstressed ''do'' behave like ''will''.
        
        


<!--
 
            c
 
        a deg:bool
 
        adv 
 
            pol_adv neg:bool
=== The Argument Realization Principle (ARP) ===
        nominal
 
            p pform:pform
Recall that in GS the syntactic arguments of a word are in a sense represented twice: once on the ARG-ST (argument structure) list which, among others, is used for Binding Theory, and again on one of the valence lists SUBJ, SPR, and COMPS.  Rather than being arbitrary, the relationship between the ARG-S and the valence lists is governed by the '''Argument Realization Principle''':
            n case:case
 
      func spec:sem_obj
[[File:GS-p23-nr7.jpg]]<br>
        d
 
        deg_adv % not in the book
In words, the principle says that the ARG-ST list is the result of merging the three valence lists into one list, with the elements of the SUBJ list coming first, followed by the elements on the SPR list, followed, finally, by the elements on the COMPS list.
 
Besides the ARP, the valence properties of words depend on their part of speech. Thus, all words of part of speech ''v'' must have a SUBJ list with exactly one element on it and a SPR list which is empty. In combination with the ARP, verbs of part of speech ''v'' thus must have the following properties:
 
# The ARG-ST must have at least one element on it.
# The first element of the ARG-ST is also the single element on the SUBJ list.
# If there are additional elements on the ARG-ST, then these elements also occur on the COMPS list.
# The elements which appear both on the ARG-ST and the COMPS list, appear in the same order on both lists.
 
The following [[Exercises_on_the_Append_relation|<span style="color: red>Exercises on the  ''append'' relation</span>]] have the purpose of showing that the 4 statements above must be true.
 
[[Exercises_on_the_Argument_Realization_Principle|<span style="color: red>Exercises on the Argument Realization Principle</span>]]


-->
-->
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Latest revision as of 10:03, 16 May 2017

Parts of Speech

Our online grammar uses the following type hierarchy for parts of speech (the values of the feature HEAD):

Pos-jpg.jpg

The hierarchy differs from that in GS in containing the part of speech adverb. The following table lists the parts of speech, their features, and the function of the features:

a. The maximal part of speech types are the following:

Type Full name Examples
v verb snore, like, must, to
g gerund snoring, liking
c complementizer that, whether, if
a adjective big, new, red
p preposition to, of, with
n noun Lilly, she
d determiner the, a, any
adv adverb early, very, not

Note that v and g are grouped together, since verbs and gerunds behave very similarly. Perhaps surprisingly, complementizers are also grouped together with verbs and gerunds, so that all three parts of speech share the head features VFORM (verb form) and IC (independent clause). We will see later why that is useful.

Head Features

The next table lists all the head features of all the parts of speech and explains their function:

Feature Value type Function of the feature
PRED(icative) boolean Is the sign predicative or not?
MOD(ification) mod-synsem Can the sign modify and if yes, what kind of synsem?
VFORM (verb form) vform What is the verb's verb form?
IC (independent clause) boolean Is the sign (the head of) an independent clause?
AUX boolean Is the sign (the head of) an auxiliary construction?
INV(erted) boolean Is the sign an inverted auxiliary (construction)?
POL(arized) boolean Is the verb a polarized auxiliary (not, TOO, so)?
P(reposition)FORM form Which preposition is it?
CASE case What case does the nominal sign carry?
SPEC(ifying) sem-obj Which semantic object does the D specify?
NEG(ation) boolean Is the adverb the negation not?

The verb form hierarchy

The different verb forms that the framework makes available form another important aspect of the theory:

GS-p24-nr10.jpg

In the text, GS also talk about a verb form subjunctive which is supposed to be used in imperative and subjunctive clauses. They do, however, not include that verb form in their grammar specification. In order to analyze these sentence types, the online grammar for this course adds a verb form sbjn" (= subjunctive) to the type hierarchy above. It assumes that sbjn" is another immediate subtype of clausal", so that clausal has the three immediate subtypes sbjn", fin(ite), and inf(initive). There will be a constraint that clauses are required to have a clausal part of speech, which means that only words with VFORM sbjn", fin(ite), or inf(initive) can head clauses.

The table below gives an overview of all verb forms with examples:

Verb form Full name Examples
sbjn subjunctive be, dance, call
fin finite (indicative) is, must, dances, dance (non-third person singular), danced (past tense)
inf infinitive to (the infinitive marker)
base base form (= bare infinitive) be, dance, call
prp present participle being, dancing, calling
pfp perfect participle been, danced, given
pas passive participle invited, rumored, introduced

Valence

In Week 1 we saw that all signs carry the 3 valence features SUBJ, SPR, and COMPS, which are list-valued. Corresponding to each valence feature, there is a phrase type: hd-subj-ph, hd-spr-ph, and hd-comp-ph. As the names suggest, each phrase has a head daughter and additionally a SUBJ, SPR, or one or two COMPS daughters. The projection of these phrases is driven by the head daughters valence features as illustrated in Week 1.

The linguistic objects on the valence lists (i.e. the valents) are of type synsem. In order to simplify the representations of the valents, we use the following abbreviations:

VP = a phrase of part of speech v which is COMPS <> , SPR <>, and SUBJ <synsem>

AP = a phrase of part of speech a which is COMPS <> , SPR <>, and SUBJ <synsem>

S = a phrase of part of speech v which is COMPS <>, SPR <>, and SUBJ <>

NP = a phrase of part of speech n which is COMPS <>

PP = a phrase of part of speech p which is COMPS <> , SPR <>, and SUBJ <>

This permits us to write valence lists like the following, where the information in the brackets further specify inflectional properties of the valents which should be self-explanatory:

Example SUBJ COMPS
snores <NP[nom]> <>
likes <NP[nom]> <NP[acc]>
put <NP> <NP[acc],PP>
persuade <NP> <NP[acc],VP[inf]>
afraid <NP> <PP>
of <> <NP[acc]>
that (C) <> <S[fin]>

Words

So far, we have introduced the following concepts:

  • Our grammar deals with signs which are either words or phrases.
  • Every sign belongs to a maximal part of speech, which may have features.
  • Signs also have the 3 valence attributes SUBJ, SPR, and COMPS which contain a description of the syntactic and semantic information of other signs.
  • These valence features drive the formation of specific phrases.

In preparation of a more detailed look at phrases, look at the lexical entries of the words in the table below in the online grammar. Where applicable, try out different inflectional forms, e.g. snores, snoring, snored or she, her. Pay attention to the part of speech, its features, and the 3 valence features of each word:

Online Grammar for Chapter 2: HPSG Background

Type Full name Examples
v verb snore, like, must, to
g gerund snoring, liking
c complementizer that, whether, if
a adjective big, new, red
p preposition to, of, with
n noun Lilly, she
d determiner the, a, any
adv adverb early, very, not




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