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[[File:glasses.png|25px|left]]Please read through the information about the [[Phrases|'''Phrases''']].
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== Introduction ==
== Valence ==


In the first two weeks of this course, we have dealt with 3 topics:
'''Valence''' is the representation of the knowledge speakers have about what other kinds of constituents a word needs to combine with. You will remember from traditional grammar the distinction between '''intransitive''' and '''transitive''' verbs. These are just names for those verbs, respectively, which do not need a direct object (i.e. the verbs ''appear'' and ''cough'') and those which do (like ''have'' and ''trust''). Objects are called '''complements''' in our theory; so, to express that the verb ''have'' needs a direct object, its representation would contain the line


a. Parts of speech and their features<br>
COMPS <NP>,
b. Predicate-argument Structure<br>
c. Feature structures. <br>


This week, we are going to bring these topics together. Remember what the purpose of feature structures like the one below is:
which translated into people speech means that the expression needs one and only one complement and that the part of speech of this complement needs to be NP.  


[[File:book-Webelhuth.jpg]]
Correspondingly,


Feature structures describe an object (represented by the feature structure type in the top-left) by describing the values of the features that are relevant for that object. Thus, for a book we find such features as TITLE and AUTHOR, but not PHONE-NUMBER. The entries in a book catalogue will then presumably all be different, since they describe different books with different properties (= values for features), but the entries are all going to be structured similarly, since each entry describes a book with a feature structure of type ''book''.
COMPS <>


Consider now the problem we face when we want to represent what speakers know about the words of their language. For simplicity's sake, we can assume that the speakers have something like a dictionary book in their heads, i.e. a long list of word entries. As in the book example above, the entry for each word will be different from the entries of all other words, but of course words have some features in common that we can capture in a feature structure type ''word''. For instance, every word will have a PHONOLOGY feature whose value specifies the specific word's pronunciation. We are now beginning to define feature structure types for linguistic objects. Of course, as with every feature structure we will make sure that the features we postulate for a particular kind of linguistic object reflect the properties of that object!
means that the expression does not need and, in fact, is not allowed to combine with any complement. That is correct for intransitive verbs like ''appear'', since you cannot say such things as <span style="color: blue>*Lilly appears the cake.</span>.  


Before we define the feature structure type ''word'', it is economical to first define the feature structure type ''sign''. The reason is that all words are signs and therefore words have all the properties of signs. Besides words (N, V, etc.), there is only one other specific type of sign, namely the syntactic phrase (NP, VP, etc.). So, our strategy will be the following:
As we will see, words cannot only select complements, but also subjects and determiners. This is what the two attribute SPR is for. Verbs are marked as


# We define the most general feature structure type.
SPR <NP>,  
# When there are objects that are specific versions of the general type, we define types for them, declare the more specific types as '''subtypes''' of the more general type.
# In the definitions of the subtypes we only specify those features and values that those types have in addition to their super type.


== Feature structures of type ''sign'' ==
i.e. they must have a subject NP and so-called common nouns (i.e. ''cat'' or ''student'') are listed as


So, in accordance with this procedure, we will define the type ''sign'' first. In preparation for this, we will look at a feature structure of type ''sign'':
SPR <D>,  


[[File:structure-of-all-signs.png |600px]]
which means that they must combine with a determiner like ''a'' or ''the'' in order to function as a subject or an object.


Note that this feature structure is of the general format we specified for all feature structures:
With this background about the 2 valence attributes, look at the lexical entries for ''Lilly'' and ''Fido'' again. You see that both expressions are marked as


# In the top left we find the feature structure type: ''sign''.
SPR <><br>
# Below the type, we find two rows of the form [FEATURE ''value'']:
COMPS <>.
* the feature PHON whose value is a feature structure of type ''list'' (of segments or letters)
* the feature SYNSEM whose value is a feature structure of type ''synsem''.


Since lists and complexes of syntactic-semantic properties have internal structure (i.e. consist of parts), we describe these objects again in terms of feature structure types that are appropriate for a description of these objects. Thus, a feature structure of type ''synsem'' contains the attributes LOC(AL) and B(A)CKGR(OU)ND, with corresponding values.
From this we conclude that both words do not need to be combined with a specifier or a complement in order to function as the subject or object of a sentence. And this is correct, as the two sentences below illustrate:


It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the representation above at first, but don't worry! You will see so many concrete examples of this general structure, that very soon you can draw it in your sleep!
(1) <span style="color: blue>Lilly snores.</span><br>
(2) <span style="color: blue>I like Fido.</span>


Above, we said that ''sign'' has two subtypes, ''word'' and ''phrase''. We will graphically represent that state of affairs as follows. A type that is connected by a path  to another type further is said to be a '''subtype''' of the second type. From the point of view of the higher type we say that it is a '''supertype''' of the first type.
In (1), the word ''Lilly'' serves as the specifier (= subject) of the verb ''snores'' and can do so all by itself. In (2), the word ''Fido'' is the direct object complement of the transitive verb ''likes'' and again it can do so all by itself. Compare this with what happens, when we substitute a common noun for the names ''Lilly'' and ''Fido'' in the sentences above:


[File:Type-hiearchy-sign-word-phrase.jpg]]
(3) <span style="color: blue>*Student snores.</span><br>
(4) <span style="color: blue>*I like cat.</span>


Let us, then, define the two subtypes.
Both sentences become ungrammatical! The reason is simple: as already mentioned above, common nouns like ''student'' or ''cat'' are [SPR <D>], which means that they first need to combine with a determiner in order to serve as the subject or object of a sentence. Thus, (3) and (4) can be made grammatical by putting determiners in front of the two common nouns:


=== Feature Structures of Type ''word'' ===
(5) <span style="color: blue>'''The''' student snores.</span><br>
(6) <span style="color: blue>I like '''any''' cat.</span>


The type ''word'':
== Self Test Exercises on Verb Valence ==
<br>


[[File:Feature-structure-word.png | 600px]]
(1) <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>snores</u>.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || < >
|}
</div>
</div><br>


The definition contains a single feature-value pair: all words have an ARGUMENT STRUCTURE which is a list.
2. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>likes</u> Robin.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <NP[''acc'']>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


=== Feature Structures of Type ''phrase'' ===
3. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>talked</u> to the student.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || < PP >
|}
</div>
</div><br>


The type ''phrase'':
4. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>showed</u> Hessen to Robin.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <NP[''acc''], PP>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


[[File:Feature-structure-phrase.jpg]]
5. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>handed</u> Robin the apple.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <NP[''acc''], NP[''acc'']>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


This definition says that all phrases have daughters. The value of that feature is also a list.
6. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>told</u> Robin that the student likes her.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <NP[''acc''], S>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


=== The Subtype Principle ===
7. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>mentioned</u> to Robin that the student likes her.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <PP, S>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


Now, here comes an extremely important concept that you must grasp if you want to follow the remainder of the course:
8. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>wants</u> [to eat an apple.]</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <VP[''inf'']>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


<blockquote>'''The Subtype Principle'''<br>
9. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>believes</u> Robin to like the student.</span>
'''If t is a subtype of T, then every feature structure of type t also is a feature structure of type T.'''</blockquote>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <NP[''acc''], VP[''inf'']>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


=== Feature Structures of Type ''word'' with Inheritance ===
10. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>seems</u> to Robin to like the student.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <PP, VP[''inf'']>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


If ''word'' is a subtype of ''sign'', then it follows that every feature structure of type ''word'' is also a feature structure of type ''sign''. This means that feature structures of type ''word'' really contain all of the following information:
11. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>is</u> intelligent.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <AP>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


[[File:feature-structure-word-with-inheritance.jpg]]
12. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>considers</u> the student intelligent.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <NP[''acc''], AP>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


=== Feature Structures of Type ''phrase'' with Inheritance ===
13. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>talked</u> to Robin about the student.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <PP, PP>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


The same reasoning of course applies to the second subtype of ''sign'', namely ''phrase''. All feature structures of type ''phrase'' must contain all of the following information:
14. <span style="color: blue>Kim <u>saw</u> Robin talk to the student.</span>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
Check your answer
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
{|
|-
| SPR    || <NP[''nom'']>
|-
| COMPS || <NP[''acc''], VP[''base'']>
|}
</div>
</div><br>


[[File:feature-structure-phrase-with-inheritance.jpg]]
<!--
== Homework for next week ==


== Representing predicate-argument structure in  feature structures ==
Go to the <span class="newwin">[http://141.2.159.95:7001/wt/ Online Grammar]</span> and do the following:


In the exercises on Predicate-Argument Structure from Week 1, you were supposed to take a sentence apart into its predicate and 1-3 arguments of the predicate. The quiz software represented this information as follows:


Example: The story amuses the doctor.
* Click on the words in the lexicon one by one.
* Before you click on a word, predict what label the grammar will give to that word.
* Predict for which words the grammar will give more than one label and what the labels are going to be. You can check this by clicking on the numbers in the upper righthand corner. -->


Expected answer:
<br>  
Predicate = x amuses y<br>
<br>
x = The story <br>
y = the doctor<br>
z = -<br>


Go to the [http://141.2.159.95:7001/wt/ Online Grammar] and click on the first main verb in the list on the left, the verb ''amuse''. A little tree with a node V[fin] at the top and '''amuse''' as its daughter should appear. Click on the V-node: now, you see the feature structure of type ''word'' that describes the word '''amuse''' in our grammar. Can you find the information above within the feature structure?
<br>
<br>
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Latest revision as of 16:18, 4 June 2024

Glasses.png

Please read through the information about the Phrases.

Valence

Valence is the representation of the knowledge speakers have about what other kinds of constituents a word needs to combine with. You will remember from traditional grammar the distinction between intransitive and transitive verbs. These are just names for those verbs, respectively, which do not need a direct object (i.e. the verbs appear and cough) and those which do (like have and trust). Objects are called complements in our theory; so, to express that the verb have needs a direct object, its representation would contain the line

COMPS <NP>,

which translated into people speech means that the expression needs one and only one complement and that the part of speech of this complement needs to be NP.

Correspondingly,

COMPS <>

means that the expression does not need and, in fact, is not allowed to combine with any complement. That is correct for intransitive verbs like appear, since you cannot say such things as *Lilly appears the cake..

As we will see, words cannot only select complements, but also subjects and determiners. This is what the two attribute SPR is for. Verbs are marked as

SPR <NP>,

i.e. they must have a subject NP and so-called common nouns (i.e. cat or student) are listed as

SPR <D>,

which means that they must combine with a determiner like a or the in order to function as a subject or an object.

With this background about the 2 valence attributes, look at the lexical entries for Lilly and Fido again. You see that both expressions are marked as

SPR <>
COMPS <>.

From this we conclude that both words do not need to be combined with a specifier or a complement in order to function as the subject or object of a sentence. And this is correct, as the two sentences below illustrate:

(1) Lilly snores.
(2) I like Fido.

In (1), the word Lilly serves as the specifier (= subject) of the verb snores and can do so all by itself. In (2), the word Fido is the direct object complement of the transitive verb likes and again it can do so all by itself. Compare this with what happens, when we substitute a common noun for the names Lilly and Fido in the sentences above:

(3) *Student snores.
(4) *I like cat.

Both sentences become ungrammatical! The reason is simple: as already mentioned above, common nouns like student or cat are [SPR <D>], which means that they first need to combine with a determiner in order to serve as the subject or object of a sentence. Thus, (3) and (4) can be made grammatical by putting determiners in front of the two common nouns:

(5) The student snores.
(6) I like any cat.

Self Test Exercises on Verb Valence


(1) Kim snores.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS < >


2. Kim likes Robin.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <NP[acc]>


3. Kim talked to the student.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS < PP >


4. Kim showed Hessen to Robin.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <NP[acc], PP>


5. Kim handed Robin the apple.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <NP[acc], NP[acc]>


6. Kim told Robin that the student likes her.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <NP[acc], S>


7. Kim mentioned to Robin that the student likes her.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <PP, S>


8. Kim wants [to eat an apple.]

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <VP[inf]>


9. Kim believes Robin to like the student.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <NP[acc], VP[inf]>


10. Kim seems to Robin to like the student.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <PP, VP[inf]>


11. Kim is intelligent.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <AP>


12. Kim considers the student intelligent.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <NP[acc], AP>


13. Kim talked to Robin about the student.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <PP, PP>


14. Kim saw Robin talk to the student.

Check your answer

SPR <NP[nom]>
COMPS <NP[acc], VP[base]>






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