Practical Grammar 7 new

Prepositional Phrases: explaining the complex annotation

The textbook contains a c-structure rule for VP like the following:

1. VP → V          PP
       ↑=↓   (↑ (↓ PCASE)) = ↓

Presently, xlfg cannot handle complex annotations like that of the PP. Therefore, we will simplify the rule as follows:

2. VP → V PP

       ↑=↓     (↑OBL) = ↓ 

This means that all PPs that combine with verbs bear the grammatical function OBL(IQUE).

2. translates into xlfg as follows:

3. VP → V PP

2. {
3. ↑=↓1;
4. (↑OBL) = ↓
5. }