Page 1
2003 CSLI Publications
Ling 566Oct 16, 2007
How the Grammar Works
Page 2
2003 CSLI Publications2
Overview
•What we’re trying to do
•The pieces of our grammar
•Two extended examples
•Reflection on what we’ve done, what we still have to do
Page 3
2003 CSLI Publications3
•Objectives
•Develop a theory of knowledge of language
•Represent linguistic information explicitly enough to distinguish well-formed from ill-formed expressions
•Be parsimonious, capturing linguistically significant generalizations.
•Why Formalize?
•To formulate testable predictions
•To check for consistency
•To make it possible to get a computer to do it for us
What We’re Trying To Do
Page 4
2003 CSLI Publications4
•The Components of Our Grammar
•Grammar rules
•Lexical entries
•Principles
•Type hierarchy (very preliminary, so far)
• Initial symbol (S, for now)
•We combine constraints from these components.
QWhat says we have to combine them?
A The definition of well-formed structure
How We Construct Sentences
Page 5
2003 CSLI Publications5
A cat slept.
•Can we build this with our tools?
•Given the constraints our grammar puts on well-formed sentences, is this one?
An Example
Page 6
2003 CSLI Publications6
• Is this a fully specified description?
•What features are unspecified?
•How many word structures can this entry license?
Lexical Entry for a
Page 7
2003 CSLI Publications7
• Which feature paths are abbreviated?
• Is this a fully specified description?
• What features are unspecified?
• How many word structures can this entry license?
Lexical Entry for cat
Page 8
2003 CSLI Publications8
Effect of Principles: the SHAC
Page 9
2003 CSLI Publications
Description of Word Structures for cat
Page 10
2003 CSLI Publications10
Description of Word Structures for a
Page 11
2003 CSLI Publications11
Building a Phrase
Page 12
2003 CSLI Publications12
Constraints Contributed by Daughter Subtrees
Page 13
2003 CSLI Publications13
Constraints Contributed by the Grammar Rule
Page 14
2003 CSLI Publications14
A Constraint Involving the SHAC
Page 15
2003 CSLI Publications15
Effects of the Valence Principle
Page 16
2003 CSLI Publications16
Effects of the Head Feature Principle
Page 17
2003 CSLI Publications17
Effects of the Semantic Inheritance Principle
Page 18
2003 CSLI Publications18
Effects of the Semantic Compositionality Principle
Page 19
2003 CSLI Publications19
Is the Mother Node Now Completely Specified?
Page 20
2003 CSLI Publications20
Lexical Entry for slept
Page 21
2003 CSLI Publications21
Another Head-Specifier Phrase
HSR
SHAC
Val Prin
HFP
SIP
SCP
Key
Page 22
2003 CSLI Publications
Is this description fully specified?
Page 23
2003 CSLI Publications
Does the top node satisfy the initial symbol?
Page 24
2003 CSLI Publications24
Initial Symbol (Ch 6 version)
Page 25
2003 CSLI Publications25
RESTR of the S node
Page 26
2003 CSLI Publications26
Another Example
Page 27
2003 CSLI Publications27
Head Features from Lexical Entries
Page 28
2003 CSLI Publications28
Head Features from Lexical Entries, plus HFP
Page 29
2003 CSLI Publications
Valence Features: Lexicon, Rules, and the Valence Principle
LexiconVal. Prin.
Rules
Key
Page 30
2003 CSLI Publications
Required Identities: Grammar Rules
Page 31
2003 CSLI Publications
Two Semantic Features: the Lexicon & SIP
Page 32
2003 CSLI Publications32
RESTR Values and the SCP
Page 33
2003 CSLI Publications33
An Ungrammatical Example
What’s wrong with this sentence?
Page 34
2003 CSLI Publications34
An Ungrammatical Example
What’s wrong with this sentence?So what?
Page 35
2003 CSLI Publications35
An Ungrammatical Example
The Valence Principle
Page 36
2003 CSLI Publications36
An Ungrammatical Example
Head Specifier Rule
←contradiction→
Page 37
2003 CSLI Publications37
Exercise in Critical Thinking
•Our grammar has come a long way since Ch 2, as we've added ways of representing different kinds of information:•generalizations across categories
•semantics
•particular linguistic phenomena: valence, agreement, modification
•What else might we add? What facts about language are as yet unrepresented in our model?
Page 38
2003 CSLI Publications38
Overview
•What we’re trying to do
•The pieces of our grammar
•Two extended examples
•Reflection on what we’ve done, what we still have to do
•Next time: Review