Controlled Bidirectional Grammars

We investigate context-free grammars the rules of which can be used in a productive and in a reductive fashion, while the application of these rules is controlled by a regular language. We distinguish several modes of derivation for this kind of grammar. The resulting language families (properly) extend the family of context-free languages. We establish some closure properties of these language families and some grammatical transformations which yield a few normal forms for this type of grammar. Finally, we consider some special cases (viz. the context-free grammar is linear or left-linear), and generalizations, in particular, the use of arbitrary rather than regular control languages

Comparing linguistic judgments and corpus frequencies as windows on grammatical competence: A study of argument linearization in German clauses

We present an overview of several corpus studies we carried out into the frequencies of argument NP orderings in the midfield of subordinate and main clauses of German. Comparing the corpus frequencies with grammaticality ratings published by Keller’s (2000), we observe a “grammaticality–frequency gap”: Quite a few argument orderings with zero corpus frequency are nevertheless assigned medium–range grammaticality ratings. We propose an explanation in terms of a two-factor theory. First, we hypothesize that the grammatical induction component needs a sufficient number of exposures to a syntactic pattern to incorporate it into its repertoire of more or less stable rules of grammar. Moderately to highly frequent argument NP orderings are likely have attained this status, but not their zero-frequency counterparts. This is why the latter argument sequences cannot be produced by the grammatical encoder and are absent from the corpora. Secondly, we assumed that an extraneous (nonlinguistic) judgment process biases the ratings of moderately grammatical linear order patterns: Confronted with such structures, the informants produce their own “ideal delivery” variant of the to-be-rated target sentence and evaluate the similarity between the two versions. A high similarity score yielded by this judgment then exerts a positive bias on the grammaticality rating—a score that should not be mistaken for an authentic grammaticality rating. We conclude that, at least in the linearization domain studied here, the goal of gaining a clear view of the internal grammar of language users is best served by a combined strategy in which grammar rules are founded on structures that elicit moderate to high grammaticality ratings and attain at least moderate usage frequencies

Generating All Permutations by Context-Free Grammars in Greibach Normal Form

We consider context-free grammars $G_n$ in Greibach normal form and, particularly, in Greibach $m$-form ($m=1,2$) which generates the finite language $L_n$ of all $n!$ strings that are permutations of $n$ different symbols ($n\geq 1$). These grammars are investigated with respect to their descriptional complexity, i.e., we determine the number of nonterminal symbols and the number of production rules of $G_n$ as functions of $n$. As in the case of Chomsky normal form these descriptional complexity measures grow faster than any polynomial function

A Fuzzy Approach to Erroneous Inputs in Context-Free Language Recognition

Using fuzzy context-free grammars one can easily describe a finite number of ways to derive incorrect strings together with their degree of correctness. However, in general there is an infinite number of ways to perform a certain task wrongly. In this paper we introduce a generalization of fuzzy context-free grammars, the so-called fuzzy context-free $K$-grammars, to model the situation of making a finite choice out of an infinity of possible grammatical errors during each context-free derivation step. Under minor assumptions on the parameter $K$ this model happens to be a very general framework to describe correctly as well as erroneously derived sentences by a single generating mechanism. Our first result characterizes the generating capacity of these fuzzy context-free $K$-grammars. As consequences we obtain: (i) bounds on modeling grammatical errors within the framework of fuzzy context-free grammars, and (ii) the fact that the family of languages generated by fuzzy context-free $K$-grammars shares closure properties very similar to those of the family of ordinary context-free languages. The second part of the paper is devoted to a few algorithms to recognize fuzzy context-free languages: viz. a variant of a functional version of Cocke-Younger- Kasami's algorithm and some recursive descent algorithms. These algorithms turn out to be robust in some very elementary sense and they can easily be extended to corresponding parsing algorithms

Verb Formation in Angkola Language

This study deals with the verb formation in Angkol language. This study aims tofind out the kind of affix that formed a verb in Angkola, to describethe pattern ofverb formation in Angkola language and also to find out the grammaticalmeanings occurred through the verb formation in Angkola language. This studywas conducted by using descriptive qualitative method by Moleong (1975:5).Inthis research, the descriptive qualitative method was used to find out the types ofaffixes that formed a verb in Angkola language and to describe the pattern of verbformation in Angkola language. The data of this research were taken from thescript of Parhuta-huta part I movie, and 8 song lyrics of Top SimamoraftDeliana.The technique of data analysis applied was generative morphology proposed byHalle (1973). After analyzing the data it was found that were three kinds of affixesfound in verb-formation of Angkola language, namely: 1). Prefix, such as [di-],[ma-], [mar-], [tar], [pa], [maN-]. 2). Suffix, such as: [-kon], [-i], [-hon]. 3).Confix, such as: [maN-i], [maN-kon] and [mar-an], and morphophonemic changealso occurred through the verb formation of Angkola language, namely: 1).Phonological alteration (assimilation) and 2). Phonological Deletion (Omission).And also found four kinds of grammatical meaning occurred through the verbformation of Angkola language namely: 1. activity, 2. Process, 3. Command, 4.Condition. Therefore the dominant types of affixes occurred in verb formation ofAngkola language is prefix with 6 kinds of prefixes. The findings of this researchshowed that verbs can be formed through a process of affixation whether it comesfrom the verb, noun, adjective, adverbial

First language influence on second language performance: A study of common English grammatical errors among rural secondary school students

As a second language in Malaysia, English is taught to all from the pre-school level until the fifth form of the secondary school. Even though the teaching and learning of English is carried out for several years, many students still fail to acquire the language successfully at the end of their schooling, which in turn jeopardizes their chances of future employment. After being exposed to the language for eleven years, students, particularly those from the rural areas, are found to be linguistically incompetent and unable to communicate successfully in the target language. The question now is why has this issue arisen. This paper attempts to share some insights into the issue of incompetency in English among rural secondary school students in Kulai, Johor. It reports an analysis of common errors made by three hundred second language learners in the acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement, Tenses and Relative Pronouns. Using a combination of Norrish’s approach to conducting Error analysis and Contrastive Analysis, initial analysis of the common errors revealed syntactical intra-lingual interference from the first language. This paper will present a comparative linguistic analysis of the syntactical structures of the two languages in our attempt to explain and offer insights into learners’ difficulties in acquiring the target language