Tree Description Grammars and Underspecified Representations

In this thesis, a new grammar formalism called (local) Tree Description Grammar (TDG) is presented that generates tree descriptions. This grammar formalism brings together some of the central ideas in the context of Tree Adjoining Grammars (TAG) on the one hand, and approaches to underspecified semantics for scope ambiguities on the other hand. First a general definition of TDGs is presented, and afterwards a restricted variant called local TDGs is proposed. Since the elements of a local TDG are tree descriptions, an extended domain of locality as in TAGs is provided by this formalism. Consequently, local TDGs can be lexicalized, and local dependencies such as filler gap dependencies can be expressed in the descriptions occurring in the grammar. The tree descriptions generated by local TDGs are such that the dominance relation (i.e. the reflexive and transitive closure of the parent relation) need not be fully specified. Therefore the generation of suitable underspecified representations for scope ambiguities is possible. The generative capacity of local TDGs is greater than the one of TAGs. Local TDGs are even more powerful than set-local multicomponent TAGs (MC-TAG). However, the generative capacity of local TDGs is restricted in such a way that only semilinear languages are generated. Therefore these languages are of constant growth, a property generally ascribed to natural languages. Local TDGs of different rank can be distinguished depending on the form of derivation steps that are possible in these grammars. This leads to a hierarchy of local TDGs. For the string languages generated by local TDGs of a certain rank, a pumping lemma is proven that allows to show that local TDGs of rank n can generate a language Li := {a1k···a1k|k ≥ 0} iff i ≤ 2n holds. In order to describe the relation between two languages, synchronous local TDGs are introduced. The synchronization with a second local TDG does not increase the generative power of the grammar in the sense that each language generated by a local TDG that is part of a synchronous pair of local TDGs, also can be generated by a single local TDG. This formalism of synchronous local TDGs is used to describe a syntax-semantics interface for a fragment of French which illustrates the derivation of underspecified representations for scope ambiguities with local TDGs

Tree description grammars and underspecified representations

In dieser Dissertation wird ein neuer Grammatikformalismus zur Erzeugung von Baumbeschreibungen entwickelt, sogenannte (lokale) Tree Description Grammars (TDG). TDGs verbinden einige der zentrale Ideen im Zusammenhang mit Tree Adjoining Grammars (TAG) mit Ansätzen zur unterspezifizierten Semantik, speziell der Behandlung von Skopusambiguitäten. Zunächst werden allgemeine TDGs definiert, und dann wird eine eingeschränkte Variante, lokale TDGs eingeführt. Da die Elemente der Grammatik Baumbeschreibungen sind, erlaubt der Formalismus, genau wie TAG, größere lokale Bereiche. In den von (lokalen) TDGs generierten Baumbeschreibungen muss die Dominanz zwischen den Knoten (reflexive transitive Hülle der Mutter-Tochter Beziehung) nicht vollständig beschrieben sein. Dies ermöglicht die Ableitung geeigneter unterspezifizierte Repräsentationen für Skopusambiguitäten. Lokale TDGs sind mächtiger als TAGs, sogar mächtiger als mengen-lokale Multicomponent TAGs. Allerdings erzeugen lokale TDGs nur semilineare Sprachen, also Sprachen mit konstantem Kettenwachstum, eine Eigenschaft, die für natürliche Sprachen i.a. angenommen wird. Abhängig von der Form der möglichen Ableitungsschritte werden lokale TDGs verschiedenen Rangs unterschieden. Es ergibt sich eine Hierarchie, für deren einzelne Klassen ein Iterationslemma gezeigt wird. Um die Beziehung zwischen zwei Sprachen zu beschreiben, werden synchrone lokale TDGs eingeführt. Die Synchronisation mit einer zweiten lokalen TDG beeinflusst nicht die Ausdrucksstärke der Grammatik. Als Anwendungsbeispiel werden synchrone lokale TDGs zur Beschreibung einer Syntax-Semantik Schnittstelle für ein Fragment des Französischen eingesetzt. An diesem Beispiel wird die Ableitung von unterspezifizierten Repräsentationen für Skopusambiguitäten illustriert. Es zeigt sich, dass sich in dieser Architektur Inselbeschränkungen für Quantorenskopus als natürliche Folge der Lokalität der Grammatiken ergebenIn this thesis, a new grammar formalism called (local) Tree Description Grammar (TDG) is presented that generates tree descriptions. This formalism brings together some of the central ideas in the context of Tree Adjoining Grammars (TAG) on the one hand, and approaches to underspecified semantics for scope ambiguities on the other hand. First a general definition of TDGs is presented, and then a restricted variant called local TDGs is proposed. Since the elements of local TDGs are tree descriptions, an extended domain of locality as in TAGs is provided by this formalism. The tree descriptions generated by local TDGs are such that the dominance relation between nodes (reflexive transitive closure of the parent relation) need not be fully specified. This allows the generation of suitable underspecified representations for scope ambiguities. Local TDGs are more powerful than TAGs and even more powerful than set-local multicomponent TAGs. However, local TDGs generate only semilinear languages, i.e. languages of constant growth, a property generally ascribed to natural languages. Local TDGs of different rank can be distinguished depending on the derivation steps possible in these grammars. This leads to a hierarchy of local TDGs. For the classes of this hierarchy, a pumping lemma is proven. In order to describe the relation between two languages, synchronous local TDGs are introduced. The synchronization with a second local TDG does not increase the generative power of the grammar, i.e. a language generated by a local TDG that is part of a synchronous pair of local TDGs, also can be generated by a single local TDG. This formalism of synchronous local TDGs is used to describe a syntax-semantics interface for a fragment of French which illustrates the derivation of underspecified representations for scope ambiguities. In this framework, island constraints for quantifier scope ambiguities arise as a natural consequence of the localit

Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structures

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computational Structures, FOSSACS 2021, which was held during March 27 until April 1, 2021, as part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2021. The conference was planned to take place in Luxembourg and changed to an online format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 28 regular papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 88 submissions. They deal with research on theories and methods to support the analysis, integration, synthesis, transformation, and verification of programs and software systems

A Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar for English

This document describes a sizable grammar of English written in the TAG formalism and implemented for use with the XTAG system. This report and the grammar described herein supersedes the TAG grammar described in an earlier 1995 XTAG technical report. The English grammar described in this report is based on the TAG formalism which has been extended to include lexicalization, and unification-based feature structures. The range of syntactic phenomena that can be handled is large and includes auxiliaries (including inversion), copula, raising and small clause constructions, topicalization, relative clauses, infinitives, gerunds, passives, adjuncts, it-clefts, wh-clefts, PRO constructions, noun-noun modifications, extraposition, determiner sequences, genitives, negation, noun-verb contractions, sentential adjuncts and imperatives. This technical report corresponds to the XTAG Release 8/31/98. The XTAG grammar is continuously updated with the addition of new analyses and modification of old ones, and an online version of this report can be found at the XTAG web page at http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~xtag/Comment: 310 pages, 181 Postscript figures, uses 11pt, psfig.te

Grammatical theory: From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches. Second revised and extended edition.

This book is superseded by the third edition, available at http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/255. This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured. The book is a translation of the German book Grammatiktheorie, which was published by Stauffenburg in 2010. The following quotes are taken from reviews: With this critical yet fair reflection on various grammatical theories, Müller fills what was a major gap in the literature. Karen Lehmann, Zeitschrift für Rezen­sio­nen zur ger­man­is­tis­chen Sprach­wis­senschaft, 2012 Stefan Müller’s recent introductory textbook, Gram­matik­the­o­rie, is an astonishingly comprehensive and insightful survey for beginning students of the present state of syntactic theory. Wolfgang Sternefeld und Frank Richter, Zeitschrift für Sprach­wissen­schaft, 2012 This is the kind of work that has been sought after for a while [...] The impartial and objective discussion offered by the author is particularly refreshing. Werner Abraham, Germanistik, 2012   This book is a new edition of http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/25

From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches

Synopsis: This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured.This book is a new edition of http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/25, http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/195, http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/255 , and http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/287.Fifth revised and extended editio

From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches

This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured.Third revised and extended editio