Interactions between Constraints and Constructions in Negation and Inversion Phenomena

Abstract

Observations of real language use and language processing tell us that we parse our language in an integrated, order independent, and incremental manner. The grammar that reflects these robust properties would be one whose theoretical constructs are declarative constraints (cf. Pollard and Sag 1994). In addition, the fact that a given word or phrase must be used in special grammatical constructions with specific meanings (e.g., resultatives, way constructions, WXDY constructions and the like) provides enough reason for the supposition of constructions as primitives in the grammar (Goldberg 1995, Kay 1997) This paper is an attempt to adopt the notion of constructions within a constraint-based grammar framework, HPSG (Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar). Within the mechanism of multiple inheritance hierarchy in HPSG, each construction has its own properties but is linked to other constructions. This system enables us to minimize the specifications on the properties of each construction and capture the generalizations across constructions. In particular, tight interactions between constraints and constructions make it unnecessary to introduce abstract, invisible traces. The parer shows that when applying this system to the analysis of auxiliary sensitive constructions such as negation and inversion, we can provide a cleaner grammar with simpler syntactic structures without resorting to unmotivated, additional mechanisms