Linguistic Theory and Grammar Formalisms
Alexandr Rosen
lecture + on-line seminar
credit+exam Z+Zk
2/2 in the summer term
language: English
PREREQUISITES:
an introductory course in linguistics or equivalent knowledge
REQUIREMENTS TO EARN CREDITS:
Course credit: Sufficient number of points for submitted assignments and a project (implemented grammar).
Exam: Winning a prescribed number of course credit points qualifies as passing with a corresponding grade.
Oral exam is always possible, its result overriding the grade based on course credit points.
ABSTRACT:
The aim of this course is to bridge the gap between theoretically
motivated description of linguistic phenomena and their implementation
in formal grammars. Following an overview of formal frameworks coupled
with specific theories - Categorial Grammar (CG), Tree Adjoining
Grammmar (TAG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), Head-driven Phrase
Structure Grammar (HPSG) - and formal aspects of other theoretical
frameworks (Chomskyan and dependency-based tradition, Construction Grammar), the students
will be introduced to the core principles of HPSG both as a theory and
linguistic formalism, based on examples of relevant phenomena in
English, Czech and other languages. In parallel with the classroom
presentations and discussions the students will develop corresponding
grammars of increasing complexity, using the system Trale as the
grammar writing environment.
The course is intended for students of the European Masters Program in
Language and Communication Technologies who have chosen
a module at Charles University. However,
all interested participants satisfying the requirements mentioned in
PREREQUISITES above are equally welcome.
SYLLABUS:
- Theory, formalism, grammar, implementation
- The choices: theories, formalisms, grammar development environments
- Basics of HPSG: linguistic categories as a hierarchy of types, grammar and lexicon as a set of constraints
- A simple sentence (word order, valency)
- Subject-predicate agreement, case assignment
- Semantic interpretation
- Adjuncts
- Non-finite verb forms, complex verb forms, complex predicates
- Discontinuous (non-projective) word order
- Coordination
- Relative clause
- Anaphora
LITERATURE and LINKS:
slides, handouts etc. for course participants:
Brief introductions:
- Levine, R. D. and Meurers W. D. (2005). HPSG - Linguistic Approach, Formal Foundations, and Computer Realization. In: Keith Brown (ed.): Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition, Elsevier, Oxford.
pdf
- Adam Przepiórkowski and Anna Kupść (2006): HPSG for Slavicists. Glossos, 8.
link
- Stefan Müller (2015): HPSG – A Synopsis. 2015 in Tibor Kiss & Artemis Alexiadou (Eds): Syntax – Theory and Analysis: An International Handbook, Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter Verlag, 937–973.
link
More extensive introductions:
- Stefan Müller (2020): Grammatical theory: From transformational
grammar to constraint-based approaches. Textbooks in Language
Scineces, No 1, Fourth Edition, Berlin: Language Science Press.
link
- An online course on formal
grammar, based on Stefan Müller (2020), covers Phrase structure grammar, GB, GPSG, LFG, Categorial Grammar,
HPSG, TAG, Minimalism and Dependency Grammar).
Moodle
- Frank Richter (2006): A Web-Based Course in Grammar Formalisms and Parsing pdf
- Stefan Müller (2007): Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar: Eine Einführung.
Stauffenberg Einführungen, Band 17, Tübingen: Stauffenberg Verlag. link
- Ivan Sag et al. (2003): Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction.
CSLI Publications, Stanford, CA. link
Further reading:
- NEW: Stefan Müller, Anne Abeillé, Robert D. Borsley and Jean-Pierre
Koenig (eds.) (2021): Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar: The
handbook. Language Science Press.
link
- Carl Pollard and Ivan Sag (1994): Head-Driven Phrase Structure
Grammar. University of Chicago Press.
- Andreas Kathol, Adam Przepiórkowski and Jesse Tseng (2008):
Advanced Topics in HPSG. pdf
TRALE (software for grammar writing):
Alexandr Rosen
2022-02-09