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