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Prolog Implementations of English and Swedish GB Grammars

Sigurd, Bengt LU and Eeg-Olofsson, Mats LU (1991) In Working papers / Lund University, Department of Linguistics, General Linguistics, Phonetics 38. p.169-187
Abstract
Introduction and abstract
Government and Binding theory (Chomsky 1981, Sells 1985) plays a dominant role in current linguistics and is an almost compulsory part of the linguistics curriculum at universities. The advantage of GB is its rigorous theory, allowing only certain simple trees and transformations, supple-mented by certain simple principles and constraints. The GB approach makes it possible to characterize language in a simple way and to pinpoint the differences between languages as different settings of the parameters of the base structure, transformations and constraints. In spite of its dominance in linguistics, GB has a comparatively low status in... (More)
Introduction and abstract
Government and Binding theory (Chomsky 1981, Sells 1985) plays a dominant role in current linguistics and is an almost compulsory part of the linguistics curriculum at universities. The advantage of GB is its rigorous theory, allowing only certain simple trees and transformations, supple-mented by certain simple principles and constraints. The GB approach makes it possible to characterize language in a simple way and to pinpoint the differences between languages as different settings of the parameters of the base structure, transformations and constraints. In spite of its dominance in linguistics, GB has a comparatively low status in computational linguistics, as is witnessed by the proceedings of COL1NG and ACL (for exceptions see References). Computational linguists instead favour competing theories such as Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical-Functional Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar, or eclectic variants. There is, however, a demand for computer implementa-tions of GB for linguistic and pedagogical purposes. This paper presents an experimental Prolog (LPA MacProlog) implementation of the basic features of GB, including categorial base rules for deep structures (d-structures) and transformations for movements of tense, w/z-words, noun phrases, verbs and adverbs. The movements leave traces in the surface structure (s-structure) in accordance with current theory. Both the leaves (words) of the d-structure tree and the leaves of the s-structure tree can be projected as sentences, the s-structures with or without traces. Sentences can be generated from the d-structure through the transformations or parsed by finding the d-structure after running the transformations in reverse. The English and Swedish grammars differ, as the English auxiliaries are generated in the tense slot (infl) and not is a barrier in English. Furthermore, Swedish moves all finite verbs to the second (comp) position, which is done only in questions in English, e.g. Whom did Bill like? The paper also shows how the grammars can be used for machine translation, handling differences in the d-structure by transfer rules. (Less)
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Working paper/Preprint
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Working papers / Lund University, Department of Linguistics, General Linguistics, Phonetics
volume
38
pages
169 - 187
publisher
Department of Linguistics, Lund University
ISSN
0280-526X
language
English
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yes
id
84cce41d-bda5-4104-aaf1-a50664121c86
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https://journals.lub.lu.se/LWPL/article/view/2577
date added to LUP
2021-07-06 11:49:40
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@misc{84cce41d-bda5-4104-aaf1-a50664121c86,
  abstract     = {{Introduction  and  abstract  <br/>Government   and  Binding  theory  (Chomsky  1981,  Sells   1985)  plays  a  dominant role in current  linguistics  and is an  almost compulsory part of  the  linguistics  curriculum  at  universities. The  advantage  of GB  is its  rigorous  theory,  allowing  only  certain  simple  trees  and  transformations,  supple-mented  by  certain  simple  principles  and  constraints.  The GB  approach  makes  it possible to  characterize  language  in a simple way and to pinpoint the  differences  between  languages  as  different  settings of the  parameters  of  the  base structure,  transformations  and constraints. In  spite  of  its  dominance  in  linguistics,  GB has  a  comparatively low status in computational linguistics,  as  is  witnessed  by  the  proceedings of COL1NG  and ACL  (for exceptions  see References).  Computational linguists instead  favour  competing  theories  such  as  Generalized Phrase  Structure  Grammar,  Lexical-Functional  Grammar,  Tree  Adjoining   Grammar,  or  eclectic  variants. There  is, however,  a  demand  for  computer implementa-tions of GB  for  linguistic  and pedagogical purposes. This   paper   presents    an   experimental   Prolog   (LPA  MacProlog)  implementation  of the  basic  features  of GB,  including  categorial base rules for  deep  structures  (d-structures)  and  transformations  for  movements  of  tense,  w/z-words, noun  phrases,  verbs  and  adverbs.  The  movements  leave  traces  in  the  surface  structure  (s-structure)  in  accordance  with  current  theory.  Both  the  leaves  (words) of the  d-structure  tree and  the  leaves  of  the  s-structure   tree  can  be  projected  as  sentences,   the  s-structures   with  or  without  traces.  Sentences  can be  generated  from  the  d-structure  through  the  transformations   or  parsed  by  finding   the  d-structure   after  running  the  transformations  in  reverse.  The  English  and  Swedish grammars  differ,   as   the  English  auxiliaries are  generated  in  the  tense  slot  (infl)  and  not is  a  barrier  in  English.  Furthermore,  Swedish  moves  all finite  verbs  to  the second  (comp)  position,  which  is done  only in  questions in English, e.g. Whom  did Bill  like?  The paper  also  shows  how the grammars  can be used for  machine translation, handling differences  in the d-structure  by  transfer rules.}},
  author       = {{Sigurd, Bengt and Eeg-Olofsson, Mats}},
  issn         = {{0280-526X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  pages        = {{169--187}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Linguistics, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Working papers / Lund University, Department of Linguistics, General Linguistics, Phonetics}},
  title        = {{Prolog Implementations of English and Swedish GB Grammars}},
  url          = {{https://journals.lub.lu.se/LWPL/article/view/2577}},
  volume       = {{38}},
  year         = {{1991}},
}