Grammatical Formalisms
Postgraduate course «Technoglossia»
Stella Markantonatou
Athens, October 2012
LECTURE 5
Introduction to LFG-1. The c-structure
CONTENTS
1.
2.
3.
Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) ........................................................................... 1
Back to the basics ...................................................................................................... 2
The c-structure .......................................................................................................... 3
3.1.
Empirical motivation for c-structure ........................................................................ 3
3.2.
c-structure building blocks and organization ........................................................... 4
4.
References ................................................................................................................. 6
1. Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG)
In Lecture 4, we actually introduced an approach that divided syntactic information
between a PS rule-based representation and an FS based one. The nice feature of this
approach was that subject-verb agreement was treated in an intuitive way: the verb agrees
with its subject, independently of word order. To put it differently, we employed two types
of representation to capture the syntactic information contained in the sentence τα παιδιά
αγαπούν τις τηγανίτες.
(1)
Cat
v
PRED αγαπώ
AGR
1
Case nom
SUBJ
Cat n
Pred παιδιά
DET +
Agr
1
OBJ
Cat
Pred
DET
Αgr
n
τηγανίτες
+
Case acc
2
In this course, we will see more closely a linguistic theory that advances this idea, namely
that linguistic information is better represented by different representations (“structures”).
This is the linguistic theory of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG). LFG is a unification-based
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Grammatical Formalisms
Postgraduate course «Technoglossia»
Stella Markantonatou
Athens, October 2012
grammar. Other unification-based grammars are HPSG http://hpsg.stanford.edu/
Construction Grammar http://www.constructiongrammar.org/.
and
When different types of representation are used for capturing linguistic information, two
issues present themselves:
1. which type of information is represented with which type of representation
2. relations among representations
In this course we concentrate on syntactic information. LFG recognizes three types of
relevant information, as shown in Table 1.
Type of information
Type of representation
Name of representation
Morphosyntactic Info
FS
Phrase Structure Info Functional Info
PS rules
FS
c-structure
f-structure
Table 1. Representation of morphological and syntactic information in LFG
Phrase Structure info includes things such as categorical information (np, vp, s etc), phrasal
groupings and word order. The representation used by LFG is called C(onstituent)Structure. CF PS rules are used, or, their notational equivalents, namely the trees.
Functional info comprises information about the function of the different parts of a phrase
as well as a small set of axioms. For instance, a phrasal constituent may function as the
subject of the verb and another as its object. At the axiomatic level, no predicate is allowed
to have more than one subject or more than one object. FS are used and the resulting
representation is called F(unctional)-structure.
Semantic info about things such as logical predicate-argument relations and
quantification.is treated separately. FS are used and the resulting representation is called
S(emantic)-structure. A separate structure for morpho-syntactic information is also used.
There are mappings among the various structures. In this course we will explore the
mapping from the c-structure to the f-structure.
2. Back to the basics
Before getting into deep linguistic waters (…), it is useful to make sure that some basic
mathematical notions are well understood.
Mapping: any prescribed way of assigning to each object in one set a particular object in
another (or the same) set (Encyclopædia Britannica)
Function: a mapping whereby each object in one set (the domain) is assigned one and only
one object in another (or the same) set (the codomain).
Notice that the definition allows many domain elements to map on the same codomain element.
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Grammatical Formalisms
Postgraduate course «Technoglossia»
Stella Markantonatou
Athens, October 2012
The FS structures that are used in LFG must be interpreted as functions from the set of
attributes (domain) to the set of values (codomain). Since each attribute can have only one
picture in the set of values, attributes can appear only once in a f-structure. On the other
hand, since more than one attributes may share the same value, reentrancies are licensed
within an FS.
Exercise 1. Consider the following definition of the function φ. Represent φ as an FS.
φ:
g:
ALPHA alpha
BETA
g(y)
GAMMA gamma
EPSILON epsilon
ZETA
zeta
Exercise 2. Define the domain and the co-domain of (1).
Exercise 3. Consider (1) again. Assume it had two subjects or two objects. Give sentences
that would be assigned such representations. Comment on the formalism’s adequacy.
3. The c-structure
3.1.
Empirical motivation for c-structure
A level of analysis, such as the c-structure, can be postulated only on empirical evidence.
Dalrymple (2002, Chapter 3) provides evidence for c-structure drawn from intonation,
question formation, verb second, clitic placement and adverb distribution phenomena.
These phenomena indicate that there are phrasal boundaries as well as specified positions
in a phrasal structure.
INTONATION phenomena indicate that there are phrasal boundaries; for instance, in
Russian where the right edge of a focused constituent is indicated with falling intonation, an
entire sentence can be put in focus.
VERB-SECOND: In some languages the verb must always appear in the second position,
after the first constituent. Such phenomena appear in, among others, German, Tagalog and
Walpiri (2).
(2)
[watiya-rlu wiri-ngki]ji paka-rnu
stick-ERG big-ERG
AUX hit-PAST
“He hit me with a bit stick”
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Grammatical Formalisms
Postgraduate course «Technoglossia»
Stella Markantonatou
Athens, October 2012
QUESTION FORMATION: Zwicky (1990) proposes that in English only a single displaced
constituent can appear in clause initial position (3).
(3)
*[Which people from California] [to Tracy] did you introduce?
3.2.
c-structure building blocks and organization
In Lecture 1 the important notions of Lexical Category, Constituent and Phrasal Category
have been introduced as well as criteria for identifying phrasal constituents. Here we
introduce the notions of Functional category and of X-bar.
LFG does not assume that every lexical category appears in every language. Furthermore, it
does not assume that all XPs exist in a language, even if the corresponding lexical category
does. So, Walpiri is thought to have no VP, only a V’ constituent although it does have
V(erb)s. Furthermore, LFG assumes that all constituent structure positions are optional,
even the heads. In LFG, subcategorisation requirements are dealt with in the f-structure, so
there is no need of empty phrasal categories in order to satisfy the predicate’s valence.
Functional categories:
1. The Functional Category I(NFL)
Different languages (English, German, Tagalog, Walpiri) all have a distinguished position in
which a finite main or auxiliary verb appears. Languages differ as to which lexical categories
can fill the position. In English, only tensed auxiliaries appear in I (4) but in Russian all finite
verbs appear in this position. LFG does not assume that IP must dominate an I head.
(4)
IP
NP
I’
N
I
VP
Cloe
is
V
swimming
2. The Functional Category C
In English the C-position may be filled with a complementiser like that in the sentence I
know that you are sleepy. Other lexical categories may fill this position in other languages.
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Grammatical Formalisms
Postgraduate course «Technoglossia»
Stella Markantonatou
Athens, October 2012
3. The Functional Category D
A D(eterminer) P(hrase) is headed by a Determiner and has an NP as a sister (5).
(5)
DP
D’
D
NP
the
N’
N
boys
X-bar:
X is a variable over both lexical and functional categories. X0 projects to X’ and X’ to XP,
which is the maximal projection for our purposes. X0 is a sister to a series of complement
and adjunct phrases (YP) and forms a constituent of category X’ with phrasal head X0 (6).
The X’ node may dominate any number of daughter phrases. No binary branching is
assumed.
(6)
X’
X0
YP
…
The X’ category is sister to a series of specifier phrases (ZP) and forms an XP phrasal
constituent (7).
(7)
XP
ZP
…
X’
In Lecture 6 we will explain how the different projections and Functional Categories are
related with the f-structures of LFG, where the functional aspects of syntax are
represented.
The configurations in (6) and (7) illustrate only general X-bar theoretic configurations:
depending on the language, the order of the sisters may vary.
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Grammatical Formalisms
Postgraduate course «Technoglossia»
Stella Markantonatou
Athens, October 2012
Exercise 4. Give the X-bar representation of the sentence Το παιδί έφυγε. Then, give the
X-bar representation of the sentence ‘Εφυγε. Discuss the differences. For Modern Greek
assume a structure like (8).
(8)
IP
NP
I’
N
VP
V
Exercise 5. XLFG https://signes.bordeaux.inria.fr/xlfg5/index.php
Parse the sentences given below:
I believed him to be smart
he seemed to be smart
Point the differences between these structures and the structure below:
he seemed smart
Exercise 6. XLFG
https://signes.bordeaux.inria.fr/xlfg5/index.php
Parse the sentence given below:
Ο Γιάννης είπε ότι η Μαρία έρχεται.
Ο Γιάννης είπε ψέμματα.
4. References
Mary Dalrymple. 2002. Syntax and Semantics 34: Lexical Functional Grammar. Academic
Press
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