JPSG—A Phrase Structure Grammar for Japanese

Abstract

This article describes a phrase structure grammar for Japanese called JPSG (Japanese Phrase Structure Grammar), and a parser based on this grammar. JPSG is a grammar formalism for the Japanese language based on the recent development of phrase structure grammar theories embodied in such frameworks as GPSG (Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar) and HPSG (Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar), with certain extensions relevant for the description of Japanese. In particular, the extension of the subcategorization feature facilitates the description of word order variation in Japanese. This extension also allows obtaining a wider range of generalizations over phrase structure rules in Japanese than traditional phrase structure approaches. Since JPSG belongs to the class of what are termed unification-based grammars, it could also serve as a convenient grammatical system from the point of view of computational linguistics. A parser that implements its characteristics in a natural way is currently being developed and implemented in a variant of logic programming language.