Structure Grammar Research Articles

A unified approach to VP-ellipsis and VP-anaphora

It is known that VP-ellipsis and VP-anaphora are typologically different phenomena. English has VP-ellipses whereas Korean has VP-anaphora. The goals of this paper are (i) to develop a unified algorithm which can analyze these two different phenomena and (ii) to explain them using the developed resolution algorithm. In order to analyze these phenomena, this paper incorporates Jager's anaphora resolution mechanism (2010) into the typed feature structure formalism of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). In this paper, VP-ellipsis and VP-anaphora are analyzed as follows. First, English do and Korean kuleha-ta are introduced with the Geach value, and this value is changed with a slash-elimination rule. Then, one constituent combines with another by ordinary syntactic rules, while the information on the target predicate is percolated up. When a potential source appears, a slash-introduction rule is applied. Then, the source predicate activates the VP-resolution rule, and the target predicate is connected with the source in the semantic representations.

Wo stehen wir in der Grammatiktheorie? Bemerkungen anlässlich eines Buchs von Stefan Müller

Abstract Stefan Müller’s recent introductory textbook, “Grammatiktheorie”, is an astonishingly comprehensive and insightful survey for beginning students of the present state of syntactic theory. Müller’s inspiring exposition of modern grammatical reasoning, which takes into account frameworks as diverse as Categorial Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar, Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Minimalism and Construction Grammar (among others!), leads us to an exploration of the validity of the popular claim that grammar theory provides explanations for the human ability to acquire and use linguistic skills. To what extent this claim is justified seems unclear in light of the recent wealth of developments in neighboring fields such as computational linguistics, corpus linguistics, psycholinguistics, and statistical language modeling. In the first section of the paper, we discuss what we perceive to be a widening gap between the claims to all-embracing explanation in theoretical linguistics and the increasingly disturbing neglect of a vast field of new data and analyses in the above-mentioned related disciplines. Section 2 gives a condensed survey of the contents of Müller’s book and discusses the relationships between the various frameworks. We conclude with sceptical remarks on the book’s preference of breadth over depth, the legacy of traditional grammar theory, and the future perspective of linguistics.

A Neural Network based Approach for English to Hindi Machine Translation

In this paper we are discussing the working of our English to Hindi Machine Translation system. Our system is able to translate English language’s simple sentences into Hindi. This system has been implemented using feed-forward backpropagation artificial neural network. ANN model does the selection of translation rules for grammar structure and Hindi words/tokens (such as verb, noun/pronoun etc.). Neural network is used as the knowledge base and for mapping process from bilingual dictionary and linguistic rules. Bilingual dictionary is implemented using neural network, stores the meaning and linguistic features attached to the word of English and Hindi. The transformation of one natural language grammar to other natural language is the core of the machine translation specifically when the languages have different grammatical class such English and Hindi. Grammatical Structure analysis is done with the help of Stanford Tagger and Stanford Parser. The developed module is able to translate simple sentence of English language. The evaluation score achieved by the system for around 500 test sentences is: n-gram blue score 0.604; METEOR score achieved is 0.830 and F-score of 0.816. General Terms Natural language processing, machine translation

The Spanish DELPH-IN grammar

In this article we present a Spanish grammar implemented in the Linguistic Knowledge Builder system and grounded in the theoretical framework of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. The grammar is being developed in an international multilingual context, the DELPH-IN Initiative, contributing to an open-source repository of software and linguistic resources for various Natural Language Processing applications. We will show how we have refined and extended a core grammar, derived from the LinGO Grammar Matrix, to achieve a broad-coverage grammar. The Spanish DELPH-IN grammar is the most comprehensive grammar for Spanish deep processing, and it is being deployed in the construction of a treebank for Spanish of 60,000 sentences based in a technical corpus in the framework of the European project METANET4U (Enhancing the European Linguistic Infrastructure, GA 270893GA; http://www.meta-net.eu/projects/METANET4U/.) and a smaller treebank of about 15,000 sentences based in a corpus from the press.

Discourse of Leader in an Academic Setting: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Email Messages

The focus of this paper is to examine the discourse of an academic leader through emails. This paper will examine the micro and macro level of leadership discourse. To analyze the data, Fairclough’s (1993) framework which includes the analysis of textual practice, discourse practice, and social practice will be used. In analyzing the discourse at the micro level, the paper will examine the textual practice which includes vocabulary, grammar, and text structure. In addition, genre and style of text and social practice will also be analyzed.

Implicit complements: a dilemma for model theoretic semantics

I show that words with indefinite implicit complements occasion a dilemma for their model theory. There has been only two previous attempts to address this problem, one by Fodor and Fodor (1980) and one by Dowty (1981). Each requires that any word tolerating an implicit complement be treated as ambiguous between two different lexical entries and that a meaning postulate or lexical rule be given to constrain suitably the meanings of the various entries for the word. I show that the positing of such an ambiguity runs counter to the facts and propose an alternative solution which does not appeal to ambiguity, meaning postulates or lexical rules. Indeed, I show that the dilemma posed by indefinite implicit complements is posed by all implicit complements and that a general solution to the problem of implicit complements follows from an independently motivated, single treatment of five other problems, that of subcategorization, that of phrasal projections of words, that of defining a model theoretic structure for phrase structure grammars, that of complement polyvalence and that of complement polyadicity.

AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO SPEAKERS' PERSPECTIVES IN A PAIRED WALL GAME

A new interactive "wall game" is proposed to study the emergence of rules and symbols in interaction dynamics. In this game, two human players alternately configure a pattern on a board to communicate with each other. Distinct from related studies, players in this game have no explicit game scores or tasks to optimize. Any dynamics occurring in this game are therefore ad-hoc and on-going processes. There were three major findings in this paper. (i) The subjects mainly interacted in two modes: a dynamic mode where players proceed through the game without assigning any meanings to the pattern, and a metaphoric mode, where players process with narrative reflection. (ii) Subjects spontaneously switch between the two modes, but this switching is suppressed when playing alone. (iii) A transition diagram of the board pattern can be used to label the two modes, e.g. linearity of the diagram is correlated with the metaphoric mode. One of the main features of grammar is to display subjects' intentionality in a systematic way. We argue that the switching between the two modes observed in our experiment can be taken as a grammatical aspect that emerged in the process. These modes express the speaker's perspective in the same manner as grammatical elements do in natural language. The switching behavior should be seen as a process that embodies a player's intention using the medium (in this case, the patterns in the wall game), and a player's exploration of the medium is a necessary step before generating a grammar structure.

Language Switching in the Production of Phrases

The language switching task has provided a useful insight into how bilinguals produce language. So far, however, the studies using this method have been limited to lexical access. The present study provides empirical evidence on language switching in the production of simple grammar structures. In the reported experiment, Polish-English unbalanced bilinguals switched between their L1 and L2 while describing pictures of ongoing and completed actions with simple SV progressive and perfective phrases. The results show asymmetrical switching costs for progressive phrases and symmetrical switching costs with reversed dominance for perfective phrases. These findings parallel those obtained in tasks requiring the production of single words, although the present study is the first in which the same bilingual participants display different patterns of switching costs depending on the characteristics of utterances they produce. These results can be explained using recently developed models of bilingual language control.

Reinvestigating the Noticing Function of Output

A conceptual replication of Izumi and Bigelow's research, this study used multiple measures to investigate second language (L2) learners’ processes in output‐input‐output sequences. Specifically, it examined whether producing the target language impacts learners’ attention to L2 structures in subsequent input. Thirty learners of English as a second language were randomly assigned to two experimental groups (EGs) and a control group (CG). The EGs were given opportunities for written output that elicited either the past or the present hypothetical‐conditional (more complex vs. less complex structures) while the CG was not prompted to produce output requiring the use of the target structures. All groups engaged in follow‐up reading and underlining activities. The input text modeled targetlike use of the relevant structure for the EGs. Subsequently, all participants produced a second essay and participated in a stimulated recall interview. While the quantitative underlining and test data did not support an effect of output (EGs vs. CG) on specific attention to grammar in subsequent text, the qualitative stimulated‐recall data revealed how output influences learners’ subsequent noticing of vocabulary and/or awareness of their linguistic limitations concerning grammar structures. Learning was greater with the more complex structure, which is discussed in light of the noticing hypothesis and information processing theory.

Elements of Slavic and Germanic grammars: A comparative view. Papers on topical issues in syntax and morphosyntax (review)

Jacek Witkos and Gisbert Fanselow, eds. Elements of Slavic and Germanic grammars: comparative view. Papers on topical issues in syntax and morphosyntax. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2008. This collection of papers on topics in Slavic and Germanic syntax and morphosyntax is a very welcome addition to the fields of Slavic and Germanic linguistics, as well as to the field of comparative linguistics as a whole. It grew out of the papers presented at the Syntax Session of the 2006 Poznan Linguistic Meeting, which explains why the Slavic contributions in the volume lean towards Polish. Five of the eight Slavic oriented contributions focus exclusively on Polish, two on and one on Russian. remaining ones either focus on Germanic languages or adopt a broader crosslinguistic perspective. predominant theoretical framework is what I would describe as early minimalism, with the exception of Cetnarowka's optimality theoretical contribution. couple of papers (Biahy, Witkos, Fanselow and Fery, in particular) rely on (or make reference to) more recent developments within minimalist syntax, such as the so-called phase theory of Chomsky (2000, 2001, 2008). This is not meant as a criticism, as not all the issues discussed in the volume have any direct bearing on phase theory, or would necessarily benefit from a phase-theoretical treatment. volume does not include any contributions in other frameworks, such as Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, which, given the strong HPSG tradition in Polish syntax, is somewhat surprising. In general terms, the papers included in the volume focus on the following topics: aspect and argument structure (Biaiy's Result and feature specification of Polish Miechowicz-Mathiasen and Scheffler's A corpus based analysis of the peculiar behavior of the Polish verb podobac sie, Sowka's Non-uniform approach to dative verbs in English), empty subjects (Bulat's Empty Subjects revisited and revised cross-linguistically, Midler's Some consequences of an impoverishment-based approach to morphological richness and pro drop, Witkos's Control and predicative adjectives in Polish), A-bar dependencies (Do?eka?s WCO and focus in Czech, Fanselow and Fery's Missing superiority effects: Long movement in German (and other languages), Simik's Specificity in (Czech) relative clauses, Moss's Functional projections in Polish), DP internal structure (Cetnarowska's Genitive/possessive variation and syntactic optionality in an optimality-theoretical framework, Pysz's On the placement of prenominal adjectives with complements: Evidence from English, Trugman's Move versus merge: DP-internal modifiers). Wilder's The PP-with-DP construction does not fit any of these categories, as its focus is on the specifics of one construction. Most of the papers in the volume are synchronic in nature; however, Pysz's contribution adds a diachronic touch, and some of the papers are either based on corpus studies (Pysz, Miechowicz-Mathiasen and Scheffler) or report experimental results (Fanselow and Fery, Witkos). In what follows, I provide a brief summary of each paper, followed by an evaluation of the volume as a whole. Bialy's Results and feature specification of Polish investigates Polish aspectual prefixes from the perspective of Ramchand's First Phase Syntax model of event composition. After introducing Ramchand's theory, the paper turns to motivating the distinction between two types of Polish perfective prefixes: lexical prefixes, which are introduced low in the structure and induce a resultative interpretation, and so-called superlexical prefixes, which are introduced higher in the structure and do not change basic event structure. paper also adds a comparative perspective, by first comparing the behavior of English and Italian motion verbs (following Ramchand 2008, Folli and Ramchand 2002), and, next, by showing that Polish patterns with Italian rather than English in that its motion verbs are lexically specified as resultative. …

Learning CFG using Improved TBL algorithm

Grammar Induction is the process of learning context free grammar from finite set of data of the positive and negative sample of language. The Problem of learning context free grammars from example has two aspects viz. determining the grammatical structure (topology) of the unknown grammar and identifying non-terminals. To solve these problems through a new hypothesis representation method called tabular representation is used , This method uses a table like data structure similar to the parse table used in the Cocke-Younger-Kasami parsing algorithm (CYK Algorithm) for context free grammar of Chomsky Normal Form. In this paper we introduce some improvement to the tabular representation algorithm (TBL) called Improved TBL algorithm (ITBL) dedicated to inference of grammar in Chomsky normal form. This ITBL algorithm uses a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to solve partitioning problem and focuses on the modified fitness function. It gives faster and optimal solutions for 5-8 string length.

On the structure of linear apex NLC graph grammars

It is known that linear apex NLC (Lin-A-NLC) grammars can generate NP-complete graph languages. The present paper examines the source of this expressive power by analyzing complexity and decidability of the so-called k-connecting Lin-A-NLC (k-Lin-A-NLC) grammars in which the right-hand side of each production contains at most k nodes that can be connected to outside nodes. The number of connecting nodes is indeed one source of the expressive power of graph grammars in that k-Lin-A-NLC ⊊(k+1)-Lin-A-NLC for every k≥0. There exists a 2-Lin-A-NLC language which is NP-complete but every 1-Lin-A-NLC language is in NLOG. The equivalence problem is undecidable for 1-Lin-A-NLC languages but is decidable for 0-Lin-A-NLC languages (even when one of two input languages is an arbitrary B-NLC language).

Converting CCGs into typed feature structure grammars

In this paper, we report on a transformation scheme that turns a Categorial Grammar, more specifically, a Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG; see Baldridge, 2002) into a derivation- and meaning-preserving typed feature structure (TFS) grammar. We describe the main idea which can be traced back at least to work by Karttunen (1986), Uszkoreit (1986), Bouma (1988), and Calder et al. (1988). We then show how a typed representation of complex categories can be extended by other constraints, such as modes, and indicate how the Lambda semantics of combinators is mapped into a TFS representation, using unification to perform perform alpha-conversion and beta-reduction (Barendregt, 1984). We also present first findings concerning runtime measurements, showing that the PET system, originally developed for the HPSG grammar framework, outperforms the OpenCCG parser by a factor of 8–10 in the time domain and a factor of 4–5 in the space domain.

The Description of Inversions in Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar

Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1985), pp. 117-145

The Structure of Text Contents

The present article is based on the hypothesis that text contents are a psychic phenomenon produced by the interaction of information texts potentially contain with the information text Recipients already have. Language signs as a system carry information that is static and refers only to language constructs of several logical ranks: Names (N), Predicates (P), Propositions with N(P) structure where names are ascribed some qualities and which may turn into model sentences with N-P Grammar structure. In texts, model sentences interacting with the Recipient background knowledge turn into utterances carrying dynamic and concrete information and verbally simulate segments of non-lingual reality (facts, events, objects, etc.). Elementary verbal simulations have N(Pemst) information structure that includes the name (N) chosen by the text Sender for some segment of non-lingual reality that, according to the text Sender, presumably exists (e) in certain time and space parameters (s, t), is evaluated, from the point of view of the text Sender, as real, unreal, desirable, etc., the modal parameter (m), and is ascribed some qualities (P). These simulations may be viewed as Elementary content entities that serve as construction material for content entities of higher logical ranks — Compound and Complex content entities. Their N(Pemst) information structure does not depend on any particular language in which utterances are presented, and they may be viewed as elements of a universal ‘mind grammar’ of human thinking that is used in structuring text contents irrespective of a language in which texts are created, and, consequently, can be considered the text content invariant. The structural elements of text contents may be of direct interest to translation scholars. Whereas translation theories today are generally based on establishing multi-level inter-language correspondences, text content entities and their structural elements may be viewed as translation units, and the idea of opposing communicative information of text content entities to language meanings that verbally simulate them may serve the basis for creating a different translation theory, with much greater explanatory force.

Effects of Teacher’s Corrective Feedback on Accuracy in the Oral English of English-Majors College Students

In current English major college teaching in China, there is a common phenomenon that although many students have learned a great deal of grammatical knowledge and vocabulary, most of them are still unable to speak English accurately. The teaching method is has changed from focus on the grammar structure of language to task-based teaching or communicative teaching. However, these two methods, fluency of language is the main goal of teaching while accuracy is often overlooked. In recent years, corrective feedback, due to its potential role in facilitating oral English development, has become a hot research topic in second language acquisition abroad. Teachers’ corrective feedback is an indispensable part in foreign language teaching. With the occurrence of the theories of “Input Hypothesis” \“ interaction Hypothesis” and “Noticing Hypothesis”, researchers have carried out studies on corrective feedback from various perspectives. This paper tries to solve the following questions: 1. Whether corrective feedback have a positive effect on improving oral English accuracy? 2. Two types of corrective feedback, which types have a better effect on English accuracy? 3. If corrective can improve oral English accuracy, but for the high\medium and low group of students, does it have the same improving effectiveness?

Teaching & Learning The Spanish Aspect Using Blogs and Wikis

This study investigated the influence of asynchronous computer text based technologies on the students’ performance when learning the preterite and the imperfect aspects in Spanish. Two research questions guided the study: Research Question 1) Is there a difference in students’ achievement levels in Spanish preterite and imperfect between those using wiki technologies and those using blog technologies after controlling for pre-intervention achievement levels? and Research Question 2) Are there differences in satisfaction levels for students learning Spanish preterite and imperfect via blog technologies as compared to those learning via wiki technologies? Results indicate that there were not significant differences between students who use blog or wiki technologies on performance levels when controlling for pre-existing knowledge. Results also indicated that there were not significant differences in satisfaction levels between those students using a wiki and those using a blog. These results suggest that wikis and blogs are good potential tools that may facilitate the teaching and learning of problematic grammar structures in a narrative context.

NcRNA CONSENSUS SECONDARY STRUCTURE DERIVATION USING GRAMMAR STRINGS

Many noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) function through both their sequences and secondary structures. Thus, secondary structure derivation is an important issue in today's RNA research. The state-of-the-art structure annotation tools are based on comparative analysis, which derives consensus structure of homologous ncRNAs. Despite promising results from existing ncRNA aligning and consensus structure derivation tools, there is a need for more efficient and accurate ncRNA secondary structure modeling and alignment methods. In this work, we introduce a consensus structure derivation approach based on grammar string, a novel ncRNA secondary structure representation that encodes an ncRNA's sequence and secondary structure in the parameter space of a context-free grammar (CFG) and a full RNA grammar including pseudoknots. Being a string defined on a special alphabet constructed from a grammar, grammar string converts ncRNA alignment into sequence alignment. We derive consensus secondary structures from hundreds of ncRNA families from BraliBase 2.1 and 25 families containing pseudoknots using grammar string alignment. Our experiments have shown that grammar string-based structure derivation competes favorably in consensus structure quality with Murlet and RNASampler. Source code and experimental data are available at http://www.cse.msu.edu/~yannisun/grammar-string.

Effect of Explicit and Implicit Instruction on Free Written Response Task Performance

A classroom study was designed to test the hypothesis that explicit knowledge is used by second‐language (L2) learners in a free written response task if that knowledge is present. Eighty‐one 12–18‐year‐old learners of Dutch as an L2 took part in a computer‐assisted language learning experiment receiving either explicit or implicit instruction about two grammar structures. The ability to use these structures was measured at three points in time by means of an untimed grammaticality judgment task and a free written response task. Explicit and implicit instruction promoted the use of the target structures in free response tasks equally effectively. However, for one structure, both facilitative and inhibitory effects of explicit instruction were observed if first language similarity was taken into consideration.

Artistic Exploration of the Worlds of Digital Developmental Swarms

This paper presents artwork that was inspired by a computational model called Swarm Grammars. In this work, the “liveliness” of swarms is combined with the generative capabilities of more established developmental representations. Three of the authors followed their individual artistic approaches to explore the creativity and dynamics of Swarm Grammar structures. One chose to breed structures interactively to compose virtual spaces. The second explores the movement and construction dynamics of interactive swarms. The third artist translated developmental processes of Swarm Grammars into interactions of paint particles driven by friction and gravity.