Sanjukta Ghosh Department of Linguistics Banaras Hindu University

 There are different grammatical theories available for analyzing natural languages.  Some of them are Principles and Parameters (P&P) theory in its two versions (GB and Minimalism), GPSG and its latest modified version HPSG, LFG, TAG and Paninian model.  Any of these theories can be used for developing a parser for NLP.

 In Computer science and linguistics parsing is the process of analyzing a sequence of tokens to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammar.  The structure of the language and the features of the grammar formalism together are responsible for what kind of formal theory should be taken for analysis of the language.

 If a grammar analyzes a sentence into different levels of derivation to reach to the actual surface structure, it is called a derivational grammar. E.g. Chomsky’s Government and Binding (GB) grammar formalism.  If only the surface form of the sentence is represented by some grammar formalism ignoring any kind of derivation to reach that form it is called a representational grammar.  E.g HPSG, LFG, Paninian Dependency model

 The categorical constituent structure of sentences can be represented in the form of a Phrase Marker.  What do phrase markers consist of?  structure of Phrase Markers: HEADS, SPECIFIERS and COMPLEMENTS

THREE LEVELS OF SYNTACTIC CATEGORIES PHRASAL OR PHRASE PROJECTED FROM HEAD X  (NP=N  ) INTERMEDIATE OR LEVEL PROJECTED FROM THE HEAD X (N) LEXICAL OR LEVEL OF HEAD WORDS X (N) X  -THEORY ABSTRACTS AWAY FROM PARTICULARS OF ONE SYNTACTIC CATEGORY OR ANOTHER AND GIVES A LANGUAGE-WIDE TEMPLATE FOR CHARACTERIZING SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE. IT IS A MOVE FROM LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC GRAMMAR TO UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR.

 THE HEAD OF A LINGUISTIC UNIT IS THAT PART OF THE UNIT THAT GIVES ITS ESSENTIAL CHARACTER.  N IS THE HEAD OF THE NP - ONE CAN REPLACE A PHRASE BY ITS HEAD. THEY CAN BE LEXICAL OR FUNCTIONAL. LEXICAL HEADS : N, A, P AND V FUNCTIONAL HEADS: COMPLEMENTIZER, INFL, DET COMPLEMENT AND ADJUNCT ARE NOT LEXICAL OR PHRASAL CATEGORIES, THEY ARE FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES.

 A HEAD TAKES A PHRASAL CATEGORY AS ITS COMPLEMENT. COMPLEMENTS ARE DAUGHTERS OF X AND SISTER OF SOME X CATEGORY. DIRECT OBJECTS ARE THE COMPLEMENTS OF VERBS. X  X X Y  (HEAD) (COMPLEMENT)

 Unergative construction  1. John smiled (a beautiful smile).  Unaccusative construction  2. John arrived (*an unexpected arrival).  a. Unergative verbs: subject is the specifier of vP  b. Unaccusative verbs: the subject is the complement of vP

v  NP(Sub) (SPECIFIER) v v NP (Direct Obj) (HEAD) (COMPLEMENT)

 John sighed.  John gave a sigh.  These two sentences will have uniform phrase structure representation, in both the sentence the subject John is generated in the Spec of vP.  Only difference is in the first sentence v is overt and in the second it is gave.

 Indian languages have constructions like V-V, N-V and A-V which together act as a unit or predicate.  vah pahUZc gayA. (V-V)  usne merI madad kI. (N-V)  tumne mujhe khuS kiyA. (A-V)  The second element is called a light verb (makes a vP) and the subject is generated in the Specifier position of this vP.

 Verbs with one complement  The boy took a savage beating.  The boy took the book.

 John gave Mary flowers. vP NP(sub) v’ v VP1 NP (IO) V’ V VP2 V’ V NP(DO)

 The child ate the food.  baccene khAnA khAyA.  The mother fed the child.  mAZne bacceko khAnA khilAyA. (same structure as ditransitive)  The mother got the aayah to feed the child.  mAZne AyA se bacceko khAnA khilwAyA.

 Raising to subject  John seems to be happy.  John is actually the subject of the embedded clause and is raised to the subject position of the matrix clause.  Raising to Object  John believes Mary to be happy.  Mary is raised from the subject position of the embedded clause to he object position of the matrix clause.

 Subject control  I want to be happy.  Ram promised Bharat to come back.  Object control  Ram persuaded Bharat to go back.

 Non-finite participial constructions are common in Indian languages.  vah nActe nActe calA gayA.  nacte nacte is adjoined to the main clause. Mohan ne dauRte hue ghoRe ko dekhA. Depending on the interpretation, dauRte hue is either adjoined the main clause or a modifier of the NP ghoRe in a DP.

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