Tree Adjoining Grammars Syntax: the Inner Structure of Nps

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Tree Adjoining Grammars Syntax: The inner structure of NPs

Laura Kallmeyer & Benjamin Burkhardt

HHU Düsseldorf

WS 2017/2018

1 / 12 Outline

1 The left side of nouns Determiners Adjectives

2 The right side of nouns: PPs

3 Gerund NPs

2 / 12 The inner structure of NPs

the colorless green ideas about language

D A A N PP the left side the right side

1 The left side of nouns Determiners Adjectives 2 The right side of nouns PP-complements/-adjuncts of nouns Relative clauses

3 / 12 The left side of nouns - Determiners

’Determiners’ labels a rather heterogenous set of items: articles (the, a) demonstratives (this, that) genitives (my, Bill’s, that man’s) quantiers (all, some, every, most, many)

Determiners can be stacked:

(1) all these many ideas

⇒ The pattern of determiner stacking is very complex!

4 / 12 The left side of nouns - Determiners - XTAG-analysis XTAG (XTAG Research Group, 2001) uses βDnx for all determiners:

D NP*

XTAG uses a set of 9 features to handle determiner stacking:

definite:= {+, −} marks denite determiners (the, this, that,...) ant:= {+, −} marks quantiers and non-denite articles (a, all, some, every,...) plus: card(inality), gen(itive), wh, decreas(ing), const(ancy), compl(ement), and arg ⇒ We only consider definite and ant in what follows.

5 / 12 The left side of nouns - Determiners - XTAG-example

NP h i   agr 1   definite +  ant 2 NP h i

 pers 3 agr    3rdsing +  D NP* agr 1 pers 3   definite -  definite -      ant - ant 2 N

the NP h i   agr 1  2  definite  ant + idea

  D NP* agr 1 pers 3   definite 2 -  ant -

an/a (2) a. *the an idea (mismatch feature ant) b. *a the idea (mismatch feature definite)

6 / 12 The left side of nouns - Adjectives

XTAG assumes that adjectives can appear in any order:

(3) a. the colorless green ideas b. the green colorless ideas

In XTAG, adjective trees adjoin to N, where no special feature is required:

βAn:

A N*

7 / 12 The right side of nouns - PP-complements/adjuncts XTAG assumes that PP-complements/adjuncts can appear in any order.

(4) a. the ideas about language from Germany b. the ideas from Germany about language

In XTAG, PP-complements/adjuncts adjoin to NP, and no special feature is required:

βnxPnx:

NP* PP

P NP

8 / 12 The inner structure of NPs - Putting the pieces together

NP NP

D NP* NP* PP NP the P NP N N about ideas N NP A N* A N* N colorless green language

⇒ The order of adjunction of determiners and PPs is not xed!

9 / 12 Gerund NPs

NPs made from gerunds basically fall into two groups:

1 The gerund verb is treated like a regular noun.

2 The gerund verb and its complements/adjuncts preserve a sentential structure, but are treated as regular NP.

Determiner gerunds (aka derived nominalizations):

(5) a. [The proving of the theorem] succeeds. b. *[The proving the theorem] succeeds.

NP gerunds (aka sentential gerunds):

(6) a. [Proving the theorem] succeeds. b. [John proving the theorem] succeeds. c. *[The Proving the theorem] succeeds.

10 / 12 Gerund NPs - XTAG-analysis of NP gerunds

(7) a. [Proving the theorem] succeeds. b. [John proving the theorem] succeeds.

αGnx0Vnx1-PRO: αGnx0Vnx1:

NP NP

NP VP NP VP

PRO V NP V NP

11 / 12 XTAG Research Group (2001). A Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar for English. Technical report, Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.