Notes on computational linguistics.pdf - UCLA Department of ...

Stabler - Lx 185/209 2003
The 4 English lexical items allow us to derive [a fabric], [an expensive fabric] and [an expensive English
fabric] as determiner phrases (i.e. as trees with no unchecked syntactic features except the feature d),
but NOT: [an English expensive fabric].
The first 4 French items are almost the same as the corresponding English ones, except for +f,-f
features that trigger inversions of exactly the same sort that we saw in the approach to Hungarian
verbal complexes in Stabler (1999). To derive [un tissu], we must use the lexical item n tissu –thatis,
we cannot include the optional feature -f, because that feature can only be checked by inversion with
an adjective. The derivation of [un [tissu anglais] cher] has the following schematic form:
i. [anglais tissu] → (nat selects n)
ii. [tissui anglais ti] → (nat triggers inversion of n)
iii. cher [tissui anglais ti] → (qual selects nat)
iv. [[tissui anglais ti]j cher tj] → (qual triggers inversion of nat)
v. un [[tissui anglais ti]j cher tj] → (d selects qual)
(The entries for bon, on the other hand, derive both orders.) So we see that with this grammar, the APs
are in different structural configurations when they appear on different sides of the NP, which fits with
the (sometimes subtle) semantic differences.
The lexical items for Albanian show how to get English order but with N raised to one side or the other
of the article. We can derive [nje fustan fantastik blu] and [fustan-i fantastik blu] but not the other,
impossible orders.
dP
d
nje
d
an
dP
qual
expensive
dP
nP1
fustan
qualP
nat
english
qualP
qual
fantastik
natP
qual’
nP
fabric
color
blu
colorP
t1
d
un
nP1
tissu
nP1
fustan
natP2
nat
nat’
anglais
dP
d
-i
d’
qual
qualP
t1
fantastik
qual
cher
qualP
color
qual’
blu
t2
colorP
Exercise: Check some of the claims made about this last grammar, by trying to derive these trees by
hand. (In a moment, we will have a parser that can check them too!)
180
t1