Linguistic Modeling for Multilingual Machine Translation

6.2. FUNCTIONAL COMPLETENESS 59
with a functional value, (e.g. how canyou be compatible with the functional
value pform=on), but on the other hand not have access to a slot for which this
functional value is required, as long as no special marker has been realized.
default alternation
In order to solve this problem, I associate with every part of speech a so-called
default alternation (cf. [Streiter94]) which describes those functional values that
have to be assigned to the projection if this structure becomes a phrasal (i.e.
syntactic) non-head, i.e. a maximal projection without a functional head. This
default alternation is centered around the disjunct (fmax=yesgfmax=nog):
The max value of any projection must be max=yes 3 in order to allow this projection
to be a non-head of a phrasal structure, i.e. to become an argument
or modier of a content word. The completeness requirement can be found in
the b-rules for A-Structures (134) page 88 and M-Structures (156) page 105
in the following chapters. The fmax=yesg part of the disjunction is combined
with the default values as illustrated in (86). The rst feature bundle of (86)
describes the default alternation for nouns, saying that a bare noun is either
not a maximal projection, or if it is a maximal projection it has to receive the
functional values pform=nil, type=abs, wh=no and neg=no. If a noun becomes
the non-head of a phrasal structure, in which case max=yes is instantiated, the
values for determination, the prepositional form, the wh feature and negation
are set to their default values.
(86)
8
head=
cat=n &
( max=no
>< 8
9 >=
max=yes
F n ><
8 9
< pform=nil,
>= head=
max=yes
=
type=abs, )
ehead=
>:
>: : wh=no, >
>
neg=no
8 8
99
cat=n,
max=yes
>< >< 8 9
>= >=
head= < pform=nil, =
type=abs,
ehead=
>: >: : wh=no, >
>
neg=no
9
o
=)
If the noun is selected by a determiner, the extended head features of the
function word and its complement unify. Only the disjunct max=no on the
noun is retained, since the max=yes disjunct contains extended head features
which are not compatible with the functional head. This is illustrated in (87).
3 [Netter94] in a similar approach uses the feature FCOMPL +/- in order to indicate the
functional completeness of the projection.