The Syntactic Process / Edition 1

by Mark Steedman

Overview

This book covers topics in formal linguistics, intonational phonology, computational linguistics, and experimental psycholinguistics, presenting them as an integrated theory of the language faculty.

In this book Mark Steedman argues that the surface syntax of natural languages maps spoken and written forms directly to a compositional semantic representation that includes predicate-argument structure, quantification, and information structure without constructing any intervening structural representation. His purpose is to construct a principled theory of natural grammar that is directly compatible with both explanatory linguistic accounts of a number of problematic syntactic phenomena and a straightforward computational account of the way sentences are mapped onto representations of meaning. The radical nature of Steedman's proposal stems from his claim that much of the apparent complexity of syntax, prosody, and processing follows from the lexical specification of the grammar and from the involvement of a small number of universal rule-types for combining predicates and arguments. These syntactic operations are related to the combinators of Combinatory Logic, engendering a much freer definition of derivational constituency than is traditionally assumed. This property allows Combinatory Categorial Grammar to capture elegantly the structure and interpretation of coordination and intonation contour in English as well as some well-known interactions between word order, coordination, and relativization across a number of other languages. It also allows more direct compatibility with incremental semantic interpretation during parsing.

The book covers topics in formal linguistics, intonational phonology, computational linguistics, and experimental psycholinguistics, presenting them as an integrated theory of the language faculty in a form accessible to readers from any of those fields.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262692687
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	07/27/2001
Series:	Language, Speech, and Communication
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark Steedman is Professor of Cognitive Science in the Division of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Surface Structure and Interpretation (1996) and The Syntactic Process (2000), both published by the MIT Press.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xi
Chapter 1	Introduction	1
Part I	Grammar and Information Structure
Chapter 2	Rules, Constituents, and Fragments	11
2.1	Constituents	12
2.2	Fragments	14
2.3	Issues of Power and Explanation	22
2.4	Grammar as an Applicative System	27
Chapter 3	Intuitive Basis of Combinatory Categorial Grammars	31
3.1	Pure Categorial Grammar	31
3.2	Interpretation and Predicate-Argument Structure	35
3.3	Coordination	39
3.4	The Bluebird	40
3.5	The Thrush	43
3.6	The Starling	49
Chapter 4	Explaining Constraints on Natural Grammar	53
4.1	Intrinsic Constraints Limiting the Set of Possible Rules	53
4.2	Linguistic Constraints on Unbounded Dependencies	59
4.3	Linguistic Constraints on Bounded Dependencies	64
4.4	Quantification in CCG	70
4.5	Summary: Surface Structure and Interpretation	85
Chapter 5	Structure and Intonation	89
5.1	Surface Structure and Intonation Structure	92
5.2	Two Intonation Contours and Their Functions	95
5.3	Theme and Rheme	99
5.4	Focus and Background	106
5.5	Grammar and Information Structure	109
5.6	Intonation and the Simplex Clause	119
5.7	Intonation in Complex Constructions	122
5.8	Conclusion	124
Part II	Coordination and Word Order
Chapter 6	Cross-Serial Dependencies in Dutch	133
6.1	Word Order in Dutch	136
6.2	Verb Raising as Composition	138
6.3	Equi Verbs	144
6.4	Argument Cluster Composition	146
6.5	Relative Clauses	155
6.6	Subject and Object Extraction from Embedded Clauses	158
6.7	Dutch Main-clause Order	159
6.8	Interaction of Word order and Quantifier Scope	164
6.9	On the Rarity of Crossing Dependencies	166
Appendix	Summary of the Dutch Fragment	167
Chapter 7	Gapping and the Order of Constituents	171
7.1	Gapping and SOV Word Order	172
7.2	Gapping and VSO Word Order	176
7.3	Gapping and SVO Word Order	179
7.4	Other Elliptical Phenomena	195
7.5	A Cautious Conclusion	197
Part III	Computation and Performance
Chapter 8	Combinators and Grammars	201
8.1	Why Categories and Combinators?	201
8.2	Why Bluebirds, Thrushes, and Starlings?	203
8.3	Expressive Power	207
8.4	Formalizing Directionality in Categorial Grammars	213
Appendix	Directionality as a Feature	216
Chapter 9	Processing in Context	225
9.1	Anatomy of a Processor	226
9.2	Toward Psychologically Realistic Parsers	246
9.3	CCG Parsing for Practical Applications	251
Chapter 10	The Syntactic Interface	255
10.1	Competence	255
10.2	Acquisition	258
10.3	Performance	259
	Notes	263
	References	283
	Index	321

What People are Saying About This

Mark Johnson

This is the book about Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) that the community has been waiting for!

Endorsement

This is the book about Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) that the community has been waiting for!

—Mark Johnson, Brown University

From the Publisher

Steedman has deftly woven two decades of seminal work on human language understanding into this accessible and engaging volume. It provides a compelling illustration of how the categorical nature of the lexicon explains the combinatory possibilities for the seamless online integration of phonological, sytactic, semantic, and pragmatic information

—Bob Carpenter, Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs

This is the book about Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) that the community has been waiting for!

—Mark Johnson, Brown University

Bob Carpenter

Steedman has deftly woven two decades of seminal work on human language understanding into this accessible and engaging volume. It provides a compelling illustration of how the categorical nature of the lexicon explains the combinatory possibilities for the seamless online integration of phonological, sytactic, semantic, and pragmatic information

Editorial Reviews

"This is the book about Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) that the community has been waiting for!"--Mark Johnson, Brown University

& quot; This is the book about Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) that the community has been waiting for!& quot; -- Mark Johnson, Brown University

" This is the book about Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) that the community has been waiting for!" -- Mark Johnson, Brown University

From the Publisher