Lexical distinctions

Rule distinctions

Brief notes on some phrasal rules

hd-cmp_u_c

  • The vanilla head-complement rule.

sp-hd_n_c

  • The grammar has two instances of the specifier-head schema: this one is for phrases where the specifier is the semantic head, as for determiner+noun

sp-hd_hc_c

  • This is the other one, for phrases where the syntactic head is also the semantic head, as for example with degree specifiers as in “The very old chair”

sb-hd_mc_c

  • This rule combines a main-clause verb phrase with its subject, usually an NP.

sb-hd_nmc_c

  • This rule builds a subject-head construction where the clause is embedded within a larger phrase (including a matrix filler-head construction).

hd-aj_int-unsl_c

  • The ordinary instance of the head-modifier rule schema, for (post-head) intersective modifiers which do not contain a gap.

aj-hd_scp-pr_c

  • This is an instance of the modifier-head construction, where the modifier is scopal (not intersective), and where the punctuation marks (typically commas) have to match on the two daughters (that’s what the _pr suffix indicates).

aj-hdn_norm_c

  • This is another instance of the modifier-head construction, but where the head is restricted to a noun.

n_mnp_c

  • This is for measure-NPs consisting only of a noun, as in “That meeting was hours longer than I had expected”

vp_np-ger_c

  • This is for verbal gerund NPs without a specifier, as in “Hiring Abrams was easy”

hd_xcmp_c

  • Rule for extracting a complement (on our lexicalist approach, moving the complement from COMPS to SLASH, hence starting the unbounded dependency path upward)

hd_xaj-int-vp_c

  • Rule for building a verb phrase with an adjunct gap

flr-hd_rel-fin_c

  • Rule for the filler-head kind of relative clause, as in “The consultant who Browne hired”

flr-hd_nwh_c

  • Rule for relative clauses without an overt relative pronoun, as in “The consultant Browne hired”

hd-cl_fr-rel_c

  • Rule for free relative phrases, typically as in “Browne left whenever Abrams arrived”

hd_imp_c

  • This rule is for imperative clauses

mrk-nh_evnt_c

  • This rule combines a conjunction like “and” with a non-nominal phrase to build the right half of a coordinate structure - the “and danced” part of “sang and danced”

mrk-nh_n_c

  • This rule builds the right half of an n-bar coordinate structure.

mrk-nh_nom_c

  • And this one is for the right half of an NP coordination.

n-n_crd-t_c

  • For conjoining n-bars (distinct from the rule for conjoining NPs)

cl-cl_crd-m_c

  • This rule conjoins two sentences in what will be at least a three-conjunct sentence coordination, as in “Kim arrived, [we left, and Browne stayed].”

hd_optcmp_c

  • This rule discharges an element of the COMPS list which is marked as optional, for heads which are non-nominal.

hdn_optcmp_c

  • And this one does the same for optional complements of nouns.

hdn-aj_rc-pr_c

  • This rule combines a noun with a relative clause, where the delimiting commas match up.

hdn-aj_redrel-pr_c

  • And this one combines a noun with a reduced relative phrase, as in “the dog angry at the cat”

np_adv_c

  • Rule that makes certain NPs into modifier phrases, as in “We visited Rome [the year after you did]”

vp_rc-redrel_c

  • This rule builds a reduced relative clause phrase (that is, one which can modify a noun) from an ordinary predicative verb phrase.

vp_sbrd-prd-prp_c

  • This rule converts an ordinary present-participial verb phrase into a depictive modifier phrase, as in “Kim arrived, [singing loudly].”

num_prt-nc_c

  • This builds another kind of partitive NP (one lacking a nominal head), here from an integer, and with no PP complement, as in “[Six] were returned”

pp-aj_frg_c

  • Rule for building a sentence fragment consisting of a scopal PP followed by some other modifier phrase.

Brief notes on some lexical rules

det_prt-of-agr_dlr

  • This makes certain determiners into NPs with no nominal head, and with an of-marked PP complement, where the number on the NP in the PP complement matches the number of the the full partitive NP, as in “[most of the books] arrived”

v_aux-ell-ref_dlr

  • This rule turns an auxiliary verb into an elliptical VP phrase (one just consisting of the auxiliary verb), and where its subject is a referential NP, as in “Kim hasn’t arrived, but Browne [has].”

v_aux-advadd_dlr

  • This rule adds an adverb to the front of the COMPS list of an adverb, mostly to implement Jongbok’s approach to aux negation as in “Kim is not the winner.”

n_ms-cnt_ilr

  • Another inflectional rule which doesn’t change spelling, and which makes an unflected noun stem into a word which is underspecified for mass or count (a word like “paper”)

Last update: 2013-09-17 by EmilyBender [edit]