LINGUIST List 10.868

Tue Jun 8 1999

Books: Computational & Computationally Relevant Theory

Editor for this issue: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar <aristarlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Maureen Burke, NLP: A Grammar Writer's Cookbook
2. LINCOM EUROPA, NLP: Lexical-Semantic Information in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Butt, Miriam (University of Konstanz); Tracy Holloway King (Xerox PARC);
Maria-Eugenia Nino (Stanford University); Frederique Segond (Xerox
Research Center for Europe); A GRAMMAR WRITER'S COOKBOOK; ISBN:
1-57586-170-4 (paper), 1-57586-171-2 (cloth); 244 pp. CSLI Publications
1999: http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/ email:
pubsroslin.stanford.edu

A Grammar Writer's Cookbook is an introduction to the issues involved in
the writing and design of computational grammars, reporting on experiences
and analyses within the ParGram parallel grammar development project.
Using the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework, this project
implemented grammars for German, French, and English to cover parallel
corpora.

The issue of parallelism brings into focus the need to implement analyses
which are crosslinguistically valid and which therefore maximize
portabilty of the grammars* analyses to other languages. Parallelism also
highlights the need for a grammar design that allows grammars to be
transparent to one another across different languages. For example, the
French grammar writer should be able to understand the logic underlying
the implementation of the German grammar.

This cookbook includes a discussion of the standard range of constructions
that need to be implemented in a wide-coverage grammar, and provides
sample analyses for each of the three languages. In addition, it examines
the theoretical and practical issues which arose in the course of grammar
development and presents the implementation of new theoretical
developments in LFG.

LEXICAL-SEMANTIC INFORMATION IN HEAD-DRIVEN PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR AND
NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING
Martin Hoelter, University of Bochum

Lexical-semantic information traditionally has certainly not been in the
focus of formal grammar theories or computational linguistics. With the
recent emergence of complex Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems,
however, an immediate practical need for semantically richer but
formalized language-related information has arisen. The question then
is how e.g. selectional restriction information which normally has been
dealt with by separate models and theories can be integrated in a formal
grammar framework also adequate for NLP tasks. 
	The suitable grammar theory employed is Head-driven Phrase Structure
Grammar (HPSG), whose complex feature structure models and
attribute-value matrices as major means of representation have made it
the linguistic framework of choice in state-of-the-art NLP. Cobuild
dictionaries on the other hand provide the ideal lexicographic framework
for a data base: their unique definition style using simple English
sentences only is shown to be both of high theoretical and practical
relevance.
	"Lexical-semantic information in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar
and Natural Language Processing" proposes a concept of information
transfer between natural language dictionaries, formal grammar, and
language engineering systems by mapping dictionary definitions to HPSG
lexical entries. The aim is to show how retrieval of lexical-semantic
information from a Cobuild dictionary can be organized and what the
theoretical assumptions on lexical-semantic information in a
syntactically and semantically integrative HPSG
model are.
	
ISBN 3 89586 583 4. 
LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 10. 
Ca. 200pp. USD 66 / DM 107 / pound sterling 42. June 1999.

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date or send us a cheque. Prices in this information include
shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is
available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.
LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +49
89 3148909; 
New titles: http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA/new1.htm; 
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

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1999 Contributors