LINGUIST List 5.1001

Sun 18 Sep 1994

FYI: Slavic impersonals, Cognitive Linguistics

Editor for this issue: <>

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1. Loren Allen Billings, Slavic impersonal-construction bibliography
2. Sandiway Fong, ANNOUNCE: The PAPPI System: A Principle-Based Parser
3. "COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS, Editor COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS

I and Joan Maling (Brandeis) are compiling a bibliography on the so-
called -NO/-TO construction in Ukrainian and Polish, often called the
"impersonal" or "transitive" passive. In both languages a participial
form of a verb is accompanied by the underlying object NP in the
accusative case, in violation of Case-absorption and Burzio's
Generalization. (Most generativists out there might be familiar with
Nicholas Sobin's (1985) article in Linguistic Inquiry on this.) So far
we've collected over 200 titles, mostly written in these two languages
and Russian, as well as some citations on related constructions in
Russian dialects and Lithuanian. We would be interested in any
references that we may still be unaware of on the general topic of
impersonal passives and the like. Kindly pass along any citation by
e-mail to me (billingspucc.princeton.edu) or by mail (P.O. Box 891,
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0891). Thanks to those who have already
contacted us (and needn't reply again). This bibliography should
appear later this year in a journal, then later, in continually
updated form, through an electronic server. I will announce the details
on both of these when they are finalized. --Loren Billings
 billingsprinceton.edu

 The PAPPI System: A Principle-Based Parser
 Announcing the first public release of PAPPI, a Prolog-based
 natural language parser for theories in the Principles-and-
 Parameters framework. PAPPI is designed to run on Sun Sparc-
 stations with Quintus Prolog. The PAPPI system includes:
 * An X-Window system-based user interface to the
 underlying Prolog-based parser.
 * A sample implementation of classic GB-theory, based
 on theory described in Lasnik and Uriagereka's textbook
 "A Course in GB Syntax". The implementation also includes
 sets of example sentences and sample parameterization for
 six languages. Currently, these are English, Japanese,
 Dutch, French, Spanish and German. (This software was
 recently demoed at COLING '94.)
 PAPPI is a parser that is designed to be a high-level research
 tool for experimenting with and learning about linguistic
 theory. This release represents just one possible instantiation
 within the Principles-and-Parameters framework. Users are
 encouraged to experiment with and modify the sample principles.
 The PAPPI system represents code written to support research
 work. It is still very much under development. Alternate
 theories (and more sophisticated parsing models) will be made
 publically available at a later stage. Upcoming releases may
 also support other platforms and may not need Quintus Prolog.
 This is free software developed at the NEC Research Institute,
 Inc., an institute for conducting long-term, fundamental
 research in computer and physical sciences. Comments and
 suggestions for improvement to the system will be gratefully
 accepted! I would like to also hear from those interested in
 extending the system. The PAPPI project also welcomes unencumbered
 software contributions, including (but not limited to) support
 for additional languages, theory and debugging tools.
 The system is available for anonymous ftp as:
 external.nj.nec.com:/pub/sandiway/Pappi-2.0.tar.Z
 Current requirements:
 Sun Sparcstation
 SunOS 4.1.3 or 5.3 (aka Solaris 2.3)
 Quintus Prolog 3.1.4 or 3.1.1 (June 1992)
 Approx. 35MB of disk space (55-70MB to install)
 Contact address:
 Dr. Sandiway Fong
 NEC Research Institute, Inc.
 Princeton NJ 08540
 USA
 Email: sandiwayresearch.nj.nec.com
 Fax: (609) 951-2482

 Change of editorship COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
As of September 1994, the journal COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS, published
by Mouton de Gruyter in Berlin, has a new Editor-in-Chief. Since
volume 1 (1989), the editor was Dirk Geeraerts in Leuven; as from
now, his job will be taken over by Arie Verhagen in Utrecht. Dirk
Geeraerts' name will still appear on volume 6 (1995) of the
journal, but Arie Verhagen is the one handling submitted
manuscripts etc. from now on. (Note for authors: please send
FOUR COPIES of your paper, and include an abstract of up to 200
words).
The new editorial address, phone number, etcetera, are given below.
Leuven/Utrecht, September 12, 1994
Dirk Geeraerts and Arie Verhagen
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
Arie Verhagen, Editor-in-Chief
Centre for Language and Communication - Utrecht University
Trans 10
3512 JK Utrecht
The Netherlands
phone: +31 30 - 53 8131
fax: +31 30 - 53 6000
e-mail: coglxlet.ruu.nl