Publication details

Saarland University Computer Science

Lexicalized Syntax and Topology for Non-projective Dependency Grammar

Denys Duchier

Joint Conference on Formal Grammars and Mathematics of Language FGMOL'01, August 2001

We propose a lexicalized formulation of dependency grammar which extends the non-projective account of syntax of extitAxiomatizing Dependency Parsing Using Set Constraints [Duchier 1999] with an account of linear precedence inspired by the classical model of topological fields [Bech, 1955].
In this framework, an analysis consists of two mutually constraining trees: a tree of syntactic dependencies (ID tree) and a tree of topological dependencies (LP tree). The ID tree is non-ordered and non-projective, and its edges are labeled by syntactic relations. The LP tree is partially ordered and projective, and its edges are labeled by topological fields. The shape of the LP tree is a flattening of the ID tree's obtained by an emancipation process allowing nodes to `climb up'. Our theory is formulated in term of lexicalized constraints and of principles governing climbing conditions.
In extitTopological Dependency Trees: A Constraint-based Account of Linear Precedence [Duchier, Debusmann, 2001], we described its application to an account of word-order phenomena in the German verb complex. In the present article, we focus on its formalization and state a formal well-formedness condition that precisely characterizes the valid analyses. Furthermore, this condition can also be interpreted as a constraint program and forms the basis of our implementation.

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