HPSG: Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

HPSG - Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

[Staff] [Description] [Location/Time] [Readings] [Schedule] [Lab] [Announcements] [Assessment]

Linguistics 111
2005 Linguistic Institute, MIT/Harvard

Course Staff:

Ivan A. Sag (Stanford University) [sag at csli.stanford.edu]
Tom Wasow (Stanford University) [wasow at csli.stanford.edu]
Emily M. Bender (University of Washington) [ebender at u.washington.edu]

Office:
Resource Assistant: Raj Singh (singhr at MIT.EDU)

Course Description:

This course presents a systematic introduction to the framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) - a precisely formalized framework for grammatical analysis, whose `bare' phrase structures and constraint-based architecture fit particularly well with current research in human sentence processing and language learning. HPSG has not only provided interesting hypotheses about the nature of Universal Grammar, but also has led to the development of rapidly extensible, large-scale, internally consistent analyses of key problems in syntax, lexicon, and the syntax-semantics interface. Although this course will focus on English grammar and more general theoretical issues, HPSG has played/is currently playing a significant role in the development of language-processing technology, for example:

The DELPH-IN Consortium, an international collaboration involving researchers at Stanford U., Saarland U., DFKI, Cambridge U., U. of Sussex, NTT, Norwegian U. of Science and Technology, Tokyo U., U. of Oslo, and U. of Washington.

The Trale Project, an international consortium that includes participants from U. Tuebingen, Ohio State U., U. Toronto, and several other institutions.

Project Verbmobil, a seven-year (1993--2000) project funded by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Technology (BMBF).

Location and Time:

Location: Bldg. 32, room 141
Time: TTh 1:00-2:40

Discussion Sections: Late afternoons, evenings, over drinks, arranged ad hoc.

Course Readings:

Our Textbook (SWB) is:
Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction, by Ivan A. Sag, Thomas Wasow and Emily M. Bender. 2003. Stanford: CSLI Publications [Distributed by The University of Chicago Press]. Copies are available at the MIT Coop in Kendall Square.

Schedule:

The schedule of classes:

Date Topic Readings

28 June Psycholinguistic Motivation SWB Ch.9, pp. 294-309

Feature Structure Models SWB Ch.3, pp. 49-74.
[Slides for 1st class]

30 June Valence, Part of Speech and Phrasal Projection SWB Ch.4, pp. 93--122.

Signs and Compositionality SWB Ch. 5.
[Slides for 2nd class]

5 July Overview SWB Ch. 6, pp. 165--191.

Binding Theory SWB Ch. 7, pp. 203--215.

Implementing HPSG [Implementing HPSG slides][Ch. 7 Slides]

7 July The Lexicon SWB Ch. 8.
[Ch. 8 Slides]

12 July Passive, Raising, Control SWB Ch. 10; Ch. 11, pp. 333--345; Ch. 12.
[Slides for 5th class]

14 July Filler-Gap Constructions SWB Ch. 14.
[Slides for 6th class]

Wrap-Up

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Date	Topic	Readings
28 June	Psycholinguistic Motivation	SWB Ch.9, pp. 294-309
	Feature Structure Models	SWB Ch.3, pp. 49-74. [Slides for 1st class]
30 June	Valence, Part of Speech and Phrasal Projection	SWB Ch.4, pp. 93--122.
	Signs and Compositionality	SWB Ch. 5. [Slides for 2nd class]
5 July	Overview	SWB Ch. 6, pp. 165--191.
	Binding Theory	SWB Ch. 7, pp. 203--215.
	Implementing HPSG	[Implementing HPSG slides][Ch. 7 Slides]
7 July	The Lexicon	SWB Ch. 8. [Ch. 8 Slides]
12 July	Passive, Raising, Control	SWB Ch. 10; Ch. 11, pp. 333--345; Ch. 12. [Slides for 5th class]
14 July	Filler-Gap Constructions	SWB Ch. 14. [Slides for 6th class]
	Wrap-Up

Optional Lab:

This course has an optional lab component in which you will have the opportunity to implement a small grammar fragment for a language you are interested in on the basis of the LinGO Grammar Matrix. These grammar fragments will be capable of parsing and generating an interesting subset of the sentences of a language, while rejecting contrasting examples as ungrammatical.

The relevant software will be installed on a small number of computers in a lab at MIT, but is also available for installation on personal laptops (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X 10.3).

Software (if you have any difficulty installing this software, please post to the bulletin board, which is open as of 6/12):
- Grammar development environment: LKB (Linux/Windows follow the directions for automated installation; Mac OS X download binary from the "stable" directory and see this page for further details).
- We strongly recommend that you use emacs in combination with the LKB. If you do not already have emacs on your system, you can download it for free: Mac OS X Windows. If you're running Linux, you almost certainly already have emacs. Windows/cygwin users should note that there is a cygwin port of emacs.
If you are not already familiar with emacs, try running the tutorial (available from the menus). It takes about an hour and will teach you how to use the program.
Lab preparation instructions: It is recommended that you collect this information prior to 7/5.
Grammar Matrix configuration and download
Lab instructions
LKB/Grammar Matrix FAQ

The lab will be led by the remote instructor (Emily M. Bender). Emily will be answering questions pertaining to the lab at this electronic bulletin board (UW EPost; instructions on using EPost).

Announcements (in reverse temporal order):

Course Assessment:

Course grades will be based on the final exam, with extra credit given for in-class contributions.

FINAL EXAM
Explain (in HPSG terms) the grammatical deviance of each of the following five examples. Use at most three sentences for each explanation. Feel free to consult your textbook or class slides.

1. *Kim is love Pat.
2. *Bo tried to rain.
3. *We seem to like herself.
4. *Him is believed to like himself.
5. *This book, I put the table.

Please email your final to sag@stanford.edu by 5 AM EDT on Friday, July 15 at the latest (earlier is better). SEND YOUR FINAL AS A PLAIN TEXT EMAIL MESSAGE. DO NOT SEND .DOC, .PDF, .RTF OR ANY OTHER KIND OF NON-ASCII FILE.

Last modified: Tue Jul 12 10:41:41 PDT 2005