Kim gives Sandy Fido. Note: many of the details are
missing in this diagram.
Head Principle (informally): features are inherited upwards by the
HEAD feature
Subcategorization Principle: the SUBCAT value of the head daughter
of a phrase is the concatenation of the phrase's SUBCAT list with the
list of SYNSEM values of the complement daughters
Grammar Rules
Phrase-structure rules are embodied in a very small set of abstract
schemas specifying ways in which phrases can consist of heads and
complements or other constituents
Ordering relations are specified by a small number of constraints,
for example, in English lexical heads precede their complements
In an ordering constraint, the PHONOLOGY of a phrase is a function
of its DAUGHTERS
When no ordering constraint applies, any ordering is possible
Long-Distance Dependencies
The SLASH feature is introduced where the "gap" is
The value of this feature is (roughly) the SYNSEM of the missing
phrase
The value of SLASH is passed upward from daughter to mother: the
value of each nonlocal feature on a phrasal sign is the union of the
values on the daughters
A phrase-structure rule specifies that a sentence can consist of a
phrase and a sentence whose SLASH feature unifies with the SYNSEM of
the "extra" phrase
Hierarchy of Lexical Types
The approach is lexical: words provide most of the
information that is required
The entry for dog specifies that
the word is pronounced or spelled in a particular way
the head of the phrase in which it occurs is a noun
its content is an indexed-object
it subcategorizes for a determiner
its index is 3rd person and its singular number
its content has a restriction with relation dog
the instance of its content restriction is the index
The dog entry shares 2 and 3 with all nouns, 4 and 7 with
all common nouns, 5 with all 3rd person singular nouns
The entry for tried (among many other things) specifies
that
it is pronounced and spelled in a particular way
the head of its phrase is a verb
it is finite in form
it subcategorizes for an NP (the subject) and a complement
with an infinitive head (verb)
its content is a state-of-affairs
its content has relation try
the tryer of its content is the index of the subject
the circumstance of its content is the content of the complement
the time of its content precedes the time of speaking
The tried entry shares 2 and 5 with all verbs, 3 with
finite verbs, 4 with all "intransitive-equi control" verbs
9 with all past-tense verbs
For the sake of efficiency and the capturing of generalizations,
the lexicon is organized in an inheritance hierarchy, each node
corresponding to a category of lexical sign
