Deriving the predicate-argument structure for a free word order language


BOZŞAHİN H. C.

36th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and 17th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, COLING-ACL 1998, Montreal, Canada, 10 - 14 August 1998, vol.1, pp.167-173 identifier

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • Volume: 1
  • City: Montreal
  • Country: Canada
  • Page Numbers: pp.167-173
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

In relatively free word order languages, grammatical functions are intricately related to case marking. Assuming an ordered representation of the predicate-argument structure, this work proposes a Combinatory Categorial Grammar formulation of relating surface case cues to categories and types for correctly placing the arguments in the predicateargument structure. This is achieved by treating case markers as type shifters. Unlike other CG formulations, type shifting does not proliferate or cause spurious ambiguity. Categories of all argument-encoding grammatical functions follow from the same principle of category assignment. Normal order evaluation of the combinatory form reveals the predicate-argument structure. The application of the method to Turkish is shown.