To define a language completely, it is necessary to define both its syntax and semantics. If these definitions are in a suitable form, the parser and code-generator of a compiler, respectively, can be generated from them. This thesis addresses the problem of syntax definition and automatic parser generation.

The theory proposed in this thesis, Phonological Pitch, concerns the representation and behavior of the tone feature. It is a formally simple phonological theory constrained by a set of explicit extragrammatical principles. Phonological Pitch contains two major grammatical mechanisms. First, tone is represented with a single multivalued feature (Pitch) whose value can range from 1 to n, where n is a language-specific number with no universal upper limit. Second, the Contiguity Hypothesis states that tone groups in rules must always form contiguous sets, though these groups can vary from rule to rule. Phonological Pitch can be so simple because the power of the grammatical theory is constrained with independently necessary extragrammatical factors. Specifically, limits on the number of tone levels arise from learnability and perceptual constraints, which can be precisely formalized, that also play a role in nonlinguistic domains. Similarly, the Contiguity Hypothesis is derived from psychoacoustic constraints on discriminating between acoustically similar pitches. Other perceptual and physiological constraints explain patterns in the typology of contour tones and in the interactions of tone with other features. The empirical support for Phonological Pitch includes the following. First, languages are attested with as many as five distinct tone levels, and the number of languages with n tone levels gradually decreases as n increases, rather than dropping off abruptly at some point. An analysis using learnability and perceptual constraints can explain this gradual drop better than a universal grammatical upper limit. Second, tone rules can transpose sets of tones up or down by a fixed interval, a fact which is easier to formalize with a single multivalued feature than with a set of binary features. Third, tone groups do not form universal natural classes nor groups with noncontiguous tones, as other tone theories predict. Fourth, tone interacts not only with laryngeal features like voicing, but also with nonlaryngeal features like vowel height, and both the existence and relative rarity of tone-vowel height interactions imply that understanding tone interactions requires reference to extragrammatical physiological factors.

This thesis describes an implementation of a model of natural language grammar based on current theories of transformational grammar, collectively referred to as Government and Binding (GB) theory. A description is presented of the principles of GB, including X-bar syntax and the theories of Case, Theta, Binding, Bounding, and Government The principles, in effect, constitute an embodiment of "universal grammar" (UG), i.e. the abstract characterization of the innately endowed human language faculty. Associated with the principles is a set of parameters that alter the effect of the principles. The "core grammar" of a specific language is an instantiation of UG with the parameters set in a particular way. To demonstrate the cross-linguistic nature of the theory, a subset of the "core grammars" of Spanish and English is implemented, including their parametric values and certain language-specific transformations required to characterize grammatical sentences. Sentences in one language are read in and converted through a series of reverse transformations to a base representation in the target language. To this representation, transformations are applied that produce a set of output sentences. The well-formedness of these sentences is verified by the general principles of UG as controlled by the parameters. Any that fail to meet the conditions are rejected so that only grammatical sentences are displayed. The model is written in the Prolog programming language. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate

This thesis explores the connection between linguistic theory, as embodied in a version of the Government - Binding (GB) model of syntax, and the parameter-setting theory of language acquisition. In Chapter 2, it is argued that by incorporating the criterion of epistemological priority, syntactic theory can move closer towards becoming a plausible model of language acquisition. A version of GB theory is developed which adopts this criterion, leading to several modifications, including the derivation of X-bar theory from more "primitive" grammatical sub-components, and a revision of the Projection Principle. This model is converted into a procedure for phrase-structure acquisition, employing sets of Canonical Government Configurations and Percolation Principles to map Case- and θ-relations onto phrase-structure trees. The chapter ends with a discussion of the "missing-subject" stage in the acquisition of English. Chapter 3 concerns auxiliaries. It is argued that parametric variation in auxiliary systems can be reduced to levels of association between INFL and V. The question of irregularity is dealt with through the Designation Convention of Emonds (1985), which makes a distinction between open- and closed- class grammatical elements, and a Parallel Distributed Processing model of learning. The last part of the chapter investigates the learning of the English auxiliary system, and in particular the errors known as "auxiliary overmarking". Chapter 4 investigates the syntax of Subject Auxiliary Inversion (SAI)-type rules. An account of inversion is developed based on the theory of predication, in which inversion-inducing elements are treated as "A'-type" subjects which must be linked to AGR in order to satisfy conditions on Predicate-licensing. A parametrization is developed based on the cross-linguistic examination of SAI-type rules. Chapter 5 concerns the acquisition of SAI. It is argued that there are no invariant "stages" in the development of inversion; rather, a proportion of children misanalyze (WH + contracted auxiliary) sequences as (WH + AGR-clitic) sequences and formulate grammars in which SAI is unnecessary. A "two-tiered" theory of syntactic acquisition is proposed to account for the observed developmental patterns. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

Orientador: Angel H. Corbera Mori / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T01:31:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Candido_GlauciaVieira_D.pdf: 1366632 bytes, checksum: ad8801c80924ac7f4f794301e2b1d3cd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004 / Resumo: Esta tese tem por objetivo apresentar uma análise da língua Shanenawa (Pano) de alguns aspectos fonológicos, da morfologia e da sintaxe da língua. Para tanto, o trabalho está dividido em quatro partes básicas: I. Introdução, em que é feito um breve histórico do povo Shanenawa, da classificação de sua língua dentro da literatura e, ainda, é apresentada a metodologia aplicada na pesquisa lingüística; II. Aspectos da fonologia, em que são apresentados o quadro fonético/fonológico da língua e dois temas específicos: o acento e a nasalização; III. Morfossintaxe I, em que são descritas as classes de palavras (ou partes do discurso), bem como sua estrutura morfológica; IV. Morfossintaxe II, em que se descrevem as estruturas de sentenças simples e complexas e ainda alguns aspectos sintáticos, como a marcação de caso, o sistema de referência alternada (switch-reference) e outros tipos de sistema de referência entre sentenças. Complementam o texto básico uma breve conclusão e as Referências Bibliográficas. Além disso, há a apresentação de alguns anexos que contêm, respectivamente, um léxico da língua, mapas de localização geográfica do povo Shanenawa e, finalmente, cópias de documentos referentes à demarcação das terras indígenas desse povo / Abstract: This thesis aims to present an analysis of the Shanenawa language (Pano) that will exhibit some phonological aspects, the morphology and the syntax of the language. For this purpose the work is distributed in four basic parts: I. In the Introduction, we present a concise historical and cultural outline of the Shanenawa people, the linguistic classification and the methodology applied in this research; II. In Aspects of the phonology, the phonetic/phonologic features of the language are described taking into account two specific subjects: stress and nasalization; III. In the Morphosyntax I, we show a description of the word classes (or parts of speech) as well as morphological structure; IV. In the Morphosyntax II, we describe the single and complex clauses structure and some syntactic features such as case marking, switchreference system and others interclausal reference systems. Complementing the text a brief conclusion and a bibliographical reference are presented. Moreover, some annexes containing a lexicon of the language and a map of geographic localization of Shanenawa people are also included. Finally, a document of the land demarcation of the village is presented. / Doutorado / Linguas Indigenas / Doutor em Linguística

Orientador: Maria Filomena Spatti Sandalo de Sa Porto / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T02:03:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Faria_AndreLuiz_M.pdf: 553976 bytes, checksum: 8b1850e0984d1a29074803b563c25149 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004 / Resumo: O kayabi (família Tupi-Guarani) é, aparentemente, uma língua de ordem livre, uma vez que todos os tipos de ordem são atestados. Constatou-se, todavia, que a variação na ordem dos constituintes oracionais parece obedecer a certas restrições, dependendo, dentre outras coisas, da forma verbal envolvida. Nas construções declarativas, em que o verbo ocorre com flexão de pessoa, a variação na ordem é menos restrito do que nas construções denominadas narrativas, em que o verbo vem desprovido de flexão pessoal, e somente os tipos SOV e OSV são permitidos. Além disso, verificou-se que o kayabi apresenta clíticos de segunda posição, os quais estão intimamente relacionados com as restrições das ordens dessa língua. Em vista desses fatos, discuto a possibilidade de estes clíticos sofrerem movimento sintático, com base nos pressupostos teóricos da gramática gerativa / Abstract: Kayabi language (Tupi-Guarani family) is, at first sight, a free word order language, since all kinds of word order are attested. Nevertheless, we show that the variation in the order of the sentence constituents obey certain restrictions, depending on, from among others, the verbal form involved. In declarative constructions, in which the verb is marked by person inflection, the order variation is less restrict than the constructions named narratives, which the verb is not marked by person inflection, and only SOV and OSV are allowed. Moreover, it also shows that kayabi has second position clitics and we discuss an analysis of second position clitics, in which to these clitics undergo syntactic movement, based on the gerative grammar theoretical framework / Mestrado / Linguistica

No description available.

Automatically generating questions from text for educational purposes is an active research area in natural language processing. The automatic question generation system accompanying this dissertation is MARGE, which is a recursive acronym for: MARGE automatically reads generates and evaluates. MARGE generates questions from both individual sentences and the passage as a whole, and is the first question generation system to successfully generate meaningful questions from textual units larger than a sentence. Prior work in automatic question generation from text treats a sentence as a string of constituents to be rearranged into as many questions as allowed by English grammar rules. Consequently, such systems overgenerate and create mainly trivial questions. Further, none of these systems to date has been able to automatically determine which questions are meaningful and which are trivial. This is because the research focus has been placed on NLG at the expense of NLU. In contrast, the work presented here infuses the questions generation process with natural language understanding. From the input text, MARGE creates a meaning analysis representation for each sentence in a passage via the DeconStructure algorithm presented in this work. Questions are generated from sentence meaning analysis representations using templates. The generated questions are automatically evaluated for question quality and importance via a ranking algorithm.

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Humanities. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 276-279. / by John A. Goldsmith. / Ph.D.

Thesis. 1975. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 276-281. / by Avery DeLano Andrews, III. / Ph.D.