13.2.1 Structured.categories

Let start with an example. Suppose that we want to express information on the number feature of sentence phrase: If a sentences phrase consists of a noun phrase and a verb phrase then all of them should have the same number feature, either singular or plural. This can be expressed by the following two rules:

  
  s(nb:pl) -> np(nb:pl) vp(nb:pl)
  s(nb:sg) -> np(nb:sg) vp(nb:sg)

Note that the categories are generalized to feature trees. When considering rules of this format, a parse tree for a sentence like the men run might look as follows.

  
 n(cat:s(nb:pl)
   n(cat:np(nb:pl)
     n(cat:det(nb:pl)
       leave(the))
     n(cat:n(nb:pl)
       leave(men)))
   n(cat:vp(nb:pl)
     n(cat:v(nb(pl))
       leave(run))))

Each inner node carries a feature tree for the category and has access to the child nodes. Each leave is labeled by a phoneme.


Denys Duchier, Claire Gardent and Joachim Niehren
Version 1.3.99 (20050412)