Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Lexical Object Theory: Specification Level

  • Published:
Grammars

Abstract

Unification has become a major paradigm in Mathematical and Computational Linguistics. The research done in this area may be classified in four main streams: feature structures as an adequate model for the description of linguistic phenomena, typed unification, representation of feature structures, and unification algorithms. This work proposes a new approach to unification-based Mathematical and Computational Linguistics: the Lexical Object Theory. The main design criteria are based on linguistic motivation, computational efficiency and formal soundness. The first part of the work outlines the main characteristics of the Lexical Object Theory, its comprehensive orientation, and its layered structure based on the separation of the following levels: specification, transformation, typification, representation and unification. The second part concentrates on the specification level of the Lexical Object Theory. The linguistic motivation of this model is presented, as well as a detailed description of the specification formalism, the computational model it is based on, and finally, the inference rules on lexical objects at the specification level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alshawi, H. editor. The Core Language Engine. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alshawi, H., D. J. Arnold, R. Backofen, D. M. Carter, J. Lindop, K. Netter, J. Tsujii, and H. Uszkoreit. Eurotra 6/1: Rule formalism and virtual machine design study—Final report. Technical report, SRI International, Cambridge, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aït-Kaci, H. and P. Lincoln. Life, a natural language for natural language. T. A. Informations.30(1- 2): 37-67, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, J. editor. The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter, B. The logic of typed feature structures. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science, Cambridge, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter, B. and G. Penn. ALE. The Attribute Logic Engine Version 2.0.1. User's Guide. University of Pittsburgh, 1994.

  • Dalrymple, M., R. M. Kaplan, J. T. Maxwell III, and A. Zaenen, editors. Formal Issues in Lexical-Functional Grammar.CSLI Lecture Notes 47, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford, California, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dörre, J. and M. Dorna. CUF — A formalism for linguistic knowledge representation. In J. Dörre, editor, Computational Aspects of Constraint-Based Linguistic Description. Deliverable R1.2. A. DYANA-2. ESPRIT Basic Research Project 6852, 1993.

  • Emele, M. and R. Zajac. Typed unification grammars. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, COLING-90,293-298, Helsinki, 1990.

  • Emele, M. C. Unification with lazy non-redundant copying. ACL Proceedings. 29th Annual Meeting, 323-330, 1991

  • Emele, M. TFS — The Typed Feature Structure Representation Formalism. Proceedings of the International Workshop on Sharable Natural Language Resources.Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Ikoma, Nara, Japan, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erbach, G. ProFIT: Prolog with Features, Inheritance and Templates. CMP-LG e-print archive: cmplg/ 9502003, 1995.

  • Gazdar, G., E. Klein, G. Pullum, and I. Sag. Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodgson, J. P. E. Knowledge Representation and Language in AI.Ellis Horwood, Chichester, England, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, R. M. and J. Bresnan. Lexical-Functional Grammar: A Formal System for Grammatical Representation. In J. Bresnan, editor, TheMental Representation of Grammatical Relations, 173- 281, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1982. Also in, M. Dalrymple, R. M. Kaplan, J. T. Maxwell III, and A. Zaenen, editors, Formal Issues in Lexical-Functional Grammar, CSLI Lecture Notes 47, 29-130, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford, CA 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, R. M. and J. T. Maxwell III. Constituent Coordination in Lexical-Functional Grammar. Proceedings of COLING-88., Vol. 1, 303-305, Budapest, 1988. Also in, M. Dalrymple, R. M. Kaplan, J. T. Maxwell III, and A. Zaenen, editors, Formal Issues in Lexical-Functional Grammar, CSLI Lecture Notes 47, 199-210, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford, CA, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, R. M. and A. Zaenen. Long-distance Dependencies, Constituent Structure, and Functional Uncertainty, 1988. In M. Baltin and A. Croch, editors, Alternative Conceptions of Phrase Structure, 17-42, Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1989. Also in, M. Dalrymple, R. M. Kaplan, J. T. Maxwell III, and A. Zaenen, editors, Formal Issues in Lexical-Functional Grammar, CSLI Lecture Notes 47, 137-165, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford, CA, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karttunen, L. Features and Values. Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Computational Linguistics COLING-84.Stanford, California, 1984. Also in S. M. Shieber, F. C. N. Pereira, L. Karttunen, and M. Kay editors, A Compilation of Papers on Unification-Based Grammar Formalisms, Part I, 17-36, Report no. CSLI-86-48, Center for the Study of Language and Information, California, 1986.

  • Karttunen, L. and M. Kay. Structure sharing with binary trees. ACL Proceedings, 23rd Annual Meeting, 133-136, 1985. Also in S. M. Shieber, F. C. N. Pereira, L. Karttunen, and M. Kay editors, A Compilation of Papers on Unification-Based Grammar Formalisms, Part II, 5-16, Report no. CSLI-86-48, Center for the Study of Language and Information, California, 1986.

  • Kasper, R. T. and W. C. Rounds. A Logical Semantics for Feature Structures. ACL Proceedings, 24th Annual Meeting, 257-266, 1986.

  • Kay, M. Parsing in functional unification grammar. In D. R. Dowty, L. Karttunen, and A. M. Zwicky, editors, Natural Language Parsing, 251-78, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T. S. The Structure of Scientific Revolution.University of Chicago Press.

  • Kirchner, C. editor. Unification. Academic Press Inc., San Diego, CA 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kogure, K. Strategic lazy incremental copy graph unification. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, 223-228, 1990.

  • Krieger, H. and U. Schäfer. TDL-a type description language for constraint-based grammars. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, COLING-94, Kyoto, Japan, 1994.

  • Mellish, C. S. Term-encodable descriptions spaces. In D. R. Brough, editor, Logic Programming: New Frontiers, 189-207, Intellect, Oxford, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Messeger, J., J. A. Goguen and G. Smolka. Order-Sorted Unification. C. Kirchner, editor, Unification, 475-487, Academic Press Inc., San Diego, CA.

  • Pereira, F. C. N. and D. H. D. Warren. Definite clause grammars for language analysis — a survey of the formalism and a comparison with augmented transition networks. Artificial Intelligence, 13: 231-78, 1980.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pereira, F. C. N. and S. M. Shieber. The Semantics of Grammar Formalisms seen as Computer Languages. Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Computational Linguistics, 1984. Stanford, CA. Also in S. M. Shieber, F. C. N. Pereira, L. Karttunen and M. Kay, editors, A Compilation of Papers on Unification-Based Grammar Formalisms, Part I, 37-58, Report no. CSLI-86-48, Center for the Study of Language and Information, CA 1986.

  • Pereira, F. C. N. A Structure-Sharing Representation for Unification-Based Grammar Formalisms. ACL Proceedings, 23rd Annual Meeting, 137-44, 1985. Also in S. M. Shieber, F. C. N. Pereira, L. Karttunen, and M. Kay, editors, A Compilation of Papers on Unification-Based Grammar Formalisms, Part II, 17-35, Report no. CSLI-86-48, Center for the Study of Language and Information, CA 1986.

  • Pollard, C. J. and I. A. Sag. Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quesada, J. F. and G. Amores. A Computational Model for the Efficient Retrieval of Very Large Structure-Based Knowledge Bases. Proceedings of the Knowledge Representation, Use and Storage for Efficiency (KRUSE'95) Symposium, 86-96. Santa Cruz, CA 1995.

  • Rounds, W. C. and R. Kasper. A complete logical calculus for record structures representing linguistic information. Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Logic in Computer Science, 1986.

  • Rounds, W. C. Feature Logics. In J. van Benthem and A. ter Meulen, editors. Handbook of Logic and Language, 475-533. Elsevier Science, 1997.

  • Schank, R. and R. Abelson. Scripts, Plans, Goals and Understanding.Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schüter, A. P. Compiling feature structures into terms: A case study in Prolog.Technical Report RP-55, Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh, 1993.

  • Shieber, S. M., H. Uszkoreit, F. C. N. Pereira, J. Robinson and M. Tyson. The formalism and implementation of PATR-II. In Research on Interactive Acquisition and Use of Knowledge. Volume 1894 of SRI Final Report, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shieber, S. M. The Design of a Computer Language for Linguistic Information. Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Stanford, CA, 1984. Also in S. M. Shieber, F. C. N. Pereira, L. Karttunen and M. Kay, editors, A Compilation of Papers on Unification-Based Grammar Formalisms, Part I, 4-16, Report no. CSLI-86-48, Center for the Study of Language and Information, CA 1986.

  • Shieber, S. M., F. C. N. Pereira, L. Karttunen and M. Kay, editors. A Compilation of Papers on Unification-Based Grammar Formalisms. Parts I and II.Report No. CSLI-86-48. Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford, CA 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shieber, S. M. An Introduction to Unification-based Approaches to Grammar.CSLI Lecture Notes 4, Center for the Study of Language and Information. Stanford, CA 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smolka, G. and H. Aït-Kaci. Inheritance Hierarchies: Semantics and Unification. In C. Kirchner, editor, Unification, 475-487, Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, CA 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smolka, G., M. Henz and J. Würtz. Object-oriented concurrent constraint programming in Oz. In van P. Hentenryck and V. Saraswat, editors, Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wroblewsky, D. Non-destructive Graph Unification. Proceedings of the 6th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AAAI, 582-587, Seatle, Washington, 1987.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CICA (Centro Informático Científico de Andalucía), Seville, Spain.

    José F. Quesada

Authors
  1. José F. Quesada
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Quesada, J.F. Lexical Object Theory: Specification Level. Grammars 1, 57–84 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009978900499

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009978900499

Search

Navigation