HPSG – A Synopsis
Author: Stefan MüllerSubject Areas: Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
2015 in Tibor Kiss & Artemis Alexiadou (Eds): Syntax – Theory and Analysis: An International Handbook, Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter Verlag, 937–973.
Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) is a linguistic theory that wants to be psycholinguistically plausible and compatible with language acquisition facts. It is a model-theoretic approach and hence constraint-based. Constraints are formulated as feature value pairs, identity statements (structure sahring) and relational constraints that relate several values. HPSG employs types that are organized in inheritance hierarchies, which makes it possible to capture both lexical and syntactic generalizations. HPSG includes all linguistic levels of description, but this article focuses on syntax and semantics. It describes how valence information is represented, how it is linked to semantic information, how certain constituent structures are licenced and how non-local dependencies can be analyzed. HPSG is a lexical theory, that is, the lexicon is a rich and structured object. Appart from the organization in inheritance hierarchies lexical rules are used to capture productive and semi-productive processes in the lexicon.
Draft of 11.08.2013: