Open AccessHead-initial constructions in Japanese
Author(s) -
Melanie Siegel,
Emily M. Bender
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
proceedings of the international conference on head-driven phrase structure grammar
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1535-1793
DOI - 10.21248/hpsg.2004.14
Subject(s) - head driven phrase structure grammar , grammar , head (geology) , computer science , syntax , statement (logic) , linguistics , artificial intelligence , natural language processing , geology , philosophy , geomorphology
Japanese is often taken to be strictly head-final in its syntax. In our work ona broad-coverage, precision implemented HPSG for Japanese, we have found thatwhile this is generally true, there are nonetheless a few minor exceptions tothe broad trend. In this paper, we describe the grammar engineering project,present the exceptions we have found, and conclude that this kind of phenomenonmotivates on the one hand the HPSG type hierarchical approach which allows forthe statement of both broad generalizations and exceptions to thosegeneralizations and on the other hand the usefulness of grammar engineering asa means of testing linguistic hypotheses.