Syllabus
1. Theory, formalism, grammar, implementation
2. The choices: theories, formalisms, grammar development environments
3. Basics of HPSG: linguistic categories as a hierarchy of types, grammar and lexicon as a set of constraints
4. A simple sentence (word order, valency)
5. Agreement, case assignment
6. Semantic interpretation
7. Adjuncts
8. Non-finite verb forms, complex verb forms, complex predicates
9. Discontinuous (non-projective) word order
10. Coordination
11. Relative clause
12. Anaphora
Annotation
The aim of this course is to bridge the gap between theoretically motivated description of linguistic phenomena and a corresponding implementation in formal grammars. Following an overview of formal frameworks coupled with specific theories - Categorial Grammar (CG), Tree
Adjoining Grammmar (TAG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), Head-driven Phrase Structure
Grammar (HPSG) - and formal aspects of other theoretical frameworks (Chomskyan and dependency-based tradition), the students will be introduced to the core principles of HPSG both as a theory and as a formalism, based on examples of relevant phenomena in English,
Czech and other languages. In parallel with the classroom presentations and discussions the students will develop corresponding grammars of increasing complexity, using the system Trale as the grammar writing environment. Taught in English.