Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Linguistics

This dissertation has three interrelated goals: The main goal is an analysis of Czech clitics, units of grammar on the borderline between morphology and syntax with rather peculiar ordering properties both relative to the whole clause and to each other. We examine the actual set of clitics, their rather rigid ordering properties, and finally the properties of so-called clitic climbing. The analysis evaluates previous research, but it also provides new insights, especially in the position of the clitic cluster and in the constraints on clitic climbing. We show that many of the constraints regarding position of the clitic cluster suggested in previous research do not hold. We also argue that cases when clitics do not follow the first constituent are in fact not exceptions in clitic placement but instead unusual frontings. The second goal is the development of a framework within Higher Order Grammar (HOG) supporting a transparent and modular treatment of word order. Unlike previous versions of HOG, we work with signs (containing phonological, syntactic and potentially other information) as actual objects of the grammar. Apart from that, we build on the simplicity and elegance of the pre-formal part of the linearization framework within Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Finally, the third objective is to test the result of the second goal by applying it on the results of the first goal.

Committee: Carl Pollard (Advisor) Subjects: Language, Linguistics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Linguistics

This dissertation motivates and describes the Generalized Immediate Dominance/Linear Precedence (GIDLP) formalism: a formalism capable of serving as a processing backbone for linearization-based grammars in the Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) framework. Complementing the work on the formalism, the thesis defines and implements an efficient parsing algorithm for GIDLP grammars. Representing a prominent tradition within HPSG, linearization-based HPSG assumes that the domain of word order can be larger than the local tree. This supports elegant and general linguistic analyses for (relatively) free word order languages, including the possibility of licensing discontinuous constituents. For processing with an HPSG grammar, most systems depend on parsing algorithms that make use of a phrase structure backbone – a part of the grammar that has been set aside and given a distinguished role in the parsing process – thereby contrasting with those that view parsing as a general constraint solving task, where general methods for logical reasoning are to be applied to the constraints present in an HPSG grammar. Processing backbones support efficient parsing algorithms, but they restrict the class of HPSG theories that can be encoded to those employing a phrase structure backbone, which excludes linearization-HPSG grammars. The GIDLP formalism solves the dilemma between the desire to encode linguistically general and elegant linearization-HPSG analyses and the need for a processing backbone. GIDLP allows linguists to specify grammars with linear precedence constraints that operate within explicitly declared word order domains extending beyond the local tree as well as immediate dominance rules in which the grammar writer can arrange the right-hand side as to minimize the number of parsing hypotheses that must be explored. The GIDLP parsing algorithm developed in the thesis supports efficient processing by making direct use of linear precedence constraints during parsin (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: W. Detmar Meurers (Advisor) Subjects: Language, Linguistics