Head-driven phrase structure grammar

The Head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG) is a non-derivational generative grammar theory developed by Carl Pollard and Ivan Sag (1985). It is the immediate successor to Generalised Phrase Structure Grammar. HPSG draws from other fields such as computer science (data type theory and knowledge representation) and uses the notion of sign (Ferdinand de Saussure). It uses a uniform formalism and is organized in a modular way which makes it attractive for natural language processing.

A HPSG grammar includes principles and grammar rules and lexicon entries which are normally not considered to belong to a grammar.

The basic type HPSG deals with is the sign. Words and phrases are two different subtypes of sign. A word has two features: PHON (the sound, the phonetic form) and SYNSEM (the syntactic and semantic information), both of which are split into subfeatures. Signs are formalised as typed feature structures.

See also

• Generalised phrase structure grammar
• Lexical functional grammar
• syntax
• Transformational grammar

Books

• Carl Pollard, Ivan A. Sag (1987): Information-based Syntax and Semantics. Volume 1: Fundamentals. Stanford: University of Chicago Press.
• Carl Pollard, Ivan A. Sag (1994): Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ([1])
• Ivan A. Sag, Thomas Wasow, Emily Bender (2003): Syntactic Theory: a formal introduction, Second Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ([2])

External links

• Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Stanford
• Ohio State homepage
• Excellent summary
• Compares HPSG with alternatives, and offers historical perspective