Algorithmic syntax–semantics interface of passive forms with type-theory of acyclic recursion

Abstract

In this paper, I introduce an application of the formal language and type-theory of acyclic recursion (TTAR) to computational syntax–semantics interface of natural language (NL) expressions in passive forms. The reduction calculus of TTAR provides an algorithmic facility for representation of correspondences between syntactic and semantic arguments of verbal expressions in active and passive forms. In addition, TTAR supports underspecified values of semantic arguments that are not expressed syntactically and are ubiquitous in passive sentences. For the syntax–semantics interfaces, I use a computational version of Generalized Constraint-Based Lexicalized Grammar (GCBLG), which represents common linguistic information in varieties of approaches to formal and computational syntax, for example, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG), Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), Categorial Grammar (CG), and, possibly, Grammatical Framework (GF) and other Type-Theoretic Grammars. For the employed GCBLG, I use the formal language of the feature-structure descriptions. Its features and their values facilitate understanding of the syntax–semantics interface technique of passivisation, which can be suitably rendered in varieties of computational grammars. The introduced method of passivisation contributes to algorithmic syntax–semantic interfaces in large-scale grammar frameworks.