AUGMENTED X' -SCHEMES 
Neculai CURTEANU 
Institute for Computer Technique and Informatics ~ 
IASI Branch, IASI 
ROUmaNIA 
Abstract 
The paper presents the embedding of an 
original parsing strategy for Romanian,call- 
ed Segmentation-Cohesion-Dependency (SCD) , 
into Chomsk~'s well-known Government and 
Binding (BG) theory. In order to bring closer 
the SCD concepts and techniques to the GB 
theory, the following questions have had to 
be dealt with: (1) a specification of the 
Principle of Maximal Projection (PMP), (2) 
extending the X'-theory (X - bar) by introd- 
using Augmented X' (AX')-schemes, these ones 
being obtained by (3) specific constraints 
imposed on the new shapes of X'-schemes. (4) 
The AX'-schemes can be represented in terms 
of a tree (paranthetic) language, whose tran 
-slation in a logic progran~ing language fol 
-lows naturally. 
1. Introduction 
Our approach represents a theoretical 
adaptation of Chomsky's subset of theories 
to the practical results obtained from and 
designed for SCD parsing strategY /Curteanu 
1986/, /Curteanu 1987/. Mainly designed for 
Romanian, this strategy proved to be effect- 
ive (with some peculiarities) also for 
English /Curteanu 1988b/. Let us consider 
the classical notations: X'-the second level 
of X projection, X''=XP-the third (top) level 
of projection for X=N,V,A,P. Consider also S 
, S' and PMP(X)=XP. We do not intend to dis- 
cuss the problems of S''=PMP(S). We shall 
call X'-structures (middle level in the max- 
imal projections) as "groups": a group con- 
tains an overt or an empty head, wrapped by 
its specifiers (denoted Specif) and modifiers 
(denoted Modif) but without argument(s) (ds~ 
noted Arg). Thus X'=XG. N~N' is called Elem 
• oentary Noun Group (ENG). Tensed Verbal Group 
(TVG) is V' with the (morphologic or syntac- 
tic) feature of being tensed. Non-tensed 
Verbal Group (NVG) is V' with the (morpho- 
logic) feature of being untensed. ECP abbrev- 
iates the Empty Category Principle. We note 
that X'-struotures are naturally obtained by 
SCD rules. 
As Chomsky remarks "...the distinction 
between modifiers and arguments is notorious- 
ly difficult in certain cases" /Chomsky 1982 
P.44/. Giving a general solution for the dis 
-tribution of the verbal nature modifiers , 
the kX'-schemes offer also the correct assign 
-ment of the functional dependencies between 
the head and its Modif, on the one hand, and 
the head and its Arg(s), on the other hand. 
The paper presents a PMP specification,which 
the adopted solutions are based on. It mainly 
says that not only V has suboategorization 
properties, but also some N and A (part of 
these verbal Ns or As being, in some lang- 
uages, V). The new features of the AX'-schemes 
are: (1) an arbitrary number (n ~o) of Arg(s) 
are permitted, (2) the AP is always a Modlf 
! and (3) the PP is always an Arg in AX -schemes 
Mailing Address : Universitatea "Al.I.Cuza", 
Seminarul Matematic "A.Myller", 6600 IASI, 
ROMANIA 
whose overt or empty head is N,V,A. The sub- 
categorization properties depend on an ab 
~ assigment, at the dictionary level~ef 
xical feature VERB of the category. (4) 
The overt or empty (PRO) subject is considered 
as a special argument of the tensed (S) or un 
-tensed (NP) maximal projections of V° (5) In 
the hypotheses (4) and (2) the traditional , 
formal VP is dissolved into S or complex, vet 
-bal NP° (6) The phenomena of binding and 
bounding are easier remarked and solved this 
way. 
2. A~ecification of pMP 
We have shown in /Curteanu 1987/, /Curt- 
eanu 1988a/ that, within the SCD parsing 
strategy, there are detached basic (middle 
level) structures of the form X' (like ENG, 
TVG, NVG). They are elements of the (tensed 
or untensed) clause relation ~ 
arguments. For all these X'-structures we 
~ould find the same functional representation 
shape, written as a LISP tree. The new prop- 
osed AX'-schemes have their origin in the 
governing idea of the SCD strategy: the (max- 
imal) use of the verbal character of, tradit-~ 
ionally non-verbal (including for Romanian) 
categories, N and A. Let us consider the fol- 
lowing PMP specification: 
The subcategorization properties of the 
(consistent) syntactic categories N,V,A 
depend on the following lexical and, res- 
pectively, morphological features of these 
categories: VERBalit 2, wi~alues AG~ 
and EXIST, and pREDicativ!tn, wi~}K--~He 
values T and NIL. 
Such a speelfication of the maximal project~ 
ion function is necessary because in many 
languages (including Romanian) the verbal 
quality of the non-verbal categories like N 
or (sometimes) A has to be discovered and 
assigned at the dictionary level. E.g., for 
English, the nouns that "verbalize" in -in~ 
have, of course, the VERB feature. There are, 
also, quite few participles which are not 
adjectives and fewer adjectives which are not 
participles, despite their VERB quality (and 
thus, of the subcategorizatlon property). 
3. Augmented X' - Schemes 
Before proposing the new AX -schemes, we 
simply remark a (more adequate, at least for 
our approach) alternative shape to the class- 
ical X'-scheme. This should be: 
X'' X'' 
Verbal /'X Arg Specif X' Modif Feature# /\'~ "/~Arg 
Sp6clf X Modif X 
Modified shape instead of the Classical one(C) 
In what followsp for cenvenienoe~--s~ill 
use the classical shape (C). 
The general form of the AX'-seheme is: 
130 
\],'.em'~t!'k ° T\]~ o iYorm~ \] 
X' ' ~ .3~s" J?-6~:;'gn ue ~ be t 
g,~ec~i f .~:'" \]~aodJ.f el.re : ~he occur .- 
............ I~<~'<:::L:L,: ............ eyme o f t;he 1 exi c 
-.~ \]. :\['eatuz-e VF, IIB .X VEi?B A\].'g. Art2" "hrgn and the arbitrary 
X\],:@, V~ k~ \]~ nu\]0l)e:t' o,~' A~'g(s). 
AttgutODte(\[ X'.--scl'ieme (A1) Let o.!j further 
speoi£y (A3.) 
.t~.'3:!i-t\]5-z-£-'!z- ( figures 3,4. and 3,5. ) : 
> ~--" i The i~8.|,b\]"e /<\[---< 
;.;'i)~?oJ:|~ ~ ~fdodJ.f=A\]? VS.\]UO A(\]Q_ ~ el ~ -. _..,,~(<--._ ~ the ca t egol'ie~ 
-" N and. k (and I i.,p:,.:i.oit:b, v) 
~'L~:i~, g,~ A, c :i.s u.ssigned 
.k:X:'-.,i~(;he.me fo:v AP (h2.1) when these 
categories 
.l'~.,_~ 4.:, correspond to 
i..{. -: complex, act- 
..... - ~ ional verbs. /% I J-~- 
Speo:(.:\[' \[jQ& -~odJ.f \],X_\[.~TThei' - ~valtle:i.s -- ...... /~< <:<ll 
............. implicitly or 
\[.X:\]I\[ VJ,;I;'.:; A:tog\]...A:rgi=P\]?~.-JA:Cgn explicitly in- 
X=:N V, A, e troduced by 
AX'.~schome for t'\]:' (A2.2) the forms and 
:i~i~Q .L. 5.t meanings of the verb 
S' "to be". \]~or ~ we 
OOll~ 
//\, sider the CONP S 
~'~'~"~r ....... AS ' --,'~ theme \ 
(Id.g. 3.6.). 
_ ~.. . The feature 
A~J ' ,solpelite ( A.'J ) PRN\]) J,s 
'" F ' d similar to the 
--or;y INFI, from 
;;he (da~.<l.(:a\] ::;'. scheme° \]:J: VG::/.t'VO (PRED=T) 
VG,'==NV(;~ (i?R\]~!L:\[i\[\],), ~ be~ollles tLtl J.D.i'J.11ite 
c\] au,~e, ~:~atur~L 1 2 ~.,,s~imi.\].r:~.t;od by :~,c;hemes 
(A2o\],) a).~O. (£2.2) %0 a complex~ verbal N.I?, In 
thi;:i way, the value \[X=V J.n (A\].) i~ pu:~;.ely 
i;heoretic.~d si~iee the mm.'K:i.ma\]_ projection of 
V :i.~.~ embedded into ,.,° o~:" N\]?. 
The ~heoretical az'gument~ for the AX' ,- 
!i~!:. '~ The speoi~%l posit\].on of the (grnmmatical) 
sub;}ect; i.u a ,V'-.-soheme is~ :t~ fae,, an A- ox' 
~i (J~l\[~e ~)O~'~i"~ioLd,. lit becomes a right @-. pos= 
ig:/on only 8:t'ter ,~yntactic and a:~emo.nt:\[c 
<al culi, 
e:~,;::: At th,. ~ syntactic \].eve\]., the ,~ubjeot pos- 
i~6!\['o-n p:eenent~ well-known ambiguities° 
~,'_~, i!i~:~ /Wehr\]i 1984/, as well as :In lexica\].~ 
fun,H;io:<m.,, grm~maar~ /Sellu 1985/ and unific- 
~},i;ion.-hae~ed grammars /Shiober 1986/, there 
a:c~ a adopted simJ.la~" poin'l;~-~ of view. This ~,pi;!\[on 
d( ~ ~ not :eepreseni; any impediment to 
apply .~pec ifio :mechanic,s, e,g, control theo- 
ry, -be obl;aill %he ,A ~ Or O .... position of the 
ove~'i; o:c empty subject. 
9~=° Such e,. so\].~:v~ion has as co.,.mequence the 
extension of the. maximal projection of VG to 
(tenaed or untensed) sentencial shapes, ent- 
o.J.l~ng i;h,. diLeec~ transition to the logical 
:~'OX'~ at.~d ~'Y~alys.ls of nt~%u~al langt~age, a 
p:co:~,:\[.t inc,ompa:r.,.O~\].y gz'eator than '~he. forma\]. 
l.e~ing (e:r,',bod0,i~g into ,U om NP) of tile VP. 
o.!5 ,. The 'b'!~t(l.J)~g ~,tXld t)ouztd:/ng phenomena are 
- 'L¢', )ebi,e:~, z'evea\[ed and translated° Eog,,. we are 
dea\]:i.yig, ~ b(mnding ~odes, with tanned and 
.\[/ea~(-.. %.t~ere o,~'e ~ome prao%ical arguments° 
4° A~!~mnted X'-Schemes at Work 
There are underlined the words having 
assigned the feature value ACT,and used the SO\]) segmentation .~'uleso 
Ex.4:iJ~/floare alb~ /de oire~/ 
Ex. 4.1z,/the cherry /white blossom/ 
NP • Jl ................ 
Spe off N' ~t~odif---D~ 
\ I N~EXIST Art NIL 
I i cherry NIL 
Ex.4__z.2@/floare a2b~l,lb.~tut~/ /de vint/ 
EX. 4.2./white blossom/,/tjlo, wnn/ /by the wind/ 
NP 
Speoif NJ Modif=At > 
I- I 
blossom NIL 
Soecif \[~r, ~ \]-. ~Nodi f~Al l -Y V.+-'-.- .-I""I ......... ._ 
N'~L N\]~\]\] A ACI_ Arg\]:PP NIL 
blown P* NP 
oy the wlnc 
l,'it~" 4 2.2o 
/cu vect:i\].e principii/ 
Ex. 4,3./educated / \[by his fa ther\]/accordi~l.~.l~/ 
/with old-fashioned principles/ \[-._.p~\] 
A ACT Arg=l'P 
I educated y t. s 
., ~odi.e.zm .ta~rter .__.f~ -~ 
Specif A~ Modif=Al' 
A ACT Arg~=PP NIL 
acco~ P NP 
 it/ I old-fashioned 
principles 
._3_- 
Ex.4.4.____~t./Omuli//c~ruiai/PRO~/ii-s~ dat / 
/oartea//PR0 i ~it/ ~ara.// 
Ex.4.4./The man!//whoml/ l~/~_ze/the book/ 
/PRO i left/ the country.// 
\]31 
Specif N" ------.~ 
t e Nodlf=S A \\ 
- wliom i 
VG PRED krg, Az'go Arg.~ I .!o I '-! L I " 
~.av e T '1:. e. the book "-- ,:J. A 
S 
VG PRED Arg~ Argo 
ilef'_~ T PR0 i t~:e country 
Ex,4.5,/lonj/ a convins-o~ /pc B~lariaj\[/ /e~ 
d~lasare.a k /ei~i/ la Bucu.re~ti/e~'r~e 
util~ e k / Unlvexsiti~ii,// 
Ex~ 4.5../Johni/convinced/_ Naryj\[ //that /herj 
/de--fur ok/to Buchares%//was use ful 
e k /for the Unlversity~.// 
S ~ 
VG PRED Arg I Arg 2 ~Az'g.~ = S 
convinced _ 'at thlt I s 
VG(=N~\] PRED Arg., A~'g., 
d~k NIL her. to 
- L. • ~ Bucharest 
S 
VG PRED Arg~ =N~> I I 
was T Speci: )~ 
NIL Specif A' Modif / - I 
IC / \ A 
ACT Arg\] Arg2=PP fl. / ',1 
use ul e k or the 
-- University 
~i&=4.5.2. 
By a raising transformation we obtain the 
alternative :"small clause" 
VG PRED Arg\] =NP k Arg2gPI 
was-useful T 
Remark° In / OhTE~ ~k--Tgt8 ~/ 
there are dis~ 
cussed the vat 
-ious aspects 
of such censt~. 
~uctioaSo We 
simply observe 
that the choice 
between the last two structures depends on 
the implementation structures of the logic 
representation language° 
The m~J.~:~ oon~t~ui~x~ on %:h~; 7<E ~ ~~ ~ " 
~76 lexi~al \]eve\]o:~:t tak:e~J the value,~ AO'.I! o:e 
EX\]:ST ~cco:ediD.g; to %he ve:rbe, l.~.u,:/i;iona\] or 
($mp:\].ic~ t or explicit) ve:rbal,oex:ii~%en%:ia\]. 
nature of its head° 
c~. The (~d)st~ract) fe,'J.~v.l'e PILED I_~j ~a:~b~rnned 
Sy'"the o:t.~sioal 11gFLo :1:% takes '\[;he values C 
and NXL.. O%he:~' featux0es,~ ~l~eci~:\[o %o 1Nil?i:, 
(like A~IO ~ couid be added, 
~ The a~{signme~r\[; of %he \]~lodif mole %0 .A\]? 
.\]~ lJa:f%Ic~l\]ar %0 i~\]VG.) J.~ jus~ii\[ie£ botll 'by 
the BOP and %he ide~lti<~ l)ehavlou~ ~ of A:? %n 
%he f~ame of ENG and TVG-NgG,, 
s4o The assig~m:ent o:f the A:i:~g role to 7:'1 ~ is 
"i\]u-s°i:iofled both l:)y %he ECP. pamt, J.oularlza%ien 
to N\]? end by \[;he P~\[P spas ficatie:a re::{ \[he 
to be ~ " ~inoe~ as a :hsa~ :t.t rlo~: - oo:n;:~:t. ,t, ten% ~ 
o&nYiot 'b(. a 'pi~ope\](\]/ 'h~mdii'ied e~ (LIlI0_ UsDeoif.- 
led ~') ha% only "a~egumen%ized ~. 
,!:~5~ The VP (:L~i fu, ct, VG) embedding :into S o~. ' 
NP was a\].:~'eady ju~,~~if:Led in Seu%ion '3~ 
c6, The AX'-s~::h.:~me (A2ol) offe~o~ a ve~:'y au:<%-, 
i-:J~i:'e .fxoame for the e:!J.ips:ts ~'m\].vt.~go 
The specific :.ni;er,~ ~:Jld\[ lntr~pl0oi)o~:~l~:_:.ena:!.. 
~tlmstures (ENO~ }~gC~) ~.~.._d reta%:i.ons are p:rop-, 
ex<lj revealed I<9 %he SOD s%>,'ategyo The verbal 
-oao%ional o:, ve:\['ba\]..o,e:~eis%ential natu~,e o:f ~,he 
heads of s~J: (mi0.(i\].e \].eve\].) \[~-.:~tx~uott~:,:;es 
ha\[~ %0 be fm.~.oi;ionally ..... :eefleotedo 'l"~e.- AX ~ -o 
soheme~ cot,:!.d. ??ep:resent good pl'em:t~ea~ fo:r %he 
ma~:ima\],i:~y level oi' the ve~:q)al functic, hal:/~y 
use :i.n syntax, hence in .the :ke:<ical semant:t.os., 
This has been the pux'poa~ge of ou:e papem",~ 
Aokhow\]ed~emen~s, 1 w&~% to e:,<p:~-e~s my nill.~. 
~AC ..... ~41~L.l (, LI,. ~ \]3't!tb ~ 
ha~e~ % Uni v-e~'si ty ~ and i;o d:,2 o :\[£ o i!t'*l ban e,.:~.:d d~:',, 
0o Pop~rda ,.I:a~i Un:tversi ty, fez ~ gheix' eo~a~truc1~ 
~oive c~r:~.~J.,ci~;m of ~ome i&ea~ O:, %he paper° 

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