A Constraint-based Grammar of Case : To Correctly Predict Case Phrases Occurring without Their Head Verb

The current paper argues that the phenomenon in Japanese that case phrases occur without their head verb before the finite complementizer would falsify the HPSG valence/content analysis, for example, in Sag 1997, Pollard and Sag 1994, if no phantom relation corresponding to a verb is used in the syntax or semantics. The HPSG valence/content analysis is that the content of a case phrase structure-shares with a part of the content of its immediately larger constituent only through the valence of its head verb. In the framework of Koga 2000, which does not assume this, a syntax & semantics phrasal rule is proposed to specify the inherent meaning of a case phrase plus the finite complementizer, and not more than that inherent meaning. The semantics of every case form is specified independently of its head verb in Koga 2000. Koga's 2000 constraint-based grammar of case was implemented on unicorn3 parser developed at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1 A Problem to the HPSG Valence/Content Analysis on the Assumption of Compositionality 1.1. Case Phrases Occurring Without Their Head Verb before the Finite Complementizer Case phrases occur without their head verb before the finite complementizer /to/ in Japanese, as in B's response to A's utterance in (1).