Reduction of Lexical Redundancy via Semantically-driven Syntactic Generalisations

Syntax cannot be handled eeectively in isolation from semantic factors. In this paper, a system is presented which models the syntactic phenomenon of dative alternation via its semantic basis. The system depends on a semantic representation that incorporates psycholinguistic insights about grammatically-relevant semantic criteria, and is implemented in an HPSG grammar in ALE. The semantic basis of the system is shown not only to lead to a more accurate and linguistically elegant model but also to aid in reducing redundancy in the base lexicon. This is accomplished through speciication of lexical rules responsible for determining whether particular verbs alternate using both their syntactic and semantic properties. Furthermore, the consultation of verbal semantic features is shown to aid in prediction of the syntactic environments in which the verbs can appear.