Parsing mixed constructions in a type feature structure grammar

Because of the mixed properties of nominal and verbal properties, Korean gerundive phrases (GPs) posit intriguing issues to both theoretical as well as computational analyses. Various theoretical approaches have been proposed to solve this puzzle, but they all have ended up abandoning or modifying fundamental theory-neutral desiderata such as endocentricity (every phrase has a head), lexicalism (no syntactic rule refers to the word-internal structure), and null licensing (abstract entities are avoided if possible) (cf. Pullum 1991, Malouf 1998). This paper shows that it is possible to analyze and efficiently parse the mixed properties of Korean GPs in a way that maintains the desiderata while avoiding abstract entities. This has been achieved through Korean Phrase Structure Grammar, an extension of HPSG that models human languages as systems of constraints on typed feature structures. The feasibility of the grammar is tested by implementing it into the LKB (Linguistics Knowledge Building) system (cf. Copestake 2002).