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Jean-Pierre Koenig and Anthony Davis: Semantically Transparent Linking in HPSG
Most researchers now agree that subcategorization correlates
significantly with semantics. But this semantic component of linking has
proved elusive. Most, if not all, theories of linking have, in pratice,
resorted to constructs that are syntactic diacritics. We show in this
paper that the implicit syntactic diacritics that plague the basic
linking constraints posited in at least some of these theories can be
eliminated, provided that (i) the metalanguage in which linguistic
constraints are written allows for true implicational statements; (ii)
one is willing to slightly increase the number of linking constraints.
We focus in particular on the linking theory presented in Davis and
Koenig 2000, Davis 2001, and Koenig and Davis 2000, but we maintain that
our arguments apply, mutatis mutandis, to many other linking theories.
We note some of the consequences of this view of linking, including:
linking constraints are stated in terms of semantically natural classes
of situations, a single entailment of a verb's argument is sufficient to
determine its linking, and interaction among linking constraints
restricts the range of possible lexical items.
Maintained by Stefan Müller
Created: October 2003
Last modified: November 24, 2003
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