Attribute-Value Logic and the Theory of Grammar

Because of the ease of their implementations, attribute-value based theories of grammar are becoming increasingly popular in theoretical linguistics as an alternative to transformational accounts, as well as in computational linguistics. Mark Johnson provides a formal analysis of attribute-value structures, of their use in a theory of grammar, of the representation of grammatical relations in such theories of grammar, and the implications of different representations. A classical treatment of disjunction and negation is also included.

“Essential reading for anyone interested in recent unification-based approaches to grammar. Johnson lucidly lays out a formal framework in which a sharp distinction is drawn between descriptions of linguistic objects and the objects themselves. Negation and disjunction over complex features, though linguistically desirable, have given rise to many problems, and one of Johnson's main achievements is to show that they can be interpreted using classic logic.”
–Ewan Klein, University of Edinburgh

Mark Johnson is assistant professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Brown University.

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