Generalized Phrase Structute Grammar (GPSG) is based on work that has been done by a number of linguists since about 1978. A GPSG is type of generative grammar that exploits several of the resources of transformational grammars but which does not empl...
Generalized Phrase Structute Grammar (GPSG) is based on work that has been done by a number of linguists since about 1978. A GPSG is type of generative grammar that exploits several of the resources of transformational grammars but which does not employ either transformations, deep structures, surface structures, and which introduces only a single level of structural description. As their name suggests, GPSG's are essentially context-free phrase structure grammars.
In Chapter Ⅱ, we discuss universal feature instantiation principles such as Food Feature Principle (FFP), Control Agreement Principle (CAP), and Head Feature Convention (HFC). As Pullum puts it on FFP, the increment of the mother category's FOOT feature is the unification of the increments of the daughter categories' FOOT features. On the Control Agreement Principle, function symbols may present a morpheme whose form is determined by the noun class of the argument expression. In the tree diagram the head of the arrow indicates the controllee, and the tail the controller. A controllee is a function, and a controller is either an argument or an argument-passing function that applies to some controllee. On Head Feature Convention, the coefficients of HEAD in the mother category and the head daughter should be identical.
In Chapter Ⅲ, we discuss the constituent structure such as the basic structure of verb phrases (VPs), adjective phrases (APs), noun phrases (NPs), prepositional phrases (PPs) and topicalizations in Englih. 22 different kinds of VPs, 7 APs, 8 NPs are classified and discussed.
Gereralized phrase structure grammarians have attempted this new theory to argue against the Extended Standard Theory of generative-transformational grammar. This paper offers only an introduction to GPSG theory.