MatrixDoc_Person

Documentation for the Grammar Matrix Customization Person Library

Introduction

This document presents background information on the person library of the Grammar Matrix Customization System (Bender et al., 2002; Bender and Flickinger, 2005; Bender et al., 2010). General instructions on using the questionnaire can be found here.

Options

• [ This documentation is under construction. When it is more complete, this section should describe the effects of the various options provided in this library in terms of the behavior of the grammar. It is also a good place for tips on how to get the most from the library. ]

The person library allows the user to specify the range of values for the feature PERSON that will be available elsewhere in the customization system (especially the Lexicon and Morphology pages) and in the resulting grammar.

On the person page in Matrix Customization you are firstly asked to define the person values existing in your language. The possible person values existing in a language are first (referring to the speaker), second (the person spoken to), third (everybody else), and fourth person (its definition varies from language to language). The choices that you are provided on the person page are rather strict: (1) None, (2) First, second, and third, (3) First, second, third, and fourth, (4) First and non-first, (5) Second and non-second, (6) Third and non-third. Using this menu, please choose the option that best describes the person system in your language. In terms of filling out the questionnaire for Grammar Matrix, we are dealing with person only insofar as it is expressed grammatically, i.e. through some form of agreement. If your gender does not express person grammatically through agreement, please choose the option "None".

Next section on this page of the questionnaire is designed to define the language hierarchy on your language (PERSON or PERNUM distinction). If there is a distinct form for each combination of person and number in your language, then please select "none" and move on to the next page of the questionnaire.If your language has different forms for the first person, depending on the number (for example, English has two distinct forms for the 1 person of the English verb to be, i.e. 1sg "am" and 1pl "are"), then please select options "inclusive or exclusive" or "other."

For more analysis and implementation of the person hierarchy in your language please refer to the section below.

Analyses

Depending on the choices you make on the person page in Matrix Customization, your starter grammar will either use the feature PERSON or PERNUM. If your language has a distinct form for each person and number combination, then your grammar will use the feature PERSON. If your language has a merged person hierarchy, i.e. has subtypes of the first person for some values of the NUMBER feature, i.e. it belongs to inclusive/exclusive or minimal/augmented languages, then your grammar will need to use the feature PERNUM instead, in order to account for this merged person hierarchy.

For example, English grammar requires the feature PERNUM (with subtypes 1sg, 3sg, and non1sg), in order to avoid double parses for a sentence "You walk the dog", which would be parsed as "You.SG walk the dog" and "You.PL walk the dog," if a separate PERSON and NUMBER features were to be used. If a merged feature PERNUM is applied instead, this sentence would be analyzed as "You.Non1Sg walk the dog," therefore eliminating spurious ambiguity.

Note that like GENDER and NUMBER, PERSON (PERNUM) is a feature of the nominal INDEX. Making PERSON (PERNUM) a feature of semantic INDEX instead of syntactic HEAD allows for correct semantic representation of person in your grammar and avoiding ambiguity during generation.

The values you assign to PERSON (PERNUM) feature will be available to use later in the customization system, especially the Morphology and Lexicon pages. The answers you provide on this page will determine the values available on the lexicon page for the PERSON feature (or the PERNUM feature, about which see the Person section of the questionnaire for more details. PERSON will also appear as one of the features of the lexical rule types on Morphology page.

The choices you make on the person customization page, will also affect the lexical types (your_language_name.tdl file), lexical rules (lrules.tdl file), and inflectional rules (irules.tdl file).

The analyses implemented in the person library are described in Drellishak 2009, Section 5.3.

PERSON is a feature often involved in agreement phenomena. These are handled through the lexicon and morphology libraries. The analyses of agreement implemented in the Grammar Matrix are described in Drellishak 2009, Section 5.2.

Upcoming Work

• [ This documentation is under construction. When it is more complete, this section should describe any modifications to or enhancements of this library that are either in progress or planned. ]

References

Drellishak, Scott. 2009. Widespread but Not Universal: Improving the Typological Coverage of the Grammar Matrix. PhD thesis, University of Washington.