Full and underspecified unification-based representations of the locative alternation in Formalised Lexical-Constructional Grammar

Abstract

This research is framed within the “Formal Grammar camp” (Sag, Boas & Kay 2012: 2) which pursues the goal of processing linguistic information by means of unification mechanisms operated by tools called feature structures that use the union of feature/value pairs to process syntactic structures (Shieber 2003: 5). In particular, this study is grounded on Formalised Lexical-Constructional Grammar (FL_CxG) (CortésRodríguez 2021; Cortés-Rodríguez & Díaz-Galán, in press), a recent model that has been devised with the aim of providing the syntactic apparatus of the Lexical Constructional Model (Mairal-Usón & Ruiz de Mendoza 2009; Ruiz de Mendoza & Mairal-Usón 2008, 2011; Ruiz de Mendoza & Galera 2014) with an appropriate degree of formalisation that will make it suitable for natural language processing tasks. Thus, with this research I aim to contribute to the development of FL_CxG by designing the feature structures for the locative alternation in relation to the predicate load. To achieve this aim, I have first designed the purposefully underspecified unification-based representation of the predicate load, which is codified as an attribute-value matrix (AVM) that only reflects the information that is relevant so that the predicate can be integrated into the locative constructions. Then, I have created the AVMs for the combinatory and non-combinatory constructions in which this predicate participates, which are full unification-based representations that describe the lexical, semantic and syntactic phenomena that is needed in the unification processes of the lexeme and the constructions with particular linguistic entities. With this study, I have contributed to expand the list of grammatical objects that are needed in FL-CxG at this initial state of development and have shown its potential as a formalised model that provides enriched descriptive and analytical tools built upon solid principles from other grammatical approaches.