Principle-based Parsing for Chinese
Charles D Yang, Robert C. Berwick · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · 1996
This paper describes the implementation of Mandarin Chinese in the Pappi system, a principle-based multi-lingual parser. We show that sub-stantive linguistic coverage for new and linguistically diverse languages such as Chinese can be achieved, conveniently and efficiently, through pa-rameterization and minimal modifications to a core system. In particular, we focus on two problems that have posed hurdles for Chinese linguistic theories. A a novel analysis is proposed for the so-called BA-construction, along with a principled computer implementation. For scoping ambigu-ity, we developed a simple algorithm based on Jim Huang's Isomorphic Principle. The implementation can parse fairly sophisticated sentences in a couple of seconds, with minimal addition (less than 100 lines of Prolog code) to the core parser. This study suggests that principle-based pars-ing systems are useful tools for theoretical and computational analysis of linguistic problems. 1