On Minimalist Attribute Grammars and Macro Tree Transducers
Jens Michaelis, Uwe Mönnich, Frank Morawietz · 2001
In this paper we extend the work by Michaelis (1999) which shows how to encode an arbitrary Minimalist Grammar in the sense of Stabler (1997) into a weakly equivalent multiple contextfree grammar (MCFG). By viewing MCFG-rules as terms in a free Lawvere theory we can translate a given MCFG into a regular tree grammar. The latter is characterizable by both a tree automaton and a corresponding formula in monadic second-order (MSO) logic. The trees of the resulting regular tree language are then unpacked into the intended \\linguistic" trees both through an MSO transduction based upon tree-walking automata and through a macro tree transduction. This two-step approach gives an operational as well as a logical description of the tree sets involved. As an interlude we show that MCFGs can be regarded as a particularly simple attribute grammar. 1 Introduction Algebraic, logical and regular characterizations of (tree) languages provide a natural framework for the denotational and opera...