A Formal Model of Syntactic Structure
Joan W. Bresnan, Ash Asudeh, Ida Toivonen, Stephen B. Wechsler · 2015
This chapter defines the original c-structure to f-structure correspondence of lexical-functional grammar (LFG). The formal model of LFG embodies three general design principles: variability, universality, and monotonicity. The modes of expression of a language have a structure which we have called the “expression structure” or external structure. A commonly used representation of c-structure is the context-free phrase structure tree. The principle of universality states that internal structures are largely invariant across languages. The chapter defines f-structures that contain (grammatical) functions, and that suggests a reason for the name “functional” structure. f-structures are described by specifying the value it associates with each argument. The chapter explains the correspondence between a c-structure and f-structure for the sentence "Lions live in the forest". It then focuses on the derivation of an f-structure from a c-structure. It concludes with a discussion on completeness and coherence, functional uncertainty and sets of f-structures.