We present a new approach to HPSG processing: compiling HPSG grammars expressed as type constraints into definite clause programs. This provides a clear and computationally useful correspondence between linguistic theories and their implementation. The compiler performs off-line constraint inheritance and code optimization. As a result, we are able to efficiently process with HPSG grammars with...

The past few years have witnessed increased attention within lexicalist frameworks such as Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) and Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) to the analysis of predicates expressed by syntactically independent pieces. The recognition of such phenomena, primarily represented in the literature by analytic or periphrastic causatives, raises central questions concerni...

0.Introduction In recent years, the number of linguists who refer to notions like focus and ground have grown rapidly. 1 Many interesting articles have appeared that show that we cannot give a complete syntactic, morphological or prosodic analysis without taking such notions into acccount. By the focus of an utterance I understand the new information that the speaker wants to convey. In contras...