Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar: An Investigation in Linguistic Theory and Its Computational Implementation

这是一个重新支持语言学理论项目的建议，该项目已被证明非常富有成效，其结果在理论和实践上都很重要。研究人员正在继续研究一种明确的语言语法和语义理论的可能性和问题，这种理论在单一的表示层次上运作，具有严格定义和限制形式属性的规则。大多数理论家发现，为了解释在自然语言中观察到的数据，有必要假设两个或两个以上的表示层次，以及各种形式类型的规则。这里提出的理论，由于其范围和力量更有限，对语言的潜在本质提出了更有力、更有趣的主张，并且在某种程度上，它可以被证明是有效的经验，因此它构成了语言学理论的重大进步。为了在经验上验证理论，研究者必须令人满意地处理导致其他研究者假设更复杂理论的众多经验问题，这就是这里提出的项目的负担。如上所述，该项目除了具有经验意义外，还具有实际意义。正在探索的有限理论允许比更多样化的理论更快、更有效的计算机处理，并且在某种程度上，它可以处理自然语言的数据并产生有用的输出，它为自然语言处理的计算机系统提供了一个重大进步的前景。

This is a proposal for renewed support of a project in linguistic theory which has proven exceedingly productive, with results of both theoretical and practical importance. The researcher is continuing to investigate the possibilities and problems of an explicit theory of linguistic syntax and semantics which operates on a single level of representation, with rules with strictly defined and restricted formal properties. Most theoreticians have found it necessary to postulate two or more levels of representation, and rules of a variety of formal types, in order to account for the data observed in natural language. The theory proposed here, by being more restricted in its scope and power, makes much stronger and more interesting claims about the underlying nature of language, and to the extent that it can be shown to be valid empirically, it thus constitutes a significant advance in linguistic theory. In order to validate the theory empirically, the investigator must deal satisfactorily with the numerous empirical problems which have led other researchers to postulate more complex theories, and that is the burden of the project proposed here. The project has, as mentioned above, practical import in addition to its empirical interest. The restricted theory being explored permits much faster and more efficient computer processing than more diverse theories do, and to the extent it can handle the data of natural language and produce useful output, it offers the prospect of a major advance in computer systems for natural language processing.