Action Nominals in the Grammar Matrix

Abstract

This thesis describes the addition of a library for action nominal constructions (ANCs) to the LinGO Grammar Matrix customization system. Actions nominals are nominalized verbs which refer to an action or process and are often used cross-linguistically to mark clausal complements and adverbial clauses. They occupy an intermediate state between nouns and verbs, having the external distribution of a noun phrase, but often still retaining certain verbal properties. In this thesis, I build on the existing analysis for nominalized clauses in the Grammar Matrix, but shift away from an approach where the dual nominal and verbal characteristics of action nominals are explained based on what level in the tree nominalization occurs to one that relies primarily on lexical rules. This change is motivated by a desire to expand the typological range of nominalization patterns the Matrix can handle while also more closely reflecting the hybrid syntactic nature of action nominals. I present an HPSG analysis of action nominals and the implementation of that analysis within the Grammar Matrix. I develop the library using a combination of pseudo and illustrative languages (English [eng], Hixkaryana [hix], Russian [rus], Korean [kor]) and then test on small testsuites from five held-out languages (Wayana [way], Maltese [mit], Dutch [nld], Lango [laj], Finnish [fin]. The system achieved on average 95.2% coverage and 7.0% over-generation on the held-out data.