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Lexical Functional Grammar

Oral Presentation by
Gyngyi Cseh

Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) was developed in the late 1970s by Joan Bresnan and Ron
Kaplan.
Organization oI the grammar












The lexical-Iunctional grammar determines two levels oI syntactic description to every sentence oI a
language. Phrase structure conIigurations are represented in a .4nstituent stru.ture. A constituent
structure or 'c-structure is a conventional phrase structure tree that indicates the arrangement oI
words and phrases in the sentence. Grammatical Iunctions are presented at the other level oI
description, called fun.ti4nal stru.ture. Functional structure or 'I-structure provides a
characterization oI syntactic notions as subject, object, complement and adjunct. The I-structure is
the sole input to the semantic component. Lexical-Iunctional grammar adopts a version oI X`-
Theory.

Constituent structure (c-structure)
-structures characterize phrasal and sentential syntax such as verb phrase, noun phrase,
etc.) . It can be derived by phrase structure rules:
a. $ NP VP (A sentence consists oI a noun phrase Iollowed by a verb phrase.)
E.g.:
NP VP
girl handed the baby a t4y.


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b. NP DET N (A noun phrase consists oI a determiner Iollowed by a noun.)
E.g.:
DET N
girl

c. VP V NP (A verb phrase consist oI a verb Iollowed by a noun phrase.)
E.g.:
V NP NP
handed the baby a t4y

Eg girl handed the baby a t4y.`

S: sentence
NP: noun phrase
VP: verb phrase
DET: determiner
N: noun
V: verb




unctional structures (f-structure)
Functional structure encodes its meaningIul grammatical relations and provides suIIicient
inIormation Ior the semantic component. The I-structure indicates that the girl NP is the
grammatical subject, handed is the semantic predicate, the baby NP is the grammatical object,
and t4y is the second grammatical object. The I-structure represents this inIormation as a set oI
ordered pairs oI each which consists oI an attribute (subject, object, predicate, tense, case,
number, person etc.) and that attribute`s value Ior this sentence.
There are three types oI values:
a. Simple symb4ls: SG, PAST, etc.
b. Semanti. f4rms (govern the process oI semantic interpretation): TOY`, GIRL`,
HAND ((SUBJ) ( OBJ) (OBJ))`, etc.
c. f-stru.tures (sets oI ordered pairs representing complexes oI internal Iunctions):
NUM SG, PERSON 3, PRED TOY`, etc.
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E.g.: ' girl handed the baby a t4y`











SUBJ-Subject:
SPE (speciIier): A symbols
NUM (number): SG (the grammatical number oI the word- singular)
PRED (abstract predicate): GIRL` Its values are semantic Iorms. Semantic Iorms arise in
the lexicon.

TENSE attribute has the symbol value: PAST
PRED-Predicate:
HAND ((SUBJ) ( OBJ) (OBJ))`
Arguments oI the three-place predicate HAND (agent:girl, theme:toy and goal:baby)

Hand is Iollowed by an argument list, which deIine a mapping between the logical arguments
and the grammatical Iunctions oI I-structure.

) Well-formedness conditions on f-structures

There are three main well-Iormedness conditions on I-structures. These are known as the
conditions oI
- Functional Uniqueness
- ompleteness and
- oherence

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Uniqueness: In a given I-structure, a particular attribute may have at most one value. This
condition describes an I-structure by the values oI the grammatical Iunctions oI which it is
composed.
S:1

(f
1
SUBJ) f

f
1
f
3

NP: VP:3

A girl handed the baby a toy (sentence) f
1

A girl (NP) f

handed the baby a toy (VP) f
3


a. the SUBJ oI f
1
f
2
b. the SPE oI f
2
A
c. the NUM oI f
2
SG
d. the PRED oI f
2
GIRL`

F-structure is a mathematical Iunction that represents the grammatical Iunctions oI a sentence.
E.g.
the NUM oI f
2
SG

a. The Iunction oI f
2
is such that applying it to the argument NUM yields the value SG.
b. f
2
(NUM) SG

ompleteness: An I-structure is l4.ally .4mplete iI and only iI it contains all the governable
grammatical Iunctions that its predicate governs. An I-structure is .4mplete iI and only iI it and all
its subsidiary I-structures are locally complete.

oherence: An I-structure is l4.ally .4herent iI and only iI all the governable grammatical Iunctions
that it contains are governed by a local predicate. An I-structure is .4herent iI and only iI it and all
its subsidiary I-structures are locally coherent.

) The relation between .897:.9:708 and 1897:.9:708

-structures carry inIormation that is displayed in I-structure, and are annotated with fun.ti4nal
s.hemata, which indicate how the Iunctional inIormation contained on a node in the syntax
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participates in the I-structure.

$entence rule is annotated in the Iollowing way:
S NP VP
( SUBJ)

S node
mother node
( SUBJ)
NP VP

The Iunctional inIormation carried by the NP and the VP. The NP`s I-structure goes into the SUBJ
part oI the mother`s I-structure (S`s I-structure). VP`s I-structure is direct inIormation about the
mother`s I-structure (S`s I-structure). NP is the subject. VP is the Iunctional head ().

The up- and down-arrows (' and ') reIer to the I-structure that corresponds to the c-structure
node built by the rule. The 'up reIers to the I-structure oI the mother node and the 'down reIers to
the I-structure oI the node itselI.

The VP-rule

VP V (NP) (NP) (PP) (S`)
( OBJ) ( OBJ) ( ( ASE) ( OMP)
VP can contain a verb then a NP that is the OBJ (direct object), then a second object OBJ.
There can be any number oI PPs (prepositional phrases) and there can be an optional S` constituent
which bears the OMP (complement)

The NP-rule
NP (Det) N (PP)
( ADJUNT)
E.g.: 'the man asleep at the wheel`
NP contains an optional determiner, a noun and may also contain a PP ADJUNT (such as relative
clause, adjectival modiIier).
The PP-rule
PP P NP
( OBJ)
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E.g.: 'She flew t4 the m44n.`

S: sentence
NP: noun phrase
VP: verb phrase
PP: prepositional phrase
N: noun
V: verb
P: preposition
Det: determiner
OBL
GO
: oblique goal







S:1

(f
1
SUBJ) f

f
1
f
3

NP: VP:3

f
1
She Ilew to the moon - S (sentence)
f

She (NP)
f
3
Ilew to the moon. (VP)


She`
PERS: person
NUM: number
GEN: gender
ASE: case
PRED: predicate



f
1
-structure
f

-structure
f
3
-structure
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flew t4 the m44n`

OBL
GO
: oblique goal
A: accusative case
DEF: deIinite













Resources:
Bresnan, J.&R.M. Kaplan: 'Lexical-Iunctional grammar: a Iormal system Ior grammatical
representation. Bresnan, J. (ed.): The mental representati4n 4f grammati.al relati4ns. ambridge,
Mass: MIT Press 198.
Sells, P.: Lectures on contemporary syntactic theories. StanIord: SLI Publications 198.