Modeling Discontinuous Constituents with Hypergraph Grammars

Discontinuous constituent are a frequent problem in natural language analyses. A constituent is called discontinuous if it is interrupted by other constituents. In German they can appear with separable verb prefixes or relative clauses in the Nachfeld. They can not be captured by a context–free Chomsky grammar. A subset of hypergraph grammars are string grammars where the result of a derivation must be formed like a string i.e. terminal edges are connected to two nodes and are lined up in a row. Nonterminal edges do not have to fulfill this property. In this paper it is shown that a context–free string grammar (one hyperedge is replaced at a time) can be used to model discontinuous constituents in natural languages. 1 Discontinuous Constituents in Phrase Structure Grammars Discontinuity is a phenomenon that can be found in various natural languages. It means that two parts of a constituent of a sentences are not found next to each other in this sentence. Take for example the foll...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: AGTIVE
• Authors: Ingrid Fischer
• Keywords: AGTIVE 2003, Discontinuous Constituents, Formal Languages, Natural Languages, Relative Clause