Parsing and Interpretation in the Minimalist Paradigm

In this paper, we discuss how recent theoretical linguistic research focusing on the Minimalist Program (MP)(Cho95, Mar95, Zwa94)can be used to guide the parsing of a useful range of natural language sentences and the building of a logical representation in a principles-based manner. We discuss the components of the MP and give an example derivation. We then propose parsing algorithms that recreate the derivation structure starting with a lexicon and the surface form of a sentence. Given the approximated derivation structure, MP principles are applied to generate a logical form, which leads to linguistically based algorithms for determining possible meanings for sentences that are ambiguous due to quantifier scope. In this paper, we introduce a framework for describing the grammar of natural languages due to Noam Chomsky called the Minimalist Program (MP). We investigate how to build a parser that produces syntax trees conforming to the MP and how aspects of language that have bearing on meaning, but cannot be conveniently captured during parsing, can be processed. The linguistic framework is discussed first, followed by the computational implementation. We first give a brief overview of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995; Marantz 1995; Zwart 1994). The MP is the latest incarnation of Principles and Parameters grammars that define language structure in terms of well-motivated principles and parameters that adapt the principles to various natural languages. However, in this paper, we do not describe a parser that implements the MP in all its cognitive implications, which are still not completely understood and are being investigated. We feel that it is a worthwhile exercise to use the basic principles of the MP to obtain rules and structures that enable the traditional implementation of a parser. Parsing, however, is only a part of the processing. There are many linguistic phenomena than can be handled only after a syntax tree has been obtained. We discuss, among other issues, further processing of the parse to handle issues in quantifier scoping. We think this part of the paper is interesting since it shows how vexing linguistic phenomena can be handled using simple computational techniques. In writing the parser, we use a set of sentence types that have been considered by those who have written parsers motivated by earlier versions of Principles and Parameters grammars. Merlo, in his paper on a parser based on an earlier version of Principles and Parameters grammar, called the Government and Binding Theory (GB), wrote that the set of sentences he chose constitutes a