Topological parsing

Abstract

We present a new grammar formalism for parsing with freer word-order languages, motivated by recent linguistic research in German and the Slavic languages. Unlike CFGs, these grammars contain two primitive notions of constituency that are used to preserve the semantic or interpretational aspects of phrase structure, while at the same time providing a more efficient backbone for parsing based on word-order and contiguity constraints. A simple parsing algorithm is presented, and compilation of grammars into Constraint Handling Rules is also discussed.