Dependency-Based Grammatical Information in the Lexicon

Abstract

Dependency grammar offers a suitable basis for including syntactic information into lexical entries, since a crucial point of dependency is the valency of every lexical unit. The valency (or case) frames, or theta grids, are to specify the possible (optional or obligatory) slots occupied by words which accompany a given head. Such a specification may also apply to adverbial and other “free” complementations. With such an approach, the word is understood as one of the central units of language. The class of (basically disambiguated) syntactic representations of sentences can then be specified with using just a small number of general principles to describe the core of grammar.