Ivan A. Sag
Professor of Linguistics and Symbolic Systems, Stanford University. Senior Researcher: Center for the Study of
Language and Information (CSLI).
Ivan A. Sag
CSLI, Ventura Hall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
94305
USA
E-mail:
sag@csli.stanford.edu
650-723-2876 (at CSLI); 650-723-9007 (secretary); 650-725-2323 (at Ling).
Research Goal:
To contribute to the development of a theory of grammar that can be directly
embedded within a theory of communication and language processing. Specific
research interests include: grammatical theory, English and French syntax,
semantics, natural language processing (human and computer).
Current Projects:
The development of the general theory of HPSG (see Pollard and Sag 1994)
with particular emphasis on the explanation of cross-linguistic generalizations.
My current research, conducted within the CSLI HPSG Project, focusses
on the following topics:
- Construction Hierarchies -- specifically for relative and
interrogative constructions:
My first attempt at developing this approach
to grammatical constructions was a paper on relative clauses that appeared in
Journal of Linguistics (Sag
1997).
More recently, Jonathan Ginzburg and I have almost finished a
monograph applying the same general approach to English interrogative
constructions. A paper based on one chapter of this is now available as Ginzburg and Sag to
appear.
- The Analysis of Extraction Phenomena without traces or
transformations:
Janet Fodor and I tried to show that all extant arguments
for the existence of wh-traces are defective (Sag and Fodor
1994). I've updated these arguments and added one or two more in Sag ms.
With
Gosse Bouma and Rob Malouf, I've been developing a
unified (traceless) treatment of extraction phenomena that tries to bring HPSG
in line with the important theoretical and crosslinguistic observations made
by Tom Hukari and Bob Levine in their work on adjunct and subject extraction.
A current draft of a paper presenting this account is Bouma,Malouf, and Sag to
appear.
- The Hierarchical Lexicon and alternatives to lexical
rules:
Building on the work of both Ann Copestake and Susanne Riehemann on lexical rules
and the work of Tony
Davis on `linking theory', Chris Manning and I have
been exploring ways of expressing generalizations about complex predicates and
argument realization in typologically diverse languages. We have three papers
on this (partly overlapping), the most comprehensive of which is Manning and Sag
1998
Phrase Structure Grammar of French
In collaboration with Anne Abeillé, Daničle Godard
and Philip Miller, I have been working on the development of a comprehensive
HPSG-based treatment of the major syntactic structures of French. Some of our
preliminary results can be found in Miller and Sag 1997,
Abeillé et al.
1998, Kim and Sag
1995. and Abeillé et al.
1998.
Warlpiri Word Order
Cathryn
Donohue and I have been working on word order in Australian languages using
Linearization Theory -- a formal framework for dealing with word order
variations and discontinuous constituency developed by Mike Reape, Andreas
Kathol and others. Our first stab at Warlpiri word order can be found in Donohue and Sag 1999.
LINguistic Grammars Online Project
The CSLI LINGO Project is
concerned with the development of a large-scale, multi-purpose, computational
grammar of English, based in part on the approach to construction hierarchies
described above. The project's current linguistic work is spread over syntactic,
lexical, and semantic issues relevant to grammar extension and debugging, as
well as discourse- and corpus-oriented work relevant to the design of
computer-aided generation for people with physical disabilities. (This project
is described HERE.)
The framework of Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS) grew out of this project.
A new version of our introductory paper on this will be available soon. For the
moment, one can consult Copestake, Flickinger,
and Sag 1997.
Syntactic Theory: a formal introduction
Tom Wasow and I recently
finished an introductory syntax textbook (designed for undergraduate students)
that was published in February, 1999 by CSLI Publications. Table of contents and
sample chapters of this book are now available HERE
Recent Publications and Current Drafts:
Abeillé, Anne, Daničle Godard, Philip
Miller and Ivan A. Sag. 1998. French Bounded
Dependencies. In Luca Dini and Sergio Balari, eds., Romance in HPSG.
Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Abeillé, Anne, Daničle Godard, and Ivan A.
Sag. 1998. Two Kinds of
Composition in French Complex Predicates.. In Erhard Hinrichs, Andreas
Kathol, and Tsuneko Nakazawa, eds., Complex Predicates in Nonderivational
Syntax. New York: Academic Press.
Bender, Emily, and Ivan A. Sag. ms. Incorporating Contracted
Auxiliaries in English Paper presented at HPSG-99 -- University of
Edinburgh.
Bouma, Gosse, Rob Malouf, and Ivan A.
Sag. to appear. Satisfying Constraints
on Extraction and Adjunction.
Copestake, Ann, Dan Flickinger and Ivan A.
Sag. 1997. Minimal Recursion
Semantics: an Introduction.
Donohue, Cathryn and Ivan A. Sag. 1999. Domains in
Warlpiri. Paper presented at HPSG-99 -- University of Edinburgh.
Ginzburg, Jonathan and Ivan A. Sag. to
appear.
Constructional Ambiguity in Conversation Amsterdam Colloquium, 1999.
Kim, Jong-Bok, and Ivan A. Sag. 1995. The
Parametric Variation of English and French Negation. Proceedings of WCCFL
1995.
Manning, Christopher, and Ivan A. Sag.
1998. Argument
Structure, Valence, and Binding. Nordic Journal of Linguistics.
Manning, Christopher, and Ivan A. Sag. 1999. Dissociations
between Argument Structure and Grammatical Relations. In A. Kathol, J.-P.
Koenig, and G. Webelhuth (eds.), Lexical and Constructional Aspects of
Linguistic Explanation. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Manning, Christopher, Ivan A. Sag, and Masayo
Iida. in press. The lexical integrity
of Japanese causatives. In Robert Levine and Georgia Green, eds.,
Readings in Modern Phrase Structure Grammar. Cambridge University
Press.
Miller, Philip, and Ivan A. Sag. 1997. French
Clitic Movement without Clitics or Movement). Natural Language and
Linguistic Theory.
Pollard, Carl, and Ivan A. Sag. 1994.
Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press and Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Sag, Ivan A. ms. Without a
Trace.
Sag, Ivan A. 1997. English
Relative Clause Constructions. Journal of Linguistics .
Sag, Ivan A., and Janet D. Fodor. 1994. Extraction
Without Traces. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the
West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
sag@csli.stanford.edu
(Up to HPSG page)