Efficiently Parsable Extensions to Tree-Local Multicomponent TAG

Abstract

Recent applications of Tree-Adjoining Grammar (TAG) to the domain of semantics as well as new attention to syntactic phenomena have given rise to increased interested in more expressive and complex multicomponent TAG formalisms (MCTAG). Although many constructions can be modeled using tree-local MCTAG (TL-MCTAG), certain applications require even more flexibility. In this paper we suggest a shift in focus from constraining locality and complexity through tree- and set-locality to constraining locality and complexity through restrictions on the derivational distance between trees in the same tree set in a valid derivation. We examine three formalisms, restricted NS-MCTAG, restricted Vector-TAG and delayed TL-MCTAG, that use notions of derivational distance to constrain locality and demonstrate how they permit additional expressivity beyond TL-MCTAG without increasing complexity to the level of set local MCTAG.