Coupled Feature Structure
FCG provides two transient feature structure objects that are coupled during a parsing or production operation. One feature structure, designated the 'Left Pole', contains the semantic units. Each named unit is a set of features and their values. The other feature structure, the 'Right Pole', contains the syntactic units. Words are represented by units. Groupings of sub-units into grammatical constructions are also represented by units. The 'subunits' feature links subordinate units into a tree rooted at the 'top' unit. The majority of units in the FCG Left Pole have corresponding same-named units in the Right Pole, thus forming similar unit trees.
During the FCG parse of an utterance, the initial state of the Coupled Feature Structure is for a set of word strings and their ordering to be present on the sole unit of the Right (syntactic) Pole named 'top', and for the Left (semantic) Pole to consist of an empty top unit. As production rules apply consecutively to the Coupled Feature Structure, units and lexical features are linked into the Right Pole tree for each word, and if the word is significant, same-named units with semantic features are added to the Left Pole tree. At the end of a successful parse, the meaning (logical form (linguistics)) is extracted from the 'meaning' features of Left Pole units.
Conversely, because the FCG grammar is bi-directional, the production of an utterance from an initial set of meanings begins with the meanings as feature values of the sole Left Pole unit named 'top'. As successive grammar rules are applied, same-named units are added to both pole trees. At the end of a successful production, the word string is extracted from the 'form' features of Right Pole units.
Read more about this topic: Fluid Construction Grammar
Famous quotes containing the words coupled, feature and/or structure:
“The sensual and spiritual are linked together by a mysterious bond, sensed by our emotions, though hidden from our eyes. To this double nature of the visible and invisible world—to the profound longing for the latter, coupled with the feeling of the sweet necessity for the former, we owe all sound and logical systems of philosophy, truly based on the immutable principles of our nature, just as from the same source arise the most senseless enthusiasms.”
—Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835)
“Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day’s demonstration. Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“... the structure of a page of good prose is, analyzed logically, not something frozen but the vibrating of a bridge, which changes with every step one takes on it.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)