Description

CCG's appeal as a theory is its ability to predict phenomena and
their
interaction by making hypotheses explicit (by way of lexical categories)
and looking at their consequences in a systematic way. The formalism
provides controlled degree of freedom; all cross-linguistic diversity is
confined to the lexicon.

We will cover basic CCG and its philosophy, how it relates to other
formalisms so that students can import/export their hypotheses from other
theories, and what tools are currently provided for hypothesising about
languages and constructions. After basic vocabulary (2.5 sessions), we
will specifically focus on linguistic diversity and its capture in the
theory: parametric and hierarchical lexicons, ergative and accusative
languages, configurational and non-configurational languages, morphology
and the lexicon. 

Computation component of the course involves OpenCCG, a tool for
writing and testing CCG grammars. We show OpenCCG models of some of the
phenomena covered in lectures. We aim to cross-fertilise linguistic
argumentation and computational modeling.