correction to the LFG Bulletin

[Rens Bod]

------Miriam Butt wrote:

> we got the title of Rens Bod's recent book wrong.  The real title is: 
>
>   Beyond Grammar: An Experience-Based Theory of Language 
>
> Note that the web page from Cambridge University Press 
> (http://www.cup.org/titles/csunf98.html) also carries the wrong
> title.


Unfortunately, the CUP web page also still carries the wrong (or 
outdated) abstract. Here is the full,  updated information:


BEYOND GRAMMAR: An experience-based theory of language.
Rens Bod

During the last few years, a new approach to linguistic analysis has 
started to emerge. This approach, which has come to be known under 
various labels such as "data-oriented parsing", "corpus-based 
interpretation" and "treebank grammar", embodies the assumption that 
human language comprehension and production works with representations of 
concrete past language experiences rather than with abstract grammatical 
rules. The models that instantiate this approach operate by decomposing 
the given representations into fragments and recomposing those pieces to 
analyze (infinitely many) new utterances. A probability model is used to 
choose from the collection of different fragments those that make up the 
most appropriate representation of an utterance.
	This book shows how this general approach can apply to various 
kinds of linguistic representations, ranging from phrase-structure trees, 
compositional semantic representations, dialogue representations, and 
lexical-functional grammar representations. The resulting models are 
utilized for the automatic acquisition of language, for harnessing 
ambiguity and for processing of spoken dialogue. Experiments with these 
models suggest that the productive units of natural language cannot be 
defined by a minimal set of rules or principles, but need to be defined 
by a large, redundant set of previously experienced structures. Bod 
argues that this outcome has important consequences for linguistic 
theory, leading to an entirely new view of the nature of linguistic 
competence and the relationship between linguistic theory and models of 
performance.

CSLI Publications, Cambridge University Press, 1998, xiv+170 pp.
$18.95  paperback ISBN 1-57586-150-x
$49.95 hardcover ISBN 1-57586-151-8