Hi,
I would like to know if there are any works on representing multiword expressions in LFG, taking their internal structure into account?
Example: United States of America
One option would be to treat "United States of America" as one element whose PRED is 'United States of America' and which corresponds to one leaf at c-structure.
The other option would be to say that "United States of America" has internal structure: States as PRED, United as ADJUNCT of States, of America also probably as an ADJUNCT of states. The problem is then how to represent the PRED for the entire unit (United States of America) – PRED-MWE?
Maybe the third option (a variant of the second one above) would be to set the PRED of the head of the MWE to the PRED corresponding to the entire unit (United States of America) and then ensure, using appropriate constraints, that the remaining parts of the MWE are present? (^ ADJUNCT $ PRED FN)=c united (^ ADJUNCT $ PRED FN)= of (^ ADJUNCT $ OBJ)= America
Are there other approaches? I would be grateful for any suggestions.
Best, Agnieszka