A Computational Study of the Ba Resultative Construction: Parsing Mandarin Ba Sentences in HPSG

Recognizing Mandarin ba sentences as the Ba Resultative Construction, this study implements a rigid test of Ding's (1993) treatment of ba as a matrix verb in the periphrastic resultative construction. The computational experiment is facilitated with a formal rendition of the analysis of ba in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Moreover, the small parsing experiment also highlights the important role of semantics in natural language processing, including common-sense knowledge