We introduce the family of mildly context-sensitive languages (MCSL) and the corresponding grammar formalisms (MCSG). MCSG derivations are associated with the dependency graphs they induce. These graphs give an abstract view of the information flow encoded by a derivation. In that sense, they serve a role similar to that of the proof net graphical calculi to be discussed in Parts 2 and 3.

Readings for this part are (selections from) Kallmeyer 2010 'Parsing beyond context-free grammar' and Kuhlmann 2010 'Dependency structures and lexicalized grammars'.

Key notions to be covered:

• motivating linguistic examples and techniques to reduce them to abstract patterns
• measuring expressivity: k-pumpability, semilinearity
• k-MCFG: the hierarchy of Multiple CFGs of dimension k
• types of discontinuity: dependency structures of bounded degree, well-nestedness
• linking the MCFG hierarchy and the dependency hierarchies D_k and D_wn

In the 3/5 session, there are presentations on (1) Minimalist Grammars (Myrthe and Sjoerd), (2) Tree Adjoining Grammars (Cecilia) and (3) Multiple Context Free Grammars (Gijs and Michiel). For each of these formalisms, we'll see how they deal with characteristic patterns beyond context-free, and how to compute the dependency structures induced by their derivations.