The Inherit operator takes a list of features as input, identifies the values of the dependent expression and assigns them to the corresponding features of the head. That means that this operation allows the head to inherit the values of some features of the dependent. This operation can be used to deal with verbal periphrases. It allows to transfert the morphological properties of a light verb to the content verb (only if the latter is considered the head). For instance, let's assume that there is a rule analysing “had to work” as a dependency between “have” (the dependent) and “work” (the head), via preposition “to” (the relator):
PeriphrasisLeft: VERB<lemma:have> PRP<lemma:to> VERB
Inherit: mode, tense
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The Inherit operetor transfers the past tense information from “had” to “work”, which is the head of the expression. Let's note that the fact of considering “work” as the head of the dependency is only one of the possible syntactic representations.
