Building Conceptual Structures Semantics

Conceptual Semantics 1 Constraints on any semantic theory 1) Expressiveness (observational adequacy) 2) Universality 3) Compositionality 4) “Semantic properties” - synonymy, anomaly, presupposition, notion of valid inference. 5) Grammatical Constraint - the relation between syntactic structure and semantic structure should be efficient and (fairly) direct. Syntactic structure and semantic structure should be minimally different. 6) Cognitive Constraint - there must be levels of mental representation at which information conveyed by language is compatible with information from other systems, such as vision, audition, smell, and kinesthesia. Otherwise, it would be impossible to use language to report sensory input. 2 Conceptual semantics The Conceptual Structure Hypothesis There is a single level of mental representation, conceptual structure, at which linguistic, sensory, and motor information are compatible. phonological formation rules syntactic formation rules conceptual formation rules auditory input motor output vision phonological structures syntactic structures conceptual structures action etc. rules of inference 3 The semantic ontological categories, or “parts of speech” (1) a. b. c. d. e. (2) a. b. c. d. (3) the book on the table towards the house drop the vase Floyd dropped the vase THING PLACE PATH ACTION EVENT f. g. h. i. clumsily two feet long The fire truck is red red This [pointing] is yours and that [pointing] is mine Your coat is here [pointing] and your hat is there [pointing] He went thataway [pointing] Can you do that [pointing] Can you do this [demonstrating] e. That [pointing] had better not happen again. f. You shuffle cards this way [demonstrating] g. The fish that got away was this long [demonstrating] a. What did you buy? ... b. Where is my coat? ... c. Where did they go? ... d. What will you do? ... e. What happened next? ... f. How did you cook the eggs?... g. How long was the fish? ... A fish. In the bathtub. Into the bathtub. Go to the store. Billy fell out the window Slowly./With cheese. Twelve feet (long). THING PLACE PATH ACTION EVENT MANNER AMOUNT THING PLACE PATH ACTION EVENT MANNER AMOUNT MANNER AMOUNT STATE PROPERTY (4) a. b. c. d. e. Bill picked up something/everything. Bill went somewhere/someplace/everywhere/everyplace. Bill did something/everything that Jack did. Something/everything that happened yesterday also happened today. Bill can shuffle cards in every way/in some ways that Jack can. THING PLACE/PATH ACTION EVENT MANNER 4 Building conceptual structures (5) “John went from Dallas to Chicago.” “go”: [Event GO ([Thing ], [Path FROM [Place ] TO [Place ] ])] [Event GO ([Thing JOHN ], [Path FROM [Place DALLAS] TO [Place CHICAGO] ])] Combinatorial Rules: [ENTITY] --> [Event/Place/Thing/... F ( , , ...) ] [ENTITY 1 ] --> [X [ENTITY2 ] ] (function application) (restrictive modification) [PLACE] --> [Place PLACE-FUNCTION ([ THING ]) ] [PATH] --> [Path {TO, FROM, TOWARD, AWAY-FROM, VIA} ([{THING, PLACE}]) ] [STATE] --> { [State BE ([THING], [PLACE])] , [State ORIENT ([THING], [PATH])] , [State EXT ([THING], [PATH])] } [EVENT] --> { [Event GO ( [THING], [PATH]) ] , [Event STAY ( [THING], [PLACE]) ] } [EVENT] --> [Event CAUSE ([{THING, EVENT}], [EVENT])] Correspondence Rules: XP corresponds to [Entity] [X0 : YP, ZP] corresponds to [Entity F (, , ) ] Inference Rules: [C X Y] --> [C X] and [C Y] (6) “a red hat” [Thing HAT [Property RED]] (7) [Thing HAT [Property RED]] --> [Thing HAT ] and [Thing [Property RED]] (8) a. b. c. The dog went into the room. “go” takes a PP argument The dog entered the room. “enter” (to go into) takes an NP [Event GO ([Thing DOG], [Path TO ([Place IN ([ Thing ROOM])])])] d. “go”: [Event GO ( [Thing ]i , [Path ]j ) ] “into”: [Path TO ([ Place IN ([ Thing ]j )])] e. “enter”: [Event GO ([Thing ]i , [Path TO ([Place IN ([ Thing ]j)])])] (9) a. Joe put butter on the bread. b. Joe buttered the bread. “butter” = to put butter onto c. [Event CAUSE ([ Thing JOE], [Event GO ([Thing BUTTER], [Path TO ([Place ON ([Thing BREAD])])])])] d. “put”: [Event CAUSE ([ Thing ]i , [Event GO ([Thing ]j, [Path TO ([Place ]k)])])] e. “butter”: [Event CAUSE ([ Thing ]i , [Event GO ([Thing BUTTER], [Path TO ([Place ON ([Thing ]k)])])])] (10) a. “bread”: [Event CAUSE ([ Thing ]i , [Event GO ([Thing ]j, [Path TO ([Place –k ([Thing BREAD])])])])] b. Joe breaded the butter on. (= Joe put the butter on the bread) c. Joe breaded the jelly under. (= Joe put the jelly under the bread) d. Joe breaded some salami on top of. (= Joe put some salami on top of the bread.) 5 From spatial to other semantic Fields Thematic Relations Hypothesis In any semantic field of EVENTS and STATES, the principle event-, state-, path-, and place-functions are a subset of those used for the analysis of spatial location and motion. Fields differ in only three possible ways: 1) what sorts of entities may appear as theme (what is being located); 2) what sorts of entities may appear as reference objects (what serves as location); 3) what kind of relation assumes the role played by location in the field of spatial expressions (what is the relation between theme and reference). theme reference relation Spatial THING, EVENT PLACE Location Temporal EVENT, STATE TIME Time of occurrence Possessive THING THING Being possessed (11) a. [Event GO ([ ], [Path FROM ([ ]) TO ([ ])] ) ] b. [State BE ([ ], [Place ] ) ] c. [Event STAY ([ ], [Place ] ) ] 6 Thematic roles (12) X obtains Y from Z ==> transfer: Y changes possession from Z to X (13) X buys Y from Z ==> transfer: Y changes possession from Z to X counter-transfer: money changes possession from X to Z (14) X buys/obtains Y from Z for $W ==> transfer: Y changes possession from Z to X counter-transfer: $W money changes possession from X to Z (15) a. The box has books in it. (cf. there are books in the box) *The box has books in itself. *What does the box have books in? b. Bill brought some books with him. *Who did Bill bring some books with? (16) “buy” [ GOPoss ( [ ]j, [Path FROM [ ]α k TO [ ]βi ] ) [EXCH [ GOPoss ([MONEY], [Path FROM [ β ] TO [ α ] ])]] 7 Parts and boundaries (17) The light flashed until dawn. (18) +b, –i: + b, +i: –b, –i: –b, +i: individuals (a pig) groups (a committee) substances (water) aggregates (buses, cattle) (19) [ +b, –i DOG ] = “a dog “ [ +b, +i COMMITTEE ] = “a committee” (20) N(+b) + plural = [ –b, +i PL ( [ N ])] (21) [Event –b, +i PL ( [Event +b, –i FLASH] ) ] Homework: NONE! [ –b, +i PL ( [ +b, –i DOG ])] = “dogs” [ –b, +i PL ( [ +b, +i COMMITTEE ])] = “committees”