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Projection in Discourse a Data-Driven Formal Semantic Analysis

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Projection in Discourse a Data-Driven Formal Semantic Analysis Projection in Discourse A data-driven formal semantic analysis Noortje Joost Venhuizen The work presented in this thesis was carried out under the auspices of the Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG) of the Faculty of Arts of the Uni- versity of Groningen. Groningen Dissertations in Linguistics 141 ISSN: 0928-0030 ISBN: 978-90-367-8071-1 (printed version) ISBN: 978-90-367-8070-4 (electronic version) c 2015, Noortje Joost Venhuizen Document prepared with LATEX 2" and typeset by pdfTEX (TEX Gyre Schola font) Cover design by Noortje Joost Venhuizen and Harm Brouwer Printed by Ridderprint BV, Ridderkerk. Printed on FSC certified paper. Projection in Discourse A data-driven formal semantic analysis Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. E. Sterken en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties. De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op donderdag 26 november 2015 om 12.45 uur door Noortje Joost Venhuizen geboren op 19 oktober 1986 te Groningen Promotores Prof. dr. ing. J. Bos Prof. dr. P. Hendriks Beoordelingscommissie Prof. dr. N. M. Asher Prof. dr. J. Hoeksema Prof. dr. R. A. van der Sandt Voor Harm En voor Kees, aan wie ik dit werk zo graag had willen laten lezen Acknowledgements Bovenaan het lijstje met mensen die ik wil bedanken voor hun steun en inzet tijdens de ontwikkeling van dit proefschrift staan natuurlijk mijn twee promotores en directe begeleiders: Johan Bos en Petra Hendriks. Johan, jij hebt mij geleerd data-driven te denken, en de waarde daarvan in te zien. Vandaar ook een data-driven aanpak tot mijn dankwoord aan jou. Eerste observatie: jouw deur staat altijd open. Tweede observatie: je bent enorm enthousiast over wat je doet, en dat werkt aanstekelijk. Derde observatie: je bent open en toegankelijk, ook buiten werktijd om (bijvoorbeeld voor een borrel, of een lift van Groningen naar Saarbrüc- ken). Hieruit kan ik maar één conclusie trekken: heel erg bedankt voor een prettige en inspirerende samenwerking! Petra, jij bent wat later bij mijn promotietraject betrokken geraakt, maar dat doet niet af aan de invloed die je hebt gehad op de ontwikkeling van dit proefschrift en van mijzelf. Ik heb veel geleerd van jouw gedetailleerd en constructief com- mentaar, en heb onze uitgebreide gesprekken over ‘de wetenschap en meer’ altijd erg gewaardeerd. Ontzettend bedankt voor je waardevolle adviezen, ik hoop van harte dat we onze regelmatige Skype-gesprekken ook in de toekomst nog zullen voortzetten! Next, I would like to express my gratitude to Nick Asher, Jack Hoek- sema, and Rob van der Sandt, who participated in my reading commit- tee. I highly value each of your opinions, and therefore I feel honoured that you have taken the time to read my dissertation, and have deemed it scientifically sound (@Rob: I hope that the name of the implementa- tion “pdrt-sandbox” did not go unnoticed). There is a number of people vii viii from the scientific community that I have talked to about my work and that have contributed to it in different ways. In this context, I would especially like to thank Bart Geurts, Larry Horn, Hans Kamp, Andrew Kehler, and Emar Maier. I have been very lucky to work within a close group of colleagues, who have warmed many office hours, lunches, and the not-too-occasional ‘vrijdagmiddagborrel’ at Hugo’s jazz café. For this, I would like to thank the entire Informatiekunde department: Dieke, George, Gert- jan, Gosse, Gregory, Hessel, Johan, Johannes, John, Kilian, Leonie, Malvina, Martijn, Rob, Simon, and Valerio. Special thanks go to Kil- ian, Valerio and Johannes, who were my direct collaborators in Johan’s group, my very ‘gezellige’ roommates, as well as great company out- side the office, of course together with their respective (to be) spouses Sara and Vivian. Furthermore, there are various colleagues outside Informatiekunde who I have really enjoyed working and/or chatting with. Thanks, Albert, Aletta, Alice, Dicky, Jennifer, John, Karin, Mar- ijke, Mark, Meriel, and Ryanne. This last year, I have been warmly welcomed by the colleagues of the Universität des Saarlandes in Saar- brücken. Many thanks to Matt Crocker, for so generously providing me with a place in his department, and to the other colleagues there: Clau- dia, Elizabeth, Elli, Francesca, Heiner, Jesús, Les, Lisa, Mindaugas, Sahri, Torsten and Yoana. Ook buiten het werk om is er een aantal mensen dat ik graag zou willen bedanken voor de nodige ontspanning en relativering tijdens de afgelopen vier jaar. Lieve Lotte en Ben, jullie zijn een baken voor mij, en het is altijd een feest om met jullie te eten, te praten, en te lachen. Lieve Merel, Lieke en Lodi, hoewel ons contact soms wat (te) schaars is, is jul- lie vriendschap enorm belangrijk voor mij. Lieve Bas, Emmy, Frank, Manja, Mark, Peter, Richard, en Sytze, bedankt voor het mij zo makke- lijk opnemen in jullie warme vriendenclub. En ook de volgende mensen zijn op verschillende punten erg belangrijk geweest: Bedankt, John, Catharina, Anna en David, Lotte en Jeroen, Nienke, Wouter, Sanne, en Theo. Op deze plek zou ik graag mijn paranimfen speciaal willen be- danken. Kilian, ik heb het altijd heel erg prettig gevonden om met jou samen te werken: of het nou gaat om grote wetenschappelijke vraag- stukken, kleine problemen oplossen, of organisatorische zaken, jouw ix toewijding, zorgvuldigheid, en geduld heb ik altijd erg gewaardeerd. Niet alleen als collega, maar ook als goede vriend. Emmy, wij kennen elkaar nog niet zo heel erg lang, maar het voelt al vanaf het begin ont- zettend vertrouwd om met elkaar om te gaan. Ik vind het heerlijk om zo nu en dan een kijkje te krijgen in jullie gezinsleven, en om te praten over zowel de grote als de kleine dingen in het leven. Bedankt allebei, ik ben er trots op jullie als mijn paranimfen te hebben! Tenslotte wil ik hier mijn familie noemen, hoewel een ‘bedankt’ niet helemaal recht doet aan mijn gevoel ten opzichte van hen. Elly, Tonnis en Netty, betere ouders had ik mij niet kunnen wensen. Lieve broer Guus, en Karin, voor mij is ons contact ontzettend waardevol. Ik ben heel blij dat ik ook Wiebout en Richelle, en Sjoerdieke, Charles, Chris- topher en Simon tot mijn familie mag rekenen. Mijn skoanfamylje Oe- bele, Siska en Sytze, bij wie ik mij al vanaf dag één thuis heb gevoeld. En natuurlijk Harm. Uit het feit dat jij hebt meegewerkt aan een groot deel van de hoofdstukken in dit proefschrift blijkt al dat jij voor mij meer bent dan mijn man. Je bent mijn ijkpunt, mijn inspiratie, en mijn drijfveer. Je bent mijn alles. Saarbrücken, september 2015 Contents Contents x List of Figures xv List of Tables xvi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Projection in Discourse . 2 1.2 Data-driven formal semantics . 3 1.3 About this thesis . 3 1.4 Publications . 5 I Projection Phenomena in Discourse 7 2 Projection phenomena and information status 9 2.1 Introduction . 9 2.2 Projection phenomena . 11 2.2.1 Presuppositions . 11 2.2.1.1 Presupposition triggers . 12 2.2.1.2 The projection problem . 14 2.2.2 Anaphora . 15 2.2.2.1 Discourse anaphora . 16 2.2.2.2 Presuppositions as anaphora . 17 2.2.3 Conventional implicatures . 18 x Contents xi 2.3 The information status of projected content . 21 2.3.1 The structure of communication . 22 2.3.2 Categorizing information status . 24 2.3.3 Related categorizations . 28 2.4 Conclusions . 31 II Projective Discourse Representation Theory 33 3 Toward a formal treatment of projection 35 3.1 Introduction . 35 3.2 Projection in Discourse . 37 3.2.1 Discourse Representation Theory . 37 3.2.2 Presuppositions as anaphora . 40 3.2.3 Layered DRT . 43 3.3 Projective Discourse Representation Theory . 45 3.3.1 Projection as variable binding . 45 3.3.2 Preliminaries . 46 3.3.3 PDRS composition . 47 3.3.4 Projection in PDRT . 49 3.3.4.1 Asserted versus projected content . 50 3.3.4.2 Conventional Implicatures . 51 3.3.5 Comparison with related approaches . 52 3.4 Translation PDRT to DRT . 53 3.4.1 Translation procedure . 54 3.4.2 Example translation . 55 3.5 Conclusions and future work . 56 4 How and why conventional implicatures project 59 4.1 Introduction . 60 4.2 The projection behavior of conventional implicatures . 61 4.2.1 CIs, presuppositions, and at-issue content . 63 4.2.2 CI projection as anchoring . 65 4.3 Toward a formal framework of projection . 69 4.3.1 Projective Discourse Representation Theory . 70 4.3.2 Presuppositions in PDRT . 71 xii Contents 4.4 Implementing the projection behavior of CIs . 72 4.4.1 CI anchoring in PDRT . 73 4.4.2 Predicting CI infelicity in PDRT . 74 4.4.3 Expressive CIs and speaker-orientedness . 76 4.5 Discussion . 79 4.6 Conclusion . 81 5 Aligning discourse semantics with surface structure 83 5.1 Introduction . 84 5.2 Toward a formal framework of projection . 86 5.2.1 Discourse Representation Theory . 86 5.2.2 Beyond the surface structure . 88 5.2.3 Introducing PDRT . 91 5.2.3.1 Representing projected content . 91 5.2.3.2 Non-hierarchical variable binding . 94 5.3 Projective Discourse Representation Theory . 95 5.3.1 Syntax of PDRSs . 95 5.3.2 Binding and Accessibility in PDRT . 98 5.3.2.1 Projection graph . 100 5.3.2.2 Binding of projection variables . 102 5.3.2.3 Binding of projected referents . 103 5.3.3 Structural properties . 104 5.3.4 Composition in PDRT .
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