Temporal Anaphora Across and Inside Sentences: the Function of Participles∗
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Making Logical Form Type-Logical Glue Semantics for Minimalist Syntax
Making Logical Form type-logical Glue Semantics for Minimalist syntax Matthew Gotham University of Oslo UiO Forum for Theoretical Linguistics 12 October 2016 Slides available at <http://folk.uio.no/matthegg/research#talks> Matthew Gotham (Oslo) Making LF type-logical FTL, 12.10.2016 1 / 63 What this talk is about Slides available at <http://folk.uio.no/matthegg/research#talks> An implementation of Glue Semantics —an approach that treats the syntax-semantics interface as deduction in a type logic— for Minimalist syntax, i.e. syntactic theories in the ST!EST!REST!GB!...‘Chomskyan’ tradition. Q How Minimalist, as opposed to (say) GB-ish? A Not particularly, but the factoring together of subcategorization and structure building (in the mechanism of feature-checking) is, if not crucial to this analysis, then certainly useful. and a comparison of this approach with more mainstream approaches to the syntax-semantics interface. Matthew Gotham (Oslo) Making LF type-logical FTL, 12.10.2016 2 / 63 Outline 1 The mainstream approach 2 A fast introduction to Glue Semantics 3 Implementation in Minimalism The form of syntactic theory assumed The connection to Glue 4 Comparison with the mainstream approach Interpreting (overt) movement Problems with the mainstream approach Glue analysis Nested DPs Scope islands Matthew Gotham (Oslo) Making LF type-logical FTL, 12.10.2016 3 / 63 The mainstream approach How semantics tends to be done for broadly GB/P&P/Minimalist syntax Aer Heim & Kratzer (1998) Syntax produces structures that are interpreted recursively -
Proceedings of the LFG 00 Conference University of California, Berkeley Editors: Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King 2000 CSLI P
Proceedings of the LFG 00 Conference University of California, Berkeley Editors: Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King 2000 CSLI Publications ISSN 1098-6782 Editors' Note This year's conference was held as part of a larger Berkeley Formal Grammar Conference, which included a day of workshops and the annual HPSG conference. The program committee for LFG'00 were Rachel Nordlinger and Chris Manning. We would like to thank them for putting together the program that gave rise to this collection of papers. We would also like to thank all those who contributed to this conference, especially the local organizing committee, namely Andreas Kathol, and our reviewers, without whom the conference would not have been possible. Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King Functional Identity and Resource-Sensitivity in Control Ash Asudeh Stanford University and Xerox PARC Proceedings of the LFG00 Conference University of California, Berkeley Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King (Editors) 2000 CSLI Publications http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/ 2 1 Introduction1 Glue semantics provides a semantics for Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) that is expressed using linear logic (Girard, 1987; Dalrymple, 1999) and provides an interpretation for the f(unctional)-structure level of syntactic representation, connecting it to the level of s(emantic)-structure in LFG’s parallel projection archi- tecture (Kaplan, 1987, 1995). Due to its use of linear logic for meaning assembly, Glue is resource-sensitive: semantic resources contributed by lexical entries and resulting f-structures must each be used in a successful proof exactly once. In this paper, I will examine the tension between a resource-sensitive semantics which interprets f-structures and structure-sharing in f-structures as expressed by functional control resulting from lexical functional identity equations. -
RELATIONAL NOUNS, PRONOUNS, and Resumptionw Relational Nouns, Such As Neighbour, Mother, and Rumour, Present a Challenge to Synt
Linguistics and Philosophy (2005) 28:375–446 Ó Springer 2005 DOI 10.1007/s10988-005-2656-7 ASH ASUDEH RELATIONAL NOUNS, PRONOUNS, AND RESUMPTIONw ABSTRACT. This paper presents a variable-free analysis of relational nouns in Glue Semantics, within a Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) architecture. Rela- tional nouns and resumptive pronouns are bound using the usual binding mecha- nisms of LFG. Special attention is paid to the bound readings of relational nouns, how these interact with genitives and obliques, and their behaviour with respect to scope, crossover and reconstruction. I consider a puzzle that arises regarding rela- tional nouns and resumptive pronouns, given that relational nouns can have bound readings and resumptive pronouns are just a specific instance of bound pronouns. The puzzle is: why is it impossible for bound implicit arguments of relational nouns to be resumptive? The puzzle is highlighted by a well-known variety of variable-free semantics, where pronouns and relational noun phrases are identical both in category and (base) type. I show that the puzzle also arises for an established variable-based theory. I present an analysis of resumptive pronouns that crucially treats resumptives in terms of the resource logic linear logic that underlies Glue Semantics: a resumptive pronoun is a perfectly ordinary pronoun that constitutes a surplus resource; this surplus resource requires the presence of a resumptive-licensing resource consumer, a manager resource. Manager resources properly distinguish between resumptive pronouns and bound relational nouns based on differences between them at the level of semantic structure. The resumptive puzzle is thus solved. The paper closes by considering the solution in light of the hypothesis of direct compositionality. -
<HAVE + PERFECT PARTICIPLE> in ROMANCE and ENGLISH
<HAVE + PERFECT PARTICIPLE> IN ROMANCE AND ENGLISH: SYNCHRONY AND DIACHRONY A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Diego A. de Acosta May 2006 © 2006 Diego A. de Acosta <HAVE + PERFECT PARTICIPLE> IN ROMANCE AND ENGLISH: SYNCHRONY AND DIACHRONY Diego A. de Acosta, Ph.D. Cornell University 2006 Synopsis: At first glance, the development of the Romance and Germanic have- perfects would seem to be well understood. The surface form of the source syntagma is uncontroversial and there is an abundant, inveterate literature that analyzes the emergence of have as an auxiliary. The “endpoints” of the development may be superficially described as follows (for English): (1) OE Ic hine ofslægenne hæbbe > Eng I have slain him The traditional view is that the source syntagma, <have + noun.ACC + perfect participle>, is structured [have [noun participle]], and that this syntagma undergoes change as have loses its possessive meaning. In this dissertation, I demonstrate that the traditional view is untenable and readdress two fundamental questions about the development of have-perfects: (i) how is the early ability of have to predicate possession connected with its later role in the perfect?; (ii) what are the syntactic structures and meanings of <have + noun.ACC + perfect participle> before the emergence of the have-perfect? With corpus evidence, I show that that the surface string <have + noun.ACC + perfect participle> corresponds to three different structures in Old English and Latin; all of these survive into modern English and the Romance languages. -
Chapter 22 Semantics Jean-Pierre Koenig University at Buffalo Frank Richter Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Chapter 22 Semantics Jean-Pierre Koenig University at Buffalo Frank Richter Goethe Universität Frankfurt This chapter discusses the integration of theories of semantic representations into HPSG. It focuses on those aspects that are specific to HPSG and, in particular, re- cent approaches that make use of underspecified semantic representations, as they are quite unique to HPSG. 1 Introduction A semantic level of description is more integrated into the architecture of HPSG than in many frameworks (although, in the last couple of decades, the integra- tion of syntax and semantics has become tighter overall; see Heim & Kratzer 1998 for Mainstream Generative Grammar1, for example). Every node in a syntactic tree includes all appropriate levels of structure, phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics so that local interaction between all these levels is in principle possible within the HPSG architecture. The architecture of HPSG thus follows the spirit of the rule-to-rule approach advocated in Bach (1976) and more specifi- cally Klein & Sag (1985) to have every syntactic operation matched by a semantic operation (the latter, of course, follows the Categorial Grammar lead, broadly speaking; Ajdukiewicz 1935; Pollard 1984; Steedman 2000). But, as we shall see, only the spirit of the rule-to-rule approach is adhered to, as there can be more 1We follow Culicover & Jackendoff (2005: 3) in using the term Mainstream Generative Grammar (MGG) to refer to work in Government & Binding or Minimalism. Jean-Pierre Koenig & Frank Richter. 2021. Semantics. In Stefan Müller, Anne Abeillé, Robert D. Borsley & Jean- Pierre Koenig (eds.), Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar: The handbook. Prepublished version. -
Chapter 30 HPSG and Lexical Functional Grammar Stephen Wechsler the University of Texas Ash Asudeh University of Rochester & Carleton University
Chapter 30 HPSG and Lexical Functional Grammar Stephen Wechsler The University of Texas Ash Asudeh University of Rochester & Carleton University This chapter compares two closely related grammatical frameworks, Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) and Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG). Among the similarities: both frameworks draw a lexicalist distinction between morphology and syntax, both associate certain words with lexical argument structures, both employ semantic theories based on underspecification, and both are fully explicit and computationally implemented. The two frameworks make available many of the same representational resources. Typical differences between the analyses proffered under the two frameworks can often be traced to concomitant differ- ences of emphasis in the design orientations of their founding formulations: while HPSG’s origins emphasized the formal representation of syntactic locality condi- tions, those of LFG emphasized the formal representation of functional equivalence classes across grammatical structures. Our comparison of the two theories includes a point by point syntactic comparison, after which we turn to an exposition ofGlue Semantics, a theory of semantic composition closely associated with LFG. 1 Introduction Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar is similar in many respects to its sister framework, Lexical Functional Grammar or LFG (Bresnan et al. 2016; Dalrymple et al. 2019). Both HPSG and LFG are lexicalist frameworks in the sense that they distinguish between the morphological system that creates words and the syn- tax proper that combines those fully inflected words into phrases and sentences. Stephen Wechsler & Ash Asudeh. 2021. HPSG and Lexical Functional Gram- mar. In Stefan Müller, Anne Abeillé, Robert D. Borsley & Jean- Pierre Koenig (eds.), Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar: The handbook. -
Outline for a Truth Conditional Semantics for Tense
Outline for a Truth Conditional Semantics for Tense Ernest Lepore Center for Cognitive Science Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ 08903 [email protected] Kirk Ludwig Department of Philosophy University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611-8545 [email protected] Forthcoming, 2002, Tense, Time and Reference, ed. Q. Smith (MIT Press) Outline for a Truth Conditional Semantics for Tense Ernest Lepore and Kirk Ludwig 1 Introduction The use of verbs inflected or modified for tense, and temporal adverbs, indexicals, and quantifiers, pervades everyday speech. Getting clearer about their semantics promises not only to help us to understand how we understand each other, but is also a step toward clarifying the nature of time and temporally located thoughts. Our aim in the present paper is to investigate, from the standpoint of truth-theoretic semantics, English tense, temporal designators and quantifiers, and other expressions we use to relate ourselves and other things to the temporal order. Truth-theoretic semantics provides a particularly illuminating standpoint from which to discuss issues about the semantics of tense, and their relation to thoughts at, and about, times. Tense, and temporal modifiers, contribute systematically to conditions under which sentences we utter are true or false. A Tarski-style truth-theoretic semantics, by requiring explicitly represented truth conditions, helps to sharpen questions about the function of tense, and to deepen our insight into the contribution the tenses and temporal modifiers make to what we say by using them. We are interested in a semantic, rather than syntactic, phenomenon. Although tense is identified traditionally with verb inflection, our concern is with linguistic devices used for indicating a time interval, relative to, or in, which a state or activity is to be understood to occur or obtain. -
Towards Glue Semantics for Minimalist Syntax∗
cambridge occasional papers in linguistics COP i L Volume 8, Article 4: 56–83, 2015 j ISSN 2050-5949 TOWARDS GLUE SEMANTICS FOR MINIMALIST SYNTAX∗ Matthew Gotham University College London Abstract Glue Semantics is a theory of the syntax/semantics interface according to which syntax generates premises in a fragment of linear logic, and semantic interpretation proceeds by deduction from those premises. Glue was originally developed within Lexical-Functional Grammar and is now the mainstream view of semantic composition within LFG, but it is in principle compatible with any syntactic framework. In this paper I present an implementation of Glue for Minimalism, and show how it can bring certain advantages in comparison with approaches to the syntax/semantics interface more conventionally adopted. 1 Introduction Take a simple example of quantifier scope ambiguity like (1). (1) A boy trains every dog. There are various theoretical options available when deciding where the ambi- guity of (1) should be located. One option would be to say that that the lexical entry of one (or more) of the words in the sentence is polymorphic (Hendriks 1987). Another would be to say that there is more than one syntactic analysis of (1): either in terms of constituent structure (May 1977) or derivational history (Montague 1973). There is a third option, however, which is to say that the ambiguity resides in the nature of the connection between syntax and semantic composition. This is the approach taken in Glue Semantics.1 What the lexical polymorphism and syntactic ambiguity accounts have in common is the view that, given a syntactic analysis of a sentence and a choice ∗ This paper is based on material that was presented at the event Interactions between syntax and semantics across frameworks at Cambridge University on 8 January 2015, and to the Oxford Glue Group on 19 February and 5 March 2015. -
MISSING RESOURCES in a RESOURCE-SENSITIVE SEMANTICS Gianluca Giorgolo and Ash Asudeh King's College, London & Carleton
MISSING RESOURCES IN A RESOURCE-SENSITIVE SEMANTICS Gianluca Giorgolo and Ash Asudeh King’s College, London & Carleton University & University of Oxford University of Oxford Proceedings of the LFG12 Conference Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King (Editors) 2012 CSLI Publications http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/ Abstract In this paper, we present an investigation of the argument/adjunct distinction in the context of LFG. We focus on those cases where certain grammatical functions that qualify as arguments according to all standard tests (Needham and Toivonen, 2011) are only optionally realized. We argue for an analy- sis first proposed by Blom et al. (2012), and we show how we can make it work within the machinery of LFG. Our second contribution regards how we propose to interpret a specific case of optional arguments, optional objects. In this case we propose to generalize the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs to a continuum. Purely transitive and intransitive verbs rep- resent the extremes of the continuum. Other verbs, while leaning towards one or the other end of this spectrum, show an alternating behavior between the two extremes. We show how our first contribution is capable of accounting for these cases in terms of exceptional behavior. The key insight we present is that the verbs that exhibit the alternating behavior can best be understood as being capable of dealing with an exceptional context. In other words they display some sort of control on the way they compose with their context. This will prompt us also to rethink the place of the notion of subcategorization in the LFG architecture 1 Introduction The distinction between arguments and adjuncts is central for the LFG architec- ture as it influences the way in which representations of linguistic expressions are generated both at the functional and the semantic level. -
The Interna1 Structure of Absolute Small Clauses Luis Mpez Cornell University
The Interna1 Structure of Absolute Small Clauses Luis Mpez Cornell University This paper is an investigation into the functionai shucture of Absolute Small Clauses (ASCs), with data based on Spanish. ASCs are composed of a predicate and an NP and they are adjoined to a main clause without a mediating complementizer. It is shown that theu structure is not 'speciai' but a proper subset of main clause structure. ASCs have some interesting restrictions: (i) Individual Level (IL) predicates are disailowed. (ii) deep subjects are disailowed, and (iii) the order NP+predicate is disailowed. The analysis of (i)-(iii) relies on recent proposais regarding clause structure, in particular, (i) Diesing's Mapping Hypothesis and her structurai analysis of the IndividuallStage Level distinction and (ii) what Koizumi has termed the Split VP Hypothesis, according to which some functionai categories are generated between the lower and the upper VP shells. Additionaily, the question of how the case of the NP is checked is addressed, and it is suggested that the feature composition of the head Aspect in ASCs is minimaily different from that of main clauses. A discussion of Itaiian ASCs ensues and it is argued that they have the same structure as the Spanish ones. 1. Introduction The empirical scope of this paper is Spanish Absolute Small Clauses (henceforth ASCs). ASCs are adjuncts composed of a predicate -usually, but not necessarily, a past participle- and a noun phrase, which is optional in many cases. In (la) the predicate that heads the ASC is a participle, in (Ib,c) it is an adjective, in (lc,d) it is an adverb (examples from Hernanz (1991)): Catalun Working Papers in Linguistics (CatWPL) 4.1 '(1994):45-92 Universitat Autbnoma de Barcelona (1) a. -
The Anaphoric Semantics of Partial Control ∗
Proceedings of SALT 24: 213–233, 2014 The anaphoric semantics of partial control ∗ Dag Trygve Truslew Haug Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Arts and Ideas, University of Oslo Abstract This paper deals with partial control, the phenomenon that instead of identity there is a subset relation between the controller and the controllee in a control construction. We argue that the context dependency of partial control requires an anaphoric approach, rather than hard-coding the possibility of a reference shift in the semantics of the control verb. The anaphoric analysis is formalized in Partial Compositional Discourse Representation Theory. Keywords: control, anaphora, DRT, bridging 1 The semantics of syntactic dependencies Formal theories of syntax in general offer two different mechanisms for establishing dependencies between two syntactic positions. This difference can prototypically be illustrated as in (1), which shows (simplified) Government and Binding-style analyses of control (a) and raising (b). (1) a. IP b. IP Tomi VP Tomi VP hopes CP seems IP PROi to know the answer ti to know the answer On this traditional analysis, control involves two distinct syntactic elements which are coindexed, forcing identity of their referential properties. In raising, by contrast, we have a single syntactic element, which fills multiple roles in the syntax. In the ∗ I thank the SALT audience and the members of the Oxford Glue Semantics seminar for valuable feedback. ©2014 Haug Haug derivational analysis sketched in (1b), this is implemented as movement, allowing the single element to occupy several syntactic positions during the derivation. In non-derivational frameworks such as LFG or HPSG, the same effect is achieved via structure sharing. -
Implementing a Japanese Semantic Parser Based on Glue Approach
Implementing a Japanese Semantic Parser Based on Glue Approach Hiroshi Umemoto Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. 430 Sakai, Nakaimachi, Ashigarakami-gun, Kanagawa 259-0157, Japan, [email protected] Abstract. This paper describes the implementation of a Japanese semantic parser based on glue ap- proach. The parser is designed as domain-independent, and produces fully scoped higher-order in- tensional logical expressions, coping with semantically ambiguous sentences without storage mechanism. It is constructed from an English semantic parser on top of Lexical-Functional Gram- mar (LFG), and it attains broad coverage through relatively little construction effort, thanks to the parallelism of the LFG grammars. I outline the parser, and I present the analyses of Japanese idio- syncratic expressions including floated numerical quantifiers, showing the distinct readings of dis- tributive and cumulative, as well as a double-subject construction and focus particles. I also explain the analyses of expressions that are syntactically parallel but semantically distinct, such as relative tense in subordinate clauses. Keywords: formal semantics, syntax-semantics interface, linear logic, semantic composition 1 Introduction The glue approach to semantic interpretation (glue semantics) provides the syntax-semantics interface where its semantic composition is represented as a linear logic derivation [1, 2]. Glue semantics realizes semantic ambiguity with multiple proofs from the same set of premises corresponding to syntactic items in a sentence, and then it requires no special machineries such as storages. Employing linear logic, it guarantees the semantic completeness and coherence of its results. In other words, all of the require- ments of the premises are satisfied and no unused premises remain in linear logic derivations.