University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons IRCS Technical Reports Series Institute for Research in Cognitive Science May 1996 A Lexical Theory of Quantification in Ambiguous Query Interpretation Jong Cheol Park University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports Park, Jong Cheol, "A Lexical Theory of Quantification in Ambiguous Query Interpretation" (1996). IRCS Technical Reports Series. 105. https://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/105 University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research in Cognitive Science Technical Report No. IRCS-96-27. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/105 For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Lexical Theory of Quantification in Ambiguous Query Interpretation Abstract Although the connection between natural language syntax and semantics has received serious attention in both linguistics and computational linguistics for the last several decades, it does not appear that it has yet been entirely satisfactorily identified. The present dissertation focuses on quantifier scope ambiguity in an attempt to identify such a connection. We show that there are some readings that are incorrectly allowed by the theories and that other readings that are available are allowed for the wrong reason. First, we distinguish referential NP interpretations from quantificational NP interpretations. Most traditional theories of scope do not, and they are shown to significantly overgenerate readings and/or miss a crucial generalization regarding quantificationally va ailable readings. We present a hypothesis based on the notion of surface constituency to predict quantificationally va ailable readings. The hypothesis is tested on core English constructions, including transitive verbs, dative alternation (ditransitive) verbs, attitude verbs, complex NPs containing prepositional phrases, possessives, and subject or non-subject Wh-relatives also with pied-piping and various coordinate structures. We argue that the scopings allowed under the hypothesis are the ones that are available. We then present a competence theory of quantifier scope, couched in a combinatory categorial grammar framework. The theory defines the connection between syntax and semantics in a precise way, utilizing the dual quantifier eprr esentation. We show theoretical predictions on the core English constructions, and verify that the theoretical predictions are consistent with the predictions made by the hypothesis and that there are further reasonable theoretically predicted readings. Finally, we describe an implementation of the theory in Prolog. The implemented system takes English sentences as ambiguous queries (regarding scope), generates logical forms that are associated with them, and evaluates those logical forms with respect to a predefined database of facts. The system also works as a proof-checker of the theory. Comments University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research in Cognitive Science Technical Report No. IRCS-96-27. This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/105 , Institute for Research in Cognitive Science A Lexical Theory of Quantification in Ambiguous Query Interpretation (Ph.D. Dissertation) Jong Cheol Park University of Pennsylvania 3401 Walnut Street, Suite 400A Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228 May 1996 Site of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Research in Cognitive Science IRCS Report 96--27 A LEXICAL THEORY OF QUANTIFICATION IN AMBIGUOUS QUERY INTERPRETATION JONG CHEOL PARK A DISSERTATION in COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE Presented to the Faculties of the UniversityofPennsylvania in Partial Fulllment of the Requirements for the Degree of Do ctor of Philosophy Mark Steedman Sup ervisor of Dissertation Peter Buneman Graduate Group Chairp erson c Copyright by Jong Cheol Park ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Iwould like to thank my thesis advisor Professor Mark Steedman for supp orting me throughout the PhD study and teaching me how to address a p otential research problem While I am now only b eginning to understand a subeld of computational linguistics I am deeply grateful to him for most of what I have come to understand in the eld I am also very grateful to Professor Aravind Joshi for kindly encouraging me to develop a edgling idea when I rst started my PhD researchatPenn While the sp ecic prop osal has changed considerably since then I am sure that the seed for my thesis was sown then I also thank Professors Bonnie Webb er Anthony Kro ch Ellen Prince Richard Oehrle Mitch Marcus and Martha Palmer for giving me the valuable opp ortunitytobe in such a diverse and co op erativeenvironment for the study of computational linguistics I must thank Professor Pauline Jacobson for intro ducing me to the basics of a linguisticall y sound approach and kindly helping me to sort things out I am grateful to Professor Janet Fo dor for joining my dissertation committee I only wish I were wiser to meet with them more often to learn more ab out the p ossibly numerous mistakes in what I havetosayI also thank Professor Insup Lee for his constant concern with my progress and his timely advice to b e brave and wrap up Also even though it was brief I was extremely lucky to haveachance to meet with a numb er of brilliantscholars esp ecially Professor Johan van Benthem Professor Mark Johnson Professor Laszlo Hunyadi Dr Fernando CN Pereira Professor Stuart Shieb er Professor Ed Stabler and Professor Anna Szab olcsi During the long years of developing the ideas for the thesis I was fortunate to receive feedback from many colleagues including Beryl Homan Jason Eisner Seth Kulick Nob o iii Komagata YoungSuk Lee Libby Levison Christine Nakatani Michael Niv Charlie Or tiz Scott Prevost Ano op Sarkar Matthew Stone Bangalore Srinivas Michael White Limso on Wong and Fei Xia Thanks are due to all of them I am also grateful to Professor YoungTaek Kim for stirring up myinterest in Natural Language Pro cessing and to Professor Yo okun Cho for kindly allowing me to work on NLP area under his sup ervision while I was working towards a masters degree at my Alma Mater Seoul National UniversityinKorea There are numerous p eople who help ed to brighten my long years of PhD study including Wenfei Fan Limso on Wong BondJay Ting PeiHwa Ho Jonathan Kaye Paul Diefenbach D R Mani Susan Deysher and Michael Felker I am very grateful to them Being a Korean away from home for suchalongtimeIhave b een esp ecially lucky to get to knowsomanywonderful Koreans including Professor KwangYon Won Professor Insup Lee Professor SungKo ok Han Professor JinTak Choi Dr YoungSi Kim Dr JinMin Kim Dr Mo on Yul Jung Dr JinYoung Choi Dr JeeIn Kim Dr Youngho Kim Dr So on Yong Seong Dr Yeong jo o Lee Dr SeungMin Park Dr Mo on Kun Lee Dr Hyongseok Ko Dr Eunyoung Koh Changb ong Lee Dr Hyogon Kim and Inhye Kang Dr Frances Lee and Chunghye Han I am immensely indebted to their hospitality and friendship Iamsolucky to meet mylovely wife Jinah who shared all the joys and sadness with me over the long and otherwise lonelyyears of PhD study I am so proud that b oth of us are at last making it to the PhD degree at the same time I also deeply thank my elder brother Jong Won and my elder sister Jong Mi for providing me such a strong umbrella of love and protection I am very grateful to mywonderful parentsinlawfor their strong faith in me Finally I am most thankful to my parents for everything that I have b ecome and will b e I b elievethatmyintellectual curiositytowards the way things work and my attraction towards understanding and appreciating things b eyond are due to my father and my mother I would like to dedicate this dissertation to them iv ABSTRACT A LEXICAL THEORY OF QUANTIFICATION IN AMBIGUOUS QUERY INTERPRETATION JONG CHEOL PARK MARK STEEDMAN Although the connection b etween natural language syntax and semantics has received serious attention in b oth linguistics and computational linguistics for the last several decades it do es not app ear that it has yet b een entirely satisfactorily identied The present dissertation fo cusses on quantier scop e ambiguity in an attempt to identify such a connection We show that there are some readings that are incorrectly allowed by the theories and that other readings that are available are allowed for the wrong reason First we distinguish referential NP interpretations from quanticational NP interpre tations Most traditional theories of scop e do not and they are shown to signicantly overgenerate readings andor miss a crucial generalization regarding quanticationally available readings We presentahyp othesis based on the notion of surface constituency to predict quanticationally available readings The hyp othesis is tested on core English constructions including transitiveverbs dative alternation ditransitive verbs attitude verbs complex NPs containing prep ositional phrases p ossessives and sub ject or non sub ject Whrelatives also with piedpiping and various co ordinate structures Weargue that the scopings allowed under the hyp othesis are the ones that are available We then present a comp etence theory of quantier scop e couched in a combinatory categorial grammar framework The theory denes the connection b etween syntax and v semantics in a precise way utilizing the dual quantier representation Weshow theoretical predictions on the core English constructions and verify that the theoretical predictions are consistent with the predictions made by the hyp othesis and that there are further