840 research outputs found
Comparative Ellipsis and Variable Binding
In this paper, we discuss the question whether phrasal comparatives should be
given a direct interpretation, or require an analysis as elliptic
constructions, and answer it with Yes and No. The most adequate analysis of
wide reading attributive (WRA) comparatives seems to be as cases of ellipsis,
while a direct (but asymmetric) analysis fits the data for narrow scope
attributive comparatives. The question whether it is a syntactic or a semantic
process which provides the missing linguistic material in the complement of WRA
comparatives is also given a complex answer: Linguistic context is accessed by
combining a reconstruction operation and a mechanism of anaphoric reference.
The analysis makes only few and straightforward syntactic assumptions. In part,
this is made possible because the use of Generalized Functional Application as
a semantic operation allows us to model semantic composition in a flexible way.Comment: Postscript, 15 page
On the proper treatment of context in NL
The proper treatment of quantification in Natural Language proposed by Richard Montague some thirty years ago does not do proper justice to the fact that interpretation of texts both uses context and sets up new contexts. The dynamic turn in NL semantics is the attempt to model this basic fact, but the use of dynamically quantified variables introduces an undesirable element into this attempt. By extending a variable free `incremental dynamics' with a flexible system of type scheme patterns and type scheme pattern matching, we arrive at a Montague style architecture for NL semantics that provides a proper treatment both of quantification and of context use and context change
VP Ellipsis and Semantic Identity
While it is generally agreed that an elliptical Verb Phrase must be identical to its antecedent, the precise formulation of the identity condition is controversial. I present a semantic identity condition on VP ellipsis: the elided VP must have the same meaning as its antecedent. I argue that a semantic identity condition is superior to a syntactic condition on both empirical and theoretical grounds. In addition, I show that the proposed condition differs significantly from previously proposed semantic conditions, in that other approaches do not take into account the dynamic nature of semantic representation
Syntactic Computation as Labelled Deduction: WH a case study
This paper addresses the question "Why do WH phenomena occur with the particular cluster of properties observed across languages -- long-distance dependencies, WH-in situ, partial movement constructions, reconstruction, crossover etc." These phenomena have been analysed by invoking a number of discrete principles and categories, but have so far resisted a unified treatment.
The explanation proposed is set within a model of natural language understanding in context, where the task of understanding is taken to be the incremental building of a structure over which the semantic content is defined. The formal model is a composite of a labelled type-deduction system, a modal tree logic, and a set of rules for describing the process of interpreting the string as a set of transition states. A dynamic concept of syntax results, in which in addition to an output structure associated with each string (analogous to the level of LF), there is in addition an explicit meta-level description of the process whereby this incremental process takes place.
This paper argues that WH-related phenomena can be unified by adopting this dynamic perspective. The main focus of the paper is on WH-initial structures, WH in situ structures, partial movement phenomena, and crossover phenomena. In each case, an analysis is proposed which emerges from the general characterisatioan of WH structures without construction-specific stipulation.Articl
Strategic Conversation
International audienceModels of conversation that rely on a strong notion of cooperation don’t apply to strategic conversation — that is, to conversation where the agents’ motives don’t align, such as courtroom cross examination and political debate. We provide a game-theoretic framework that provides an analysis of both cooperative and strategic conversation. Our analysis features a new notion of safety that applies to implicatures: an implicature is safe when it can be reliably treated as a matter of public record. We explore the safety of implicatures within cooperative and non cooperative settings. We then provide a symbolic model enabling us (i) to prove a correspondence result between a characterisation of conversation in terms of an alignment of players’ preferences and one where Gricean principles of cooperative conversation like Sincerity hold, and (ii) to show when an implicature is safe and when it is not
A note on the punctuated nature of movement paths
This paper addresses the question of how a moving item affects the nodes that lie along the path of movement. In particular, we are concerned with the question whether all nodes along the path of movement are affected in the same way or not. We first observe that most arguments that have been given to support the existence of intermediate reconstruction sites do not bear on this issue. We then discuss the logic of what a true argument would look like. Finally, we present three case studies. Two of them (A-reconstruction in Norwegian and VP-ellipsis in Dutch) provide prima facie arguments in favor of a position along the lines of Chomsky (1973, 1986, 2000), where some but not all nodes along the path of movement are affected by movement.Aquest article tracta de com afecta un element en moviment els nodes que es troben en el seu camÃ. Més concretament, ens interessem per la qüestió de si tots els nodes que es troben en el camà de l'element en moviment queden afectats de la mateixa manera. Primer observem que la majoria d'arguments que s'han donat a favor de l'existència de posicions intermèdies de reconstrucció no són rellevants per la qüestió que ens ocupa. Tot seguit considerem com hauria de ser un argument rellevant al nostre propòsit. Finalment, estudiem tres fenòmens concrets, dos dels quals (reconstrucció A en noruec i el·lipsi d'SV en neerlandès), aparentment, donen suport a la idea que només alguns nodes, no tots, queden afectats pel moviment, una postura anà loga a la defensada per Chomsky (1973, 1986, 2000)
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