Having Your Cake and Eating It Too: Autonomy and Interaction in a Model of Sentence Processing

Is the human language understander a collection of modular processes operating with relative autonomy, or is it a single integrated process? This ongoing debate has polarized the language processing community, with two fundamentally different types of model posited, and with each camp concluding that the other is wrong. One camp puts forth a model with separate processors and distinct knowledge sources to explain one body of data, and the other proposes a model with a single processor and a homogeneous, monolithic knowledge source to explain the other body of data. In this paper we argue that a hybrid approach which combines a unified processor with separate knowledge sources provides an explanation of both bodies of data, and we demonstrate the feasibility of this approach with the computational model called COMPERE. We believe that this approach brings the language processing community significantly closer to offering human-like language processing systems.Comment: 7 pages, uses aaai.sty macr

Signals of contrastiveness: but, oppositeness and formal similarity in parallel contexts

By examining contexts in which ‘emergent’ oppositions appear, we consider the relative contribution of formal parallelism, connective type and semantic relation (considered as an indicator of relative semantic parallelism) in generating contrast. The data set is composed of cases of ancillary antonymy – the use of an established antonym pair to help support and/or accentuate contrast between a less established pair. Having devised measures for formal and semantic parallelism, we find that but is less likely to appear in contexts with high levels of formal parallelism than non-contrastive connectives like and or punctuation. With respect to semantic parallelism, we find that contrastive connectives are less likely to occur with pairs that are in traditional paradigmatic relations (‘NYM relations’: antonymy, co-hyponymy, synonymy). The paper’s main hypothesis – that nonparadigmatic relations need more contextual sustenance for their opposition – was therefore supported. Indeed, pairs in NYM relations were found to be more than twice as likely to be joined by a non-contrastive connective as by a contrastive one

Metapher und Metonymie

Empirical approaches based on qualitative or quantitative methods of corpus linguistics have become a central paradigm within linguistics. The series takes account of this fact and provides a platform for approaches within synchronous linguistics as well as interdisciplinary works with a linguistic focus which devise new ways of working empirically and develop new data-based methods and theoretical models for empirical linguistic analyses

A usage-based approach to verb classes in English and German

Drawing on data from verbs of Change (alter, transform) and Theft (steal, shoplift), my dissertation investigates and compares verb classes along a variety of dimensions. A common assumption in research on verbal syntax and semantics states that verbs with similar meanings exhibit similar syntactic behavior (Fillmore 1967, Levin 1993). For example, many Change verbs can occur in transitive constructions with into PPs (The witch {changed/turned/transformed} the prince into a frog). This systematicity has led scholars to propose verb classes, such as Change verbs, which are predictive of a verb’s syntactic behavior. However, recent research (Boas 2008, Faulhaber 2011) has challenged this assumption on the basis of data in which semantically similar verbs differ in their grammatical behavior (The prince {turned/??changed/*transformed} red). The introductory chapters review research on verb classification and argument realization, revealing that cognitive and usage-based theories such as Frame Semantics, Construction Grammar, and Valency Grammar are most useful for addressing the three major goals of the dissertation. The first goal is to account for both regularity and differences in verb classes. After assessing the precise meanings and valency behavior of individual Change verbs, I develop a method for formulating verb classes and lexical entries at various levels of granularity to account for both shared and unpredictable behavior of individual verbs. The next major goal is to determine whether verb classes exhibit similar meanings and constructional behavior across languages, which I address by comparing the semantics and valency constructions found for English Change verbs with those of German Change verbs. Finally, I compare the Change verb analysis to a similar analysis of Theft verbs in order to determine whether the semantic domain and relative semantic richness of verb classes influences the degree of language-specific and cross-linguistic uniformity of verb classes.Germanic Studie

Konstruktionssemantik

Construction semantics combines usage-based construction grammar and frame semantics, as set out in the FrameNet project. This volume models the semantic properties of grammatical constructions and their instances by utilizing frames. It demonstrates the usability of this approach for the constructicographical documentation of constructions as well as its empirical application by looking at three German reflexive constructions

Modale Konstruktionen mit den Verben vermögen, wissen, verstehen, bekommen: eine konstruktionsgrammatische Untersuchung

Die vorliegende Dissertation widmet sich ausführlich der Untersuchung der modalen nahe synonymischen Konstruktionen mit den Verben vermögen, wissen, verstehen und bekommen in der gegenwärtigen deutschen Sprache. Diese Arbeit wird vom Standpunkt der Kognitiven Konstruktionsgrammatik aus durchgeführt. Da diese Studie von einem gebrauchsbasierten Sprachmodell ausgeht, wurden die modalen Konstruktionen mittels erschöpfend erhobener Daten aus einem umfangreichen und ausbalancierten Korpus, dem Kernkorpus des 20. Jahrhunderts des Digitalen Wörterbuches der Deutschen Sprache, ermittelt. Es finden hauptsächlich quantitative Analysetechniken wie Kollostruktions-, Cluster und Netzwerkanalyse Anwendung. Diese Methoden werden in der vorliegenden Dissertation zum ersten Mal kombiniert, um die Verwendung der modalen Konstruktionen in der Sprache wiederzugeben. Alle vier Konstruktionen stellen eine Verbindung des jeweiligen Modalitätsverbs mit einem schematischen Slot für ein infinites verbales Komplement dar und drücken einemodale Bedeutung‚ Möglichkeit / Fähigkeit‘ aus. Diese Studie geht von der Prämisse aus, die in bisherigen Arbeiten in der gebrauchsbasierten Konstruktionsgrammatik verfolgt wird, nämlich, dass die gesamte Semantik der modalen Konstruktionen mit den Bedeutungen der im infiniten Slot auftretenden Vollverben harmonisiert. Die infiniten Verblexeme spielen dementsprechend bei der Beschreibung der Semantik der jeweiligen modalen Konstruktion eine zentrale Rolle. Diese Arbeit konzentriert sich daher vorrangig auf die genaue Erforschung dieser lexikalischen Verben, vor allem auf die Identifizierung der mit der jeweiligen Konstruktion stark assoziierten infiniten Verbkomplemente, ihrer semantischen verbalen Klassen sowie der zwischen ihnen bestehenden semantischen Beziehungen. Außerdem werden semantische Unterschiede zwischen diesen modalen Konstruktionen und deren relativer Grammatikalisierungsgrad erforscht