Adposition and Case Supersenses v2.5: Guidelines for English

This document offers a detailed linguistic description of SNACS (Semantic Network of Adposition and Case Supersenses; Schneider et al., 2018), an inventory of 50 semantic labels ("supersenses") that characterize the use of adpositions and case markers at a somewhat coarse level of granularity, as demonstrated in the STREUSLE corpus (https://github.com/nert-gu/streusle/; version 4.3 tracks guidelines version 2.5). Though the SNACS inventory aspires to be universal, this document is specific to English; documentation for other languages will be published separately. Version 2 is a revision of the supersense inventory proposed for English by Schneider et al. (2015, 2016) (henceforth "v1"), which in turn was based on previous schemes. The present inventory was developed after extensive review of the v1 corpus annotations for English, plus previously unanalyzed genitive case possessives (Blodgett and Schneider, 2018), as well as consideration of adposition and case phenomena in Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, and German. Hwang et al. (2017) present the theoretical underpinnings of the v2 scheme. Schneider et al. (2018) summarize the scheme, its application to English corpus data, and an automatic disambiguation task

Developing a model and a language to identify and specify the integrity constraints in spatial datacubes

La qualité des données dans les cubes de données spatiales est importante étant donné que ces données sont utilisées comme base pour la prise de décision dans les grandes organisations. En effet, une mauvaise qualité de données dans ces cubes pourrait nous conduire à une mauvaise prise de décision. Les contraintes d'intégrité jouent un rôle clé pour améliorer la cohérence logique de toute base de données, l'un des principaux éléments de la qualité des données. Différents modèles de cubes de données spatiales ont été proposés ces dernières années mais aucun n'inclut explicitement les contraintes d'intégrité. En conséquence, les contraintes d'intégrité de cubes de données spatiales sont traitées de façon non-systématique, pragmatique, ce qui rend inefficace le processus de vérification de la cohérence des données dans les cubes de données spatiales. Cette thèse fournit un cadre théorique pour identifier les contraintes d'intégrité dans les cubes de données spatiales ainsi qu'un langage formel pour les spécifier. Pour ce faire, nous avons d'abord proposé un modèle formel pour les cubes de données spatiales qui en décrit les différentes composantes. En nous basant sur ce modèle, nous avons ensuite identifié et catégorisé les différents types de contraintes d'intégrité dans les cubes de données spatiales. En outre, puisque les cubes de données spatiales contiennent typiquement à la fois des données spatiales et temporelles, nous avons proposé une classification des contraintes d'intégrité des bases de données traitant de l'espace et du temps. Ensuite, nous avons présenté un langage formel pour spécifier les contraintes d'intégrité des cubes de données spatiales. Ce langage est basé sur un langage naturel contrôlé et hybride avec des pictogrammes. Plusieurs exemples de contraintes d'intégrité des cubes de données spatiales sont définis en utilisant ce langage. Les designers de cubes de données spatiales (analystes) peuvent utiliser le cadre proposé pour identifier les contraintes d'intégrité et les spécifier au stade de la conception des cubes de données spatiales. D'autre part, le langage formel proposé pour spécifier des contraintes d'intégrité est proche de la façon dont les utilisateurs finaux expriment leurs contraintes d'intégrité. Par conséquent, en utilisant ce langage, les utilisateurs finaux peuvent vérifier et valider les contraintes d'intégrité définies par l'analyste au stade de la conception

Towards intelligent transport systems: geospatial ontological framework and agent simulation

In an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) environment, the communication component is of high significance as it supports interactions between vehicles and the roadside infrastructure. Existing studies focus on the physical capability and capacity of the communication technologies, but the equally important development of suitable and efficient semantic content for transmission has received notably less attention. Using an ontology is one promising approach for context modelling in ubiquitous computing environments. In the transport domain, an ontology can be used both for context modelling and semantic contents for vehicular communications. This research explores the development of an ontological framework implementing a geosemantic messaging model to support vehicle-to-vehicle communications. To develop an ontology model, two scenarios (an ambulance situation and a breakdown on the motorway) are constructed to describe specific situations using short-range communication in an ITS environment. In the scenarios, spatiotemporal relations and semantic relations among vehicles and road facilities are extracted and defined as classes, objects, and properties/relations in the ontology model. For the ontology model, some functions and query templates are also developed to update vehicles’ movements and to provide some logical procedures that vehicles need to follow in emergency situations. To measure the effects of the vehicular communication based on the ontology model, an agent-based approach is adopted to dynamically simulate the moving vehicles and their communications following the scenarios. The simulation results demonstrate that the ontology model can support vehicular communications to update each vehicle’s context model and assist its decision-making process to resolve the emergency situations. The results also show the effect of vehicular communications on the efficiency trends of traffic in emergency situations, where some vehicles have a communication device, and others do not. The efficiency trends, based on the percentage of vehicles having a communication device, can be useful to set a transition period plan for implanting communication devices onto vehicles and the infrastructure. The geospatial ontological framework and agent simulation may contribute to increase the intelligence of ITS by supporting data-level and application-level implementation of autonomous vehicle agents to share knowledge in local contexts. This work can be easily extended to support more complex interactions amongst vehicles and the infrastructure

Uncovering the Hidden Cognitive Processes and Underlying Dynamics of Deception

This dissertation examines the processing demands associated with motor responding and verbal statements during deceptive (or deceptive-like) behavior. In the first set of studies presented in Chapter 2, participants motor movements in a false response paradigm revealed signatures of competition with the truth. In a second set of studies presented in Chapter 3, deceptive participants used language that reflected cognitive and social demands inherent to various types of deception. In evaluating both motor and verbal cues, this dissertation provides a comprehensive, multi-modal approach to better understanding the cognitive processes underlying deception. in conducting the motor responding studies, participants\u27 arm movements were analyzed as they navigated a motor tracking device (computer-mouse, Nintendo Wiimote). To visually co-present response options, where the true option acts as a competitor to a false target. In an initial study, competition during deceptive responding was shown to be much greater than during truthful responding. In two follow-up studies, the introduction of various task-based cognitive demands was shown to systematically modulate response performance. Specifically, these studies suggest that an intention to false respond early in question presentation will amplify competition effects, and that false responding to information in autobiographical memory is much more difficult than responding to information in general semantic memory. In the studies analyzing verbal statements, the focus is turned to large-scale linguistic analyses using automated natural language processing tools. In the first study, changes in language use were identifed between deceptive and truthful narratives using six psychologically relevant categories. A major finding was that the language of deception is adapted to faciliate ease of cognitive processing. In a second study, the indicative phrasing and semantic content of deceptive texts was extracted using a contrastive corpus analysis, whereby indicative features are defined by frequent use in one corpus while being infrequent in a comparative corpus. Two contexts of deception were evaluated. In the first context of computer-mediated conversations, decievers used a range of unique thematic elements, as in avoiding personal involvement in their narrative accounts. In the second context of attitudes towards abortion, unique thematic elements once again emerged; for example, participants tended to position their arguments in terms of formal law

30th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases

Information modelling is becoming more and more important topic for researchers, designers, and users of information systems. The amount and complexity of information itself, the number of abstraction levels of information, and the size of databases and knowledge bases are continuously growing. Conceptual modelling is one of the sub-areas of information modelling. The aim of this conference is to bring together experts from different areas of computer science and other disciplines, who have a common interest in understanding and solving problems on information modelling and knowledge bases, as well as applying the results of research to practice. We also aim to recognize and study new areas on modelling and knowledge bases to which more attention should be paid. Therefore philosophy and logic, cognitive science, knowledge management, linguistics and management science are relevant areas, too. In the conference, there will be three categories of presentations, i.e. full papers, short papers and position papers

The role of discourse markers (DMs) in text organization of the genre stand-up comedy in Portugal and in the United States

Os anexos não estão disponíveis por questões de direitos de autorIn this thesis, conversational discourse markers (e.g. well, you know, bem, quer dizer) are seen as a genre parameter of stand-up comedy, i.e. a characteristic trait that constitutes the genre’s identity (Coutinho 2007). This assumption is based on the fact that stand-up comedy is typically described as a conversational form of art (Attardo 2001; Brodie 2014; Double 2014; Rutter 1997; Greenbaum 1999) and, therefore, similar to any interactive spoken practice, it is rich in discourse markers. The study explores the frequency, the functions, the distribution, the position and the role of the selected range of conversational discourse markers in text organization of the genre stand-up comedy. The results showed that there are three main tendencies regarding the implementation of this genre parameter in concrete texts (in American English and European Portuguese). Firstly, Portuguese units are predominantly non-discourse marking, whereas their English counterparts represent mostly discourse-marking uses. Secondly, new functions have been attested, i.e. to anticipate a shift between direct/indirect modes of speech, to signal personal experience and to address the audience. These newly emerging functions are closely related to the specificity of the genre stand-up comedy, namely, its narrative, autobiographical and interactive nature. The third and last observed tendency refers to the position of the discourse markers in text organization or text plan. All the selected discourse markers, with no exception, function within the body of a stand-up comedy act, performing a series of textual and/or interactional functions, according to the hypothesis of duo-domain (i.e. textual and interactional functions, as proposed in Brinton, 1996). Predominant occurrence of these units within the body of stand-up comedy acts indicates the importance of their textual functioning; the wide spectrum of functions they perform within the comedian’s act is used to structure, shape, mend, clarify, introduce, prepare, etc. the text for perception. In this respect, conversational discourse markers are akin to guiding devices within the text organization of the stand-up comedyNeste trabalho, os marcadores discursivos conversacionais (i.e., well, you know, bem, quer dizer, etc.) são vistos como um parâmetro de género stand-up comedy, ou seja, um traço característico que constitui a identidade de género (Coutinho 2007). Esta suposição é baseada no facto de o stand-up comedy ser tipicamente descrito como uma forma de arte conversacional (Attardo 2001; Brodie 2014; Double 2014; Rutter 1997; Greenbaum 1999) e, portanto, sendo similar a qualquer prática oral interativa, rica em marcadores discursivos. O estudo explora a frequência, as funções, a distribuição, a posição e o papel de uma gama selecionada de marcadores discursivos na organização textual do género stand-up comedy. Os resultados indicam três tendências principais na realização deste parâmetro de género em textos concretos (em inglês americano e português europeu). Em primeiro lugar, as unidades em português são predominantemente não-discursivas, enquanto as suas congéneres inglesas representam, na sua maioria, usos de marcação discursiva. Em segundo lugar, novas funções foram identificadas, i.e., antecipar uma mudança entre os modos de fala (direto/indireto), sinalizar a experiência pessoal e dirigir-se diretamente ao público. Essas novas funções estão intimamente relacionadas com a especificidade do género stand-up comedy, a sua natureza narrativa, autobiográfica e interativa, respetivamente. Por fim, constatou-se que todos os marcadores discursivos selecionados, sem exceção, funcionam dentro de um ato de stand-up comedy, realizando uma série de funções textuais e/ou interacionais (Brinton, 1996), demostrando assim a importância do seu funcionamento textual. O amplo espectro de funções que desempenham dentro do ato de comediante é usado para estruturar, moldar, corrigir, esclarecer, introduzir, preparar, etc., o texto para compreensão do público. Deste ponto de vista, os marcadores discursivos conversacionais são semelhantes a guias de orientação dentro da organização do texto no género stand-up comedy