Metaphoric coherence: Distinguishing verbal metaphor from `anomaly\u27

Theories and computational models of metaphor comprehension generally circumvent the question of metaphor versus “anomaly” in favor of a treatment of metaphor versus literal language. Making the distinction between metaphoric and “anomalous” expressions is subject to wide variation in judgment, yet humans agree that some potentially metaphoric expressions are much more comprehensible than others. In the context of a program which interprets simple isolated sentences that are potential instances of cross‐modal and other verbal metaphor, I consider some possible coherence criteria which must be satisfied for an expression to be “conceivable” metaphorically. Metaphoric constraints on object nominals are represented as abstracted or extended along with the invariant structural components of the verb meaning in a metaphor. This approach distinguishes what is preserved in metaphoric extension from that which is “violated”, thus referring to both “similarity” and “dissimilarity” views of metaphor. The role and potential limits of represented abstracted properties and constraints is discussed as they relate to the recognition of incoherent semantic combinations and the rejection or adjustment of metaphoric interpretations

Identity, non-identity, and near-identity: Addressing the complexity of coreference

This article examines the mainstream categorical definition of coreference as "identity of reference." It argues that coreference is best handled when identity is treated as a continuum, ranging from full identity to non-identity, with room for near-identity relations to explain currently problematic cases. This middle ground is needed to account for those linguistic expressions in real text that stand in relations that are neither full coreference nor non-coreference, a situation that has led to contradictory treatment of cases in previous coreference annotation efforts. We discuss key issues for coreference such as conceptual categorization, individuation, criteria of identity, and the discourse model construct. We redefine coreference as a scalar relation between two (or more) linguistic expressions that refer to discourse entities considered to be at the same granularity level relevant to the linguistic and pragmatic context. We view coreference relations in terms of mental space theory and discuss a large number of real life examples that show near-identity at different degrees

Représentation du langage et modèles d'évolution linguistique : la grammaticalisation comme perspective

International audienceThough numerous numerical studies have investigated language change, grammaticalization and diachronic phenomena of language renewal have been left aside, or so it seems. We argue that previous models, dedicated to other purposes, make representational choices that cannot easily account for this type of phenomenon. In this paper we propose a new framework , aiming to depict linguistic renewal through numerical simulations. We illustrate it with a specific implementation which brings to light the phenomenon of semantic bleaching.Bien que le changement linguistique ait fait l'objet de nombreuses recherches numé-riques, les phénomènes diachroniques de renouvellement linguistique et plus spécifiquement la grammaticalisation ont été, semble-t-il, laissés de côté. Motivés par d'autres perspectives, les différents modèles s'appuient sur des représentations qui, comme nous le montrons, ne per-mettent pas d'aborder efficacement la modélisation de ce type de phénomènes. Nous proposons ici un cadre de représentation visant à décrire le renouvellement linguistique et se prêtant bien à la simulation numérique. Nous l'illustrons par une implémentation particulière mettant en évidence le phénomène de javellisation sémantique

Investigating the Impact of Semantic Operations on Persian-Speaking Aphasics: Further Evidence on the Localization View

Introduction: Broca and Wernicke’s patients perform satisfactorily regarding the processing of canonical syntactic structures, as maintained by previous studies; however, there has been a gap in the literature because no particular research has yet investigated the performance of these patients in the Persian circumstances once they were required to analyze sentences which would demand extra-semantic processing. This study clarifies the role of two critical semantic operations demanding extra-semantic processing at the sentential level: Aspectual coercion. It complements to provide some evidence on the localist view of the brain. Our rationale for selecting these operations was their pure semantic nature, not relying on morphosyntactic properties. Materials and Methods: Having recruited two age- and education-matched Broca, two Wernicke, and four healthy controls, we conducted a semantic judgment task in which the participants were asked to express their correct semantic judgment in the two coercion and two normal conditions. Results: Our results showed an approximately above-chance performance of the Broca group for all conditions; however, in the Wernicke group, the same result was not observed due to their poor performance in coercion conditions, though in ordinary sentences, they performed much better. Conclusion: Our findings, along with similar off-line and imaging studies, corroborate the view of localism, based on which Wernicke’s area is mainly responsible for the primary semantic operations while Broca’s area predominantly takes over syntactic parsing

Nondik Nora euskaraz Egituren Gramatikaren eta Bateraketa Teoriaren argitan :

1. Talmyren Hizkuntzen tipologia ereduaren oinarriak Badirudi mugimenduaren nozioa hizkuntza guztietan ageri dela. Hargatik, ez hizkuntzotan mugimendua adierazteko era — lexikalizatze patroiak — ez eta hizkuntza bakoitzak zein mugimendu aspektutan — mugimendu osagaitan — jarriko dion indarra ere izango dira beti bera eta bat. Talmyren lanaren ekarririk handiena (1985, 1991, 2000) horretara isuria da, hain juxtu : hizkuntzek arlo semantikoak eta baliabide lexikalak kidetzera-koan erakusten dut..

Understanding and Representing Natural Language Meaning

Coordinated Science Laboratory was formerly known as Control Systems LaboratoryOffice of Naval Research / N00014-75-C-061

A Computational Treatment of Locative Relations in Natural Language

This paper discusses a system for talking about objects and spatial relations. The work was done in the context of a project called Landscan, for Language-Driven Scene Analyser. The system takes questions in natural language about a partially analysed image of a scene, extends the analysis of the scene as necessary, and responds with information about the objects it contains. Image processing and reasoning about the scene are guided by the input query. Landscan comprises (1) a vision system, which is responsible for image processing and object recognition, (2) a language processor, responsible for understanding the input queries, and (3) a reasoning agent, to determine what is already known or knowable about the subject of the query, to formulate requests for data to the vision system as necessary, and to compile those data into meaningful answers. This report is concerned with the last two. Since most queries in this context concern objects and their spatial relations, it describes a computational treatment of Herskovits\u27 work on locative expressions, and evaluates the usefulness of Herskovits\u27 approach for this system. It also proposes a general design for the reasoner/interface, outlines the protocols required for the language and vision systems to interact with it, and points out aspects of the project needing particular attention. The very ambitious scope of the Landscan project has naturally made it difficult to do more than point the way to further exploration of many issues