12,381 research outputs found
Word frequency distributions and lexical semantics
This paper addresses the relation between meaning, lexical productivity, and frequency of use. Using density estimation as a visualization tool, we show that differences in semantic structure can be reflected in probability density functions estimated for word frequency distributions. We call attention to an example of a bimodal density, and suggest that bimodality arises when distributions of well-entrenched lexical tems, which appear to be lognormal, are mixed with distributions of productively reated nonce formation
A probabilistic framework for analysing the compositionality of conceptual combinations
Conceptual combination performs a fundamental role in creating the broad
range of compound phrases utilised in everyday language. This article provides
a novel probabilistic framework for assessing whether the semantics of conceptual
combinations are compositional, and so can be considered as a function of
the semantics of the constituent concepts, or not. While the systematicity and
productivity of language provide a strong argument in favor of assuming compositionality,
this very assumption is still regularly questioned in both cognitive
science and philosophy. Additionally, the principle of semantic compositionality
is underspecified, which means that notions of both "strong" and "weak"
compositionality appear in the literature. Rather than adjudicating between
different grades of compositionality, the framework presented here contributes
formal methods for determining a clear dividing line between compositional and
non-compositional semantics. In addition, we suggest that the distinction between
these is contextually sensitive. Compositionality is equated with a joint probability distribution modeling how the constituent concepts in the combination
are interpreted. Marginal selectivity is introduced as a pivotal probabilistic
constraint for the application of the Bell/CH and CHSH systems of inequalities.
Non-compositionality is equated with a failure of marginal selectivity, or violation
of either system of inequalities in the presence of marginal selectivity. This
means that the conceptual combination cannot be modeled in a joint probability
distribution, the variables of which correspond to how the constituent concepts
are being interpreted. The formal analysis methods are demonstrated by applying
them to an empirical illustration of twenty-four non-lexicalised conceptual
combinations
Identifying Metaphor Hierarchies in a Corpus Analysis of Finance Articles
Using a corpus of over 17,000 financial news reports (involving over 10M
words), we perform an analysis of the argument-distributions of the UP- and
DOWN-verbs used to describe movements of indices, stocks, and shares. Using
measures of the overlap in the argument distributions of these verbs and
k-means clustering of their distributions, we advance evidence for the proposal
that the metaphors referred to by these verbs are organised into hierarchical
structures of superordinate and subordinate groups
Lexical representation explains cortical entrainment during speech comprehension
Results from a recent neuroimaging study on spoken sentence comprehension
have been interpreted as evidence for cortical entrainment to hierarchical
syntactic structure. We present a simple computational model that predicts the
power spectra from this study, even though the model's linguistic knowledge is
restricted to the lexical level, and word-level representations are not
combined into higher-level units (phrases or sentences). Hence, the cortical
entrainment results can also be explained from the lexical properties of the
stimuli, without recourse to hierarchical syntax.Comment: Submitted for publicatio
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