Modelling Subordinate Conjunctions in STAG: A Discourse Perspective

International audienceAmong the discourse connectives – lexical items conveying discourse relations – are the subordinate conjunctions (SubConjs), like because, even if or although. SubConjs have generally been considered a homogeneous category, however previous work has shown they can be divided into two classes according to their syntactic and semantic properties. Similarly, attitude verbs and reporting verbs (AVs) have two different uses in discourse: evidential and intentional. Drawing from these observations, we propose a STAG model of SubConjs and AVs taking into account both their syntactic and discursive properties

Linear filtering reveals false negatives in species interaction data

Species interaction datasets, often represented as sparse matrices, are usually collected through observation studies targeted at identifying species interactions. Due to the extensive required sampling effort, species interaction datasets usually contain many false negatives, often leading to bias in derived descriptors. We show that a simple linear filter can be used to detect false negatives by scoring interactions based on the structure of the interaction matrices. On 180 different datasets of various sizes, sparsities and ecological interaction types, we found that on average in about 75% of the cases, a false negative interaction got a higher score than a true negative interaction. Furthermore, we show that this filter is very robust, even when the interaction matrix contains a very large number of false negatives. Our results demonstrate that unobserved interactions can be detected in species interaction datasets, even without resorting to information about the species involved

Modelling Discourse in STAG: Subordinate Conjunctions and Attributing Phrases

International audienceWe propose a new model in STAG syntax and semantics for subordinate conjunctions (SubConjs) and attributing phrases - attitude/reporting verbs (AVs; "believe", "say") and attributing prepositional phrase (APPs; "according to").This model is discourse-oriented, and is based on the observation that SubConjs and AVs are not homogeneous categories. Indeed, previous work has shown that SubConjs can be divided into two classes according to their syntactic and semantic properties. Similarly, AVs have two different uses in discourse: evidential and intentional. While evidential AVs and APPs have strong semantic similarities, they do not appear in the same contexts when SubConjs are at play. Our proposition aims at representing these distinctions and capturing these various discourse-related interactions

Negation in event semantics with actual and nonactual events

International audienceThe goal of this work is to provide a formal account of negation in a Davidsonian framework that (i) makes negative events available for the analysis of various constructions that are otherwise problematic (such as negative naked infinitives or adverbial modification) and (ii) exhibits reasonable logical properties. This is done by first distinguishing between actual and non-actual events and then introducing a Neg function sending any event-predicate P to the not-P event and obeying a single axiom

Modelling Subordinate Conjunctions in STAG: A Discourse Perspective

International audienceAmong the discourse connectives – lexical items conveying discourse relations – are the subordinate conjunctions (SubConjs), like because, even if or although. SubConjs have generally been considered a homogeneous category, however previous work has shown they can be divided into two classes according to their syntactic and semantic properties. Similarly, attitude verbs and reporting verbs (AVs) have two different uses in discourse: evidential and intentional. Drawing from these observations, we propose a STAG model of SubConjs and AVs taking into account both their syntactic and discursive properties

Conjonctions de subordination, verbes de dire et d'attitude propositionnelle : une modélisation STAG pour le discours

National audienceNous proposons une nouvelle modélisation en grammaire d'arbres adjoints synchrone (STAG) syntaxe/sémantique pour les conjonctions de subordination (ConjSub) et les verbes de dire et d'attitude propositionnelle (VAP ; dire, penser, croire, etc.). Cette modélisation, plus riche que les modélisations traditionnelles, est conçue pour l'analyse du discours et fondée sur l'observation que ces deux catégories sont loin d'être homogènes. En effet, des travaux antérieurs ont montré d'une part que les occurrences de ConjSub pouvaient être divisées en deux classes aux propriétés syntaxiques et sémantiques différentes, d'autre part que les VAP présentaient en discours deux usages distincts : évidentiel et intentionnel. Notre proposition vise donc à rendre compte précisément de ces différences tout en modélisant les interactions entre VAP et ConjSub

Continuations as a semantics-pragmatics interface for presuppositions

International audienceResearch questions • How can all the components of a theory of presupposition be integrated in a single formal framework? • What is the nature of the principles underlying the projection problem for presuppositions? Take-home messages • The projection of a presupposition can be conceptualised as an exception (as in computer programming), logical operators and quantifiers as exception handlers. • In a proof-theoretic approach, cancellation of a presupposi-tion can be seen as provability and the effect of operators can be based on a principle of plausibility of hypothesises. • The above can be implemented in continuation semantics

Verbes d'attitude propositionnelle et analyse discursive

National audienceLes théories rendant compte du texte à l'échelle discursive — c'est-à-dire dans sa globalité et non plus phrase par phrase — éprouvent généralement des difficultés à expliquer de manière satisfaisante des segments qui ne sont pas de simples affirmations de l’auteur, ceux notamment introduits par un verbe d’attitude propositionnelle. Or de tels énoncés sont très fréquents, en particulier dans les textes journalistiques. Savoir qui pense quoi et ce que l’auteur en dit est pourtant crucial, autant d’un point de vue théorique que pour de nombreuses applications de traitement automatique des langues telles que les systèmes de recherche d’information, d’inférences sémantiques ou de traduction automatique. C’est dans cette optique que nous nous proposons ici d’étudier et de modéliser les interactions entre les verbes d’attitude propositionnelle et la structure discursive

Fine-grained discourse structures in continuation semantics

International audienceIn this work, we are interested in the computation of logical representations of discourse. We argue that all discourse connectives are anaphors obeying different sets of constraints and show how this view allows one to account for the semantically parenthetical use of attitude verbs and verbs of report (e.g., think, say) and for sequences of conjunctions (A CONJ 1 B CONJ 2 C). We implement this proposal in event semantics using de Groote (2006)’s dynamic framework