Ontology and argument structure in nominalizations

Based on data from German -ung nominalizations, I argue that selection restriction tests are not suitable as linguistic tools for ontological disambiguation. Consequently, I question the significance of ontology as a starting point for linguistic theorizing. Instead, I argue for an underspecified account of the ontology of nominalizations, in which disambiguation looses its central role in the commerce with ambiguity

Bridging Formal and Conceptual Semantics Selected papers of BRIDGE-14

The articles in this volume are the outcome of the successful BRIDGE Workshop held in Düsseldorf in 2014. The workshop gathered a number of distinguished researchers from formal semantics and conceptual semantics and aimed to initiate a deeper conversation and collaboration instead of separating the two sides as competing views. The workshop provided a platform to further discuss parallelisms on specific semantic issues on the one hand and on the other hand to confront opposed claims from the two different perspectives. This volume represents a selected number of high-quality papers presented at the workshop featuring various approaches to meaning from linguistics, logic and philosophy of language. The series 'Studies in Language and Cognition' explores issues of mental representation, linguistic structure and representation, and their interplay. The research presented in this series is grounded in the idea explored in the Collaborative Research Center 'The structure of representations in language, cognition and science' (SFB 991) that there is a universal format for the representation of linguistic and cognitive concepts

Verankerte Diskursrepräsentationstheorie : auf dem Weg zu einer Semantik-Pragmatik-Schnittstelle als Grundlage der Zusammenarbeit von Mensch und Maschine

This study introduces Grounded Discourse Representation Theory (GDRT), a formalism for the semantics-pragmatics interface of a robot in the framework of goal-oriented human-machine collaboration. The theory of Grounded Discourse Representation Theory (GDRT) as developed in this thesis aims at a uniform processing of speech, thought and action, of object recognition, motor control and natural language meaning, of semantics and pragmatics. Developing a formalism that enables a robot to naturally engage in joint interaction is a demanding enterprise which combines major problems from areas such as computer science, linguistics, robotics, logics, psychology and philosophy. The prominent aspect highlighted in this thesis is that the combination of insights from research in these different areas leads to a revised and novel picture of the standard conceptions of meaning, reference and model theory. From a technical point of view, GDRT embeds the established formalism of Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) into a system of Computational Tree Logic and the Procedural Reasoning System. The main technical innovations of GDRT are the consequent use of anchors to model the referential relations between semantic representations, planning and reality and the introduction of a normative pragmatics of interpretation to the framework of truth-conditional formal semantics. The definition of an interface between action theory (pragmatics) and natural language (semantics) as proposed with GDRT allows for the elegant treatment of phenomena which constitute the core concepts underlying the intentional use of language: propositional attitudes, planning and practical reason. This thesis can also be understood as an attempt to break the ground for other areas of application to DRT (in the sense of a 'language of thoughts' that fills in the gap between linguistics and robotics) without loss of the ability to process the wide range of natural language phenomena DRT has been designed for.Die vorliegende Arbeit formuliert einen theoretischen Ansatz für die Verarbeitung zielgerichteter Interaktionen zwischen Menschen und Robotern an der Schnittstelle zwischen formaler Semantik und Pragmatik. Die Entwicklung eines solchen Formalismus, der es einem Roboter erlaubt in natürlicher Weise an gemeinsamen Aufgabenstellungen zu partizipieren, involviert zentrale Problemstellungen aus verschiedenen Wissenschaftsdisziplinen: Informatik, Linguistik, Robotik, Logik, Psychologie und Philosophie. Die in dieser Arbeit entwickelte 'Grounded Discourse Representation Theory' (GDRT) zielt darauf ab, in integrativer Weise Forschungsergebnisse dieser unterschiedlichen Wissenschaftsdisziplinen in einer Theorie der Semantik-Pragmatik Schnittstelle zu vereinen. Im Fokus steht dabei die Verankerung von expliziten semantischen Repräsentationen im Sinne der Diskursrepräsentationstheorie (DRT) in einer formalen Modelltheorie, die ihrerseits in Perzeptionen und Planungsstrukturen eines Roboters verankert ist. Es ist diese Form der Rückführung der Referenzstrukturen von Repräsentationen auf reale Zustände und zukünftige Pläne, die die Interpretation von semantischen Repräsentationen fundiert (daher 'Grounded' Discourse Representation Theory). Andersherum kann die Arbeit als Versuch verstanden werden, die sensomotorischen Fähigkeiten eines Roboters um den Umgang mit komplexen semantischen Repräsentationen zu erweitern und damit an die Forschungsrichtung der Computerlinguistik anzuschliessen. Prinzipiell stellt die GDRT damit einen Versuch dar, eine Brücke zwischen Robotik und Linguistik zu schlagen, indem sie dynamische Modellstrukturen als Mittler zwischen der hardwarenahen Seite der Objekterkennung und Motorkontrolle und der kognitionstheoretisch motivierten Seite des Gebrauchs von Repräsentationsstrukturen installiert

Towards a correlation of form, use and meaning of German 'ge'-prefixed predicative participles

We argue for a split semantics of German predicative participle constructions, depending on whether or not the formation of the participle involves prefixation with the dedicated morpheme 'ge'-. Against the background of the analysis of participles of German 'be'-prefixed verbs proposed in Pross (2019), and using the licensing of superlative constructions and 'ung'-nominalizations as tests, we show that 'ge'-prefixed participles denote a result relation between a property of an event and an individual. In contrast, 'be'-prefixed participles, like adjectives, denote properties of individuals. We cast the distinction between event properties and individual properties in a compositional semantics of 'ge'-and 'be'-prefixed participles and show how the resulting semantic distinction allows to predict the distinction between target and resultant state participles drawn in Kratzer (2000) without using the questionable 'immer noch' ‘still’ test