In this paper we study, analyse and comment rhetorical figures present in
some of most interesting poetry of the first half of the twentieth century.
These figures are at first traced back to some famous poet of the past and then
compared to classical Latin prose. Linguistic theory is then called in to show
how they can be represented in syntactic structures and classified as
noncanonical structures, by positioning discontinuous or displaced linguistic
elements in Spec XP projections at various levels of constituency. Then we
introduce LFG (Lexical Functional Grammar) as the theory that allows us to
connect syntactic noncanonical structures with informational structure and
psycholinguistic theories for complexity evaluation. We end up with two
computational linguistics experiments and then evaluate the results. The first
one uses best online parsers of Italian to parse poetic structures; the second
one uses Getarun, the system created at Ca Foscari Computational Linguistics
Laboratory. As will be shown, the first approach is unable to cope with these
structures due to the use of only statistical probabilistic information. On the
contrary, the second one, being a symbolic rule based system, is by far
superior and allows also to complete both semantic an pragmatic analysis.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of AIUCD 2016 (revised version as of March
  19, 2018

Delmonte, Rodolfo

English

arXiv

In this paper we study, analyse and comment on rhetorical figures present in a selected body of poetry of the first half of the 20th century. These figures are at first traced back to famous poets of the past and then compared to classical Latin prose. Linguistic theory is then called upon to show how these rethorical figures can be represented in syntactic structures and classified as noncanonical structures, by positioning discontinuous or displaced linguistic elements in SpecXP projections at various levels of constituency. We then introduce LFG – Lexical Functional Grammar – as the theory that allows us to connect syntactic noncanonical structures with informational structure and psycholinguistic theories for complexity evaluation. We end up with two computational linguistics experiments and then evaluate the results. The first experiment uses the best performing online parsers of Italian to parse poetic structures; the second experiment use Getarun – a system created at the Computational Linguistics Laboratory of Ca' Foscari. As will be shown, the first approach is unable to cope with these structures because only statistical probabilistic information is used. Conversely, as a symbolic rule-based system, the second approach is much superior and facilitates both semantic and pragmatic analyses.In questo lavoro studiamo, analizziamo e commentiamo le figure retoriche presenti in alcune delle più coinvolgenti poesie della prima metà del ‘900. Queste figure vengono dapprima collegate a quelle di famosi poeti del passato, e successivamente comparate con la prosa del latino classico. Le teorie linguistiche vengono poi utilizzate per mostrare come esse possano essere rappresentate in strutture sintattiche e classificate come strutture non canoniche, posizionando gli elementi linguistici discontinui o spostati in proiezioni di SpecXP a vari livelli di costituenza. Quindi introduciamo la teoria LFG – Grammatica Lessico-Funzionale come la teoria che ci permette di unire le strutture sintattiche non canoniche alla struttura informazionale e alle teoria psicolinguistiche per la valutazione della complessità. Terminiamo con due esperimenti di linguistica computazionale: il primo utilizza i migliori parsers online di italiano per analizzare queste strutture; il secondo usa Getarun – il sistema creato nel Laboratorio di Linguistica Computazionale di Ca' Foscari, e quindi valutiamo I risultati. Come si vedrà, il primo approccio è incapace di trattare queste strutture dal momento che utilizza solo informazioni statistiche e probabilistiche. Al contrario, il secondo – essendo un sistema simbolico basato su regole – è di gran lunga superiore e permette anche di completare l’analisi con la parte semantica e pragmatica

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Syntax and Semantics of Italian Poetry in the First Half of the 20th Century

In this paper we study, analyse and comment on rhetorical figures present in a selected body of poetry of the first half of the 20th century. These figures are at first traced back to famous poets of the past and then compared to classical Latin prose. Linguistic theory is then called upon to show how these rethorical figures can be represented in syntactic structures and classified as noncanonical structures, by positioning discontinuous or displaced linguistic elements in SpecXP projections at various levels of constituency. We then introduce LFG – Lexical Functional Grammar – as the theory that allows us to connect syntactic noncanonical structures with informational structure and psycholinguistic theories for complexity evaluation. We end up with two computational linguistics experiments and then evaluate the results. The first experiment uses the best performing online parsers of Italian to parse poetic structures; the second experiment use Getarun – a system created at the Computational Linguistics Laboratory of Ca' Foscari. As will be shown, the first approach is unable to cope with these structures because only statistical probabilistic information is used. Conversely, as a symbolic rule-based system, the second approach is much superior and facilitates both semantic and pragmatic analyses

Syntax and Semantics of Italian Poetry in the First Half of the 20th Century

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