The Semantic Representation of Natural Language (Bloomsbury Studies in Theoretical Linguistics)

This volume contains a detailed, precise and clear semantic formalism designed to allow non-programmers such as linguists and literary specialists to represent elements of meaning which they must deal with in their research and teaching. At the same time, by its basis in a functional programming paradigm, it retains sufficient formal precision to support computational implementation. The formalism is designed to represent meaning as found at a variety of levels, including basic semantic units and relations, word meaning, sentence-level phenomena, and text-level meaning. By drawing on fundamental principles of program design, the proposed formalism is both easy to read and modify yet sufficiently powerful to allow for the representation of complex semantic phenomena. In this monograph, the authors introduce the formalism and show its basic structure, apply it to the analysis of the semantics of a variety of linguistic phenomena in both English and French, and use it to represent the semantics of a variety of texts ranging from single sentences, to textual excepts, to a full story. Authors: Michael Levison is Professor Emeritus in the School of Computing at Queen's University, Canada. Greg Lessard is a Professor in the Department of French Studies at Queen's University, Canada. Craig Thomas earned his PhD from the School of Computing at Queen's University, Canada, in 2010 under the supervision of Michael Levison and Greg Lessard. Matthew Donald earned his MSc from the School of Computing at Queen's University, Canada, in 2006 under the direction of Michael Levison and Greg Lessard. Publisher's note Cover HalfTitle Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Figures List of Tables Preface Typographical Conventions Chap01.pdf Introduction What we are trying to do The jewel in the crown How to read this book Chap02.pdf Basic Concepts Semasiological and onomasiological perspectives Meaning and reference Describing or creating reality The functions of language Semantic units and semantic relations Language, knowledge and perspective Anthropomorphism, minimalism and practicality Desiderata Onomasiological perspective Broad coverage Resolution Practicality Chap03.pdf Previous Approaches Lexical semantics Lexicography Componential analysis Conceptual structures Lexical relations and inheritance networks The generative lexicon Case grammar Conceptual Dependency Semantic networks Systemic grammar Truth-functional perspectives Computational tools for semantic analysis Models of text structure Discourse Representation Theory Segmented DRT Rhetorical Structure Theory Narrative structure and narrative prose generation Knowledge representation and ontologies KL-ONE OWL Suggested Upper Merged Ontology CYC Models of reasoning: ACT* and ACT-R In sum Chap04.pdf Semantic Expressions: Introduction Background Some caveats Basic expressions Semantic types Semantic functions The constant UNSPEC Adjustments Qualifiers Relative qualifiers Restriction versus description Lists Circumstances Modifying completions Adjustments versus functions Modifying completions versus modifying actions Combining completions Representing semantics, not syntax Chap05.pdf Formal Issues Introduction Properties of SEs Function names, adjustments and attributes The Syntax of SEs Semantic tree The semantic lexicon Validity Function definition Encyclopaedic information Identities and implications Lexical creativity Adjustments Lexicon size Evaluating meaning Chap06.pdf Semantic Expressions: Basic Features Introduction Generalized quantifiers Count and mass entities Quantifier granularity Negatives Only Numbers On the granularity of snow Nobody and everybody Sets and set-difference Interrogatives The constant QUERY The adjustment qu The adjustment wh Tense, aspect and modal verbs Sequencing Timestamps Specific and non-specific entities Chap07.pdf Advanced Features Co-referential relations Entity constants Other constants Scope of definition Lists Connectives Associativity and commutativity Propagation of adjustments Other programming features Repetition List functions Relatives revisited The House That Jack Built Functional programming Duelling quantifiers Two-dimensional quantifiers Arrays Football fans only Revisited Mass entities Speakers, listeners and speech Imperatives and vocatives Speech Vale, Caesar Chap08.pdf Applications: Capture What to represent? Literal versus intended meaning Filling omissions Causality Relationships What to leave out? Adventure Cave names Other problems Control mechanism A guided tour Instruction manual or recipe book Topoi Chap09.pdf Three Little Pigs Preliminaries The story Alternative segment for bad_encounter Length issues Chap10.pdf Applications: Creation A hole in three A Proppian fairy tale Variant stories Romeo and Juliet In sum Bib.pdf index.pdf "This volume contains a detailed, precise and clear semantic formalism designed to allow non-programmers such as linguists and literary specialists to represent elements of meaning which they must deal with in their research and teaching. At the same time, by its basis in a functional programming paradigm, it retains sufficient formal precision to support computational implementation. The formalism is designed to represent meaning as found at a variety of levels, including basic semantic units and relations, word meaning, sentence-level phenomena, and text-level meaning. By drawing on fundamental principles of program design, the proposed formalism is both easy to read and modify yet sufficiently powerful to allow for the representation of complex semantic phenomena. In this monograph, the authors introduce the formalism and show its basic structure, apply it to the analysis of the semantics of a variety of linguistic phenomena in both English and French, and use it to represent the semantics of a variety of texts ranging from single sentences, to textual excepts, to a full story."--Bloomsbury Publishing
Could a single semantic formalism be created which would allow for the representation of meaning at all levels from basic semantic units and relations to sentence-level and text-level meaning, while remaining practical and user-friendly?

This book showcases a detailed, precise and clear semantic formalism such that representations of meaning can be created and understood by a wide range of users, including logicians, linguists, creative writers, and literary specialists without detailed technical knowledge.

In this monograph, the authors propose the formalism, showing its basic structure, applying it to the analysis of the semantics of a wide variety of linguistic phenomena in both English and French, and using it to generate the semantics of a variety of texts ranging from single sentences, to textual excepts, to a full story. By drawing on fundamental principles of program design, the proposed formalism is both easy to read and modify yet sufficiently powerful to allow for the representation of complex semantic phenomena.