syntax-semantics mapping rajat kumar mohanty cfilt
TRANSCRIPT
Syntax-Semantics Mapping
Rajat Kumar Mohanty
CFILT
Friday, June 03, 2005 CFILT
Outline
Conceptual constituents Lexical categories and phrasal
categories Syntax and conceptual structure Internal structure of arguments Syntactic and ontological category
Mapping
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Conceptual Constituents
The semantic structure of a sentence is built up from a hierarchical arrangement of conceptual constituents.
Each of them belongs to a major ontological category or semantic part of speech: Thing, Place, Path, Event, State, Manner, and Property
They are realized syntactically by means of major phrasal constituents (such as, NP, S, PP, AP, AdvP)
Friday, June 03, 2005 CFILT
Example
Bill ran into the room
Syntactic Structure:
[S [NP Bill] [VP ran [PP into [NP the room]]] ]
Conceptual Structure:
EventGO ([Thing Bill ], [Path TO [Place IN [Thing the room] ] ])
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Unmarked realization
Thing : NP Place and Path : PP Property : AP Manner : AdvP Event and State : S
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Lexical Categories and Phrasal Categories
Corresponding to each lexical category (e.g., N, V, A, P, etc) there is a major phrasal category (e.g., NP, VP, AP, PP, etc.).
Each phrasal category contains a head–plus a variety of possible modifiers (typically other phrasal categories)
The phrasal category maximizes the possible modifiers of the lexical category.
E.g., [NP the enemy’s destruction of the city ]
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Syntax and Conceptual Structure
Every major phrasal constituent in the syntax of a sentence corresponds to a conceptual constituent (such as, THING, EVENT, PLACE, etc.).
The lexical head X of a major phrasal constituent corresponds to a function in conceptual structure.
E.g., [S [NPThe man] [VPput [NPthe book] [PPon the table] ]]
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Example The verb put : head of the S Subcategorizes
• A subject NP
• A direct object NP
• A PP Expresses a semantic function that maps three
arguments into an [EVENT]. Two [THING]s and a [PLACE].
EVENT
PUT (THING PLACE
THE MAN
THING
, THE BOOK , ON THE TABLE)
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Internal Structure of Arguments
The first two arguments: Man and book • Subcategorize nothing
• Have no internal functional structure
• Are treated as zero-place functions that map into [THING]
The head of the third argument: on• Subcategorizes an NP
• Has internal functional structure
• Expresses a one-place function that maps a [THING] into [PLACE]
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Complete Functional Structure
EVENT
PUT (THING
PLACE
THE MAN
THING
, THE BOOK ON (,
THING
THE MAN)
)
This sentence is regarded as a three-place relation between two [THING]s and a [PLACE], mediated by the verb put.
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Syntactic and Ontological Category Mapping The semantics of the head of the major phrasal
constituent decides the ontological category. The relationship between syntactic and
ontological category is not one-to-one. Examples
• Put maps into [EVENT]• Know, believe, be map into [STATE]• Table, house map into [THING]• Destruction map into [EVENT]• Adjectives map into [PROPERTY]• Prepositions map into [PLACE] and [PATH]
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Mapping a Thing into a Path
The preposition into is a function that maps a thing –the reference object – into a Path.
To satisfy the well-formedness conditions on the use of into, its sister phrase must be an NP (the syntactic condition) and must express a concept of a category Thing (the semantic condition).
PATH
TO ( THING
THE ROOM
)PLACE
IN ( )
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Thematic Roles
The case of open (Are these sentences underlying related?)• John opened the door with a key.
• The door was opened by John with a key.
• The key opened the door.
Thematic Roles are part of the level of conceptual structure, not part of syntax.
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Thematic Roles
Agent: The instigator of an event Patient: A patient is directly affected by an action Theme: the object in motion or being located Source: the object from which motion proceeds
• usually appears structurally as the argument of the PATH-function FROM
Goal: the object to which motion proceeds
• The argument of the PATH-function of TO
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Place- and Path-function
PLACE
PATH
Place
Path
PLACE-FUNCTION ( [THING] )
(e.g., in the room)
(e.g., to the station)
TOFROMTOWARDVIA
( [THING] )
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Examples
John passed the house
EVENT
PASS (THING
PATH
JOHN VIA (THING
THE HOUSE)
),
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Example
John entered the room
EVENT
ENTER (THING
PATH
JOHN TO (PLACE
IN () )
,THINGTHE ROOM )
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A few examples for discussion (in the context of UNL) John hit Bill (theme, goal) John threw the ball (source, theme) Bill entered the room (theme, goal) Bill received a letter (goal, theme) John gave a book to Mary (source, theme, goal) John got a book from Mary (goal, theme, source) John promised Mary to give a book (source, goal, theme) John order Mary to leave the place (source, goal, theme)
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Patient
The affected entity Test frame:
• What happened to NP was…
• What Y did to NP was… Examples:
• John hit Mary. (patient/ goal)
• The car hit the tree. (patient/ goal)
• Mary hit the ball into the field. (patient/ theme) The NPs being patients do not eliminate their other
roles.
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Actor and other thematic roles
Actor test frame:• What the NP did was…
It is necessary to specify what moves where under whose agency
Examples:• The sun radiates heat. (Actor/ source)
• John ran down the hill. (Actor/ theme)
• The sponge absorbed the water. (Actor/ goal)
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The Tier Theory
Conceptual roles fall into two tiers:• Thematic tier (dealing with motion and
location)
• Action tier (dealing with Actor-Patient relationship)
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Informal Annotation (two tiers) John hit Bill
theme goalActor Patient
John threw the ball source themeActor Patient
Bill entered the room Theme goalActor ---(no sense of a patient)
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Informal Annotation (two tiers) Bill received a letter
goal theme--- ---
John gave a book to Mary source theme goalActor Patient
John got a book from Mary goal theme sourceActor Patient
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Informal Annotation (two tiers) Bill rolled down the hill
Theme GoalActor/Patient
• What Bill did was…• What happened to Bill was..
The wind rolled the ball down the hill--- theme goal
Actor Patient
Agent: • Extrinsic instigator of an action• Volitional actor
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Role of Instrument
It plays the role in the means by which the Actor accomplishes the action. (with NP can be paraphrased as by means of)
The Actor acts on the instrument The instrument acts on the Patient Examples:
• John opened the door with a key.
• The door was opened by John with a key.
• The key opened the door.
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Sources & further Readings
Jackendoff, R. 1990. Semantic Structures. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Jackendoff, R. 1997. Semantics and Cognition. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Talmy, L. 1985. Force Dynamics in Language and Thought. Cognitive Science 12.
Cullicover, P. and W. Wilkins. 1986. Control, PRO and the Projection Principle. Language 62.