CSCI 587 - Lecture 19 Semantics: Events, States and Roles

• Discourse variables: "John" might map to several people
  (NAME variable name) denotes this binding of the name
  (PRONOUN variable proposition)
• Meaning postulates
• Events
  (Exists e1: (BREAK e1 (Name j1 "john")(pro i1 it)))
• Extending events
  (Exists e1:(& (BREAK e1 (Name j1 "john")(pro i1 it))) (INSTR e1 [THE h1 HAMMER]))
• General Form
  (Exists e: (& (Event-p e) (Relation1 e obj)...(Relation_n e obj_n )
• States: e.g., Roy was unhappy, too!
  (Exists s [PAST UNHAPPY] s)(THEME s (NAME m1 "Roy"))
• Case Grammars: Thematic Roles
  • AGENT - the instigator of the action
  • THEME - the object
  • LOC - the location
  • INSTR - the instrument
  • BENEFICIARY -
• AGENT tests
  • intentionality
  • in order to
• LOCATION
  • AT-LOC
  • FROM-LOC
  • TO-LOC
  • PATH-LOC
  • TO-POSS
  • AT-POSS
• TIME : AT-TIME, FROM-TIME, TO-TIME
• EXPERIENCER
• I gave the book to Mary for John.
• Figure 8.5 Table of some semantic roles
• Sample sentences and roles
• Speech Acts
  • ASSERT
  • Y/N-QUERY
  • COMMAND
  • WH-QUERY
• Example: The Gamecocks won the SEC!
• Implementing Semantic Interpretation
• Semantic Features
• Compositional Theory
• Lambda calculus

Readings

Sections 8.4-8.7, 9.1

Reminder

Test 2 April 10