Clarifying Noun Phrase Semantics in HPSG
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper examines reprise questions: questions which request clarification of the meaning intended by a speaker when uttering a word or phrase.1 As such they can act as semantic probes, providing information about what meaning can be associated with word and phrase types. We present corpus evidence regarding the meaning of nouns and noun phrases, and argue that this evidence runs contrary to the usual treatments of semantics in HPSG, and to the traditional generalised quantifier view of NPs as sets of sets. Instead we outline an analysis of NPs as (possibly functional) sets of individuals.
منابع مشابه
Clarifying Noun Phrase Semantics
Abstract Reprise questions are a common dialogue device allowing a conversational participant to request clarification of the meaning intended by a speaker when uttering a word or phrase. As such they can act as semantic probes, providing us with information about what meaning can be associated with word and phrase types and thus helping to sharpen the principle of compositionality. This paper ...
متن کاملAn HPSG Account of Danish Determiners
A desirable property of a noun phrase analysis is a level of detail which makes it possible to account for the distribution of elements inside the phrase. In this respect Danish noun phrase structure poses a special problem because of its subtle combinations of deenite prenominal expressions. Examples of Danish nominals containing such expressions are given in (1) 1. (1) a. denne min nyvundne v...
متن کاملNoun-modifying Adjectives in Hpsg
This paper proposes an analysis of adjectival constructions in HPSG, focussing on the behaviour of adjectives in NP, and develops an account of the familiar observation that adjectives without complements typically precede the noun, while those with complements or post-modifiers typically follow the noun.
متن کاملAn HPSG Account of Danish Pre-nominals
This article addresses the issue of selection restrictions for noun phrase specifiers. Danish data is presented which shows that definiteness plays an important role in this respect. It is pointed out that an analysis is required in which the specifier, when present, leaves a mark on the projected phrase. This is achieved by assuming that specifiers are syntactic heads of noun phrase constructi...
متن کاملIncorporation in Danish: Implications for Interfaces a Collection of Papers on Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar
Syntactic noun incorporation (SNI) in Danish is a phenomenon that has reeexes in phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. In contrast with morphological noun incorporation, which involves compounding of an N stem and a V stem to yield a larger, derived V stem (Mithun, 1984, 847), SNI does not involve any overt word order perturbation or overt morphology, but is rather expressed prosodically...
متن کامل