Language is contextual and sheaf theory provides a high level mathematical framework to model contextuality. We show how sheaf theory can model the contextual nature of natural language and how gluing can be used to provide a global semantics for a discourse by putting together the local logical semantics of each sentence within the discourse. We introduce a presheaf structure corresponding to ...

This experimental study tests the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011, 2012) using two constructions whose appropriateness depends on monitoring discourse information: Clitic Left Dislocation and Fronted Focus. Clitic Left Dislocation relates a dislocated and clitic-doubled object to an antecedent activated in previous discourse, while Fronted Focus does not relate the fronted...

In this paper we explore the relationship between the genre of a text and the types of situations introduced by the clauses of the text, working from the perspective of the theory of discourse modes (Smith, 2003). The typology of situation types distinguishes between, for example, events, states, generic statements, and speech acts. We analyze texts of different genres from two English text cor...

This study used Toulmin’s analytical framework of argumentative structure in order to examine employees’ argumentative discourse on the way they handle conflict situations in their workplace. The way in which this analytical tool has been applied here challenges critics on the usefulness of the particular analytical tool for the analysis of reallife argumentation. The definition of argumentativ...

We analyze number agreement in English in the version of Situation Semantics I put forth in [1]. We propose two theoretical notions, agreement target situations and relevance of situations. We propose that structural constraints shift the former in a way governed by the latter. Our analysis shows that number agreement reflects our knowledge about the structure of the world and the speaker's int...

Children learn the meaning of words by being exposed to perceptually rich situations (linguistic discourse, visual scenes, etc). Current computational learning models typically simulate these rich situations through impoverished symbolic approximations. In this work, we present a distributed word learning model that operates on child-directed speech paired with realistic visual scenes. The mode...

Background: Spanish copulas ser and estar (translated as English “be”) have distinct distributional patterns [1,2,3,4,5]. Locative predicates typically appear with estar, while nominal predicates typically appear with ser. Adjectival predicates sometimes, but not always, may combine with either copula, and this gives rise to differing interpretations. Crucially for our purposes, individuallevel...

UNLABELLED This qualitative study had the purpose to increase the discussions about the constitution of competences in the education of nurses so that they can work in the mental healthcare area. GOALS to analyze the representations of the research subjects about mental healthcare competences. METHOD qualitative research. SETTING The nursing department in a public university in the state ...

I propose that the characteristics of the scope disamhiguation process observed in the literature can be explained in terms of the way in which the model of the situation described by a sentence is built. The model construction procedure I present builds an event structure by identifying the situations associated with the operators in the sentence and their mutual dependency relations, as well ...

Cognitive Grammar presupposes an inherent and intimate relation between linguistic structures and discourse. Linguistic units are abstracted from usage events, retaining as part of their value any recurring facet of the interactive and discourse context. Linguistic structures thus incorporate discourse expectations and are interpretable as instructions to modify the current discourse state. The...