Computational Linguistics & Phonetics Computational Linguistics & Phonetics Fachrichtung 4.7 Universität des Saarlandes

Computational Linguistics Colloquium

Wednesday, 18 June 2014, 16:15
Conference Room, Building C7.4

The structure of events: A theoretical model for event comprehension

Neil Cohn
Center for Research in Language
University of California, San Diego

Imagine you are enjoying a nice meal in a restaurant. You raise your glass of water to drink, only to be bumped from behind by a clumsy waiter, spilling your drink all over. Interruptions like these happen all the time in real world events, yet unexpected—yet fully plausible—facets like these are rarely explored. Most research on event structure has focused on events that are undertaken by a single individual, are driven by goals, and ⁄ or unfurl in a predictable and routinized fashion (or using unexpected events as "anomalies"). Yet, how is it that we understand events that involve multiple interacting entities, and what happens if events are interrupted? These questions are fundamental to how we experience actual events in the world, and despite the increasing focus for over thirty years, there remains no comprehensive or standardized theory about the cognitive structure of events. This is surprising, given the importance of event knowledge across domains of semantics, discourse, motor actions, social relationships, etc. This lack is particularly problematic for debates about embodied cognition, where the intricacies of well—developed theories of syntactic structure are compared against ad hoc theories of event structure (both for and against embodiment). This presentation therefore proposes a formal theory of the representational structures that might underlie the comprehension of events and actions, including those with multiple interacting entities and interruptions. Like the theoretical architecture of language, this framework should allow for—and should reflect the conclusions of—empirical testing from psychological experimentation, paving the way for a deeper understanding of event knowledge.

If you would like to meet with the speaker, please contact Matthew Crocker.