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

Computational Linguistics Colloquium

Thursday, 6 November, 16:15
Conference Room, Building C7 4

Scope relations below the word level

Markus Egg
University of Groningen

Topic of the presentation are semantic scope relations below the word level. Due to these relations, the semantic and the syntactic structure of linguistic expressions can differ considerably, which makes them a challenge for the syntax-semantics interface, for the theoretical question of how to define the relation between syntactic and semantic structure as well as for semantic construction as a practical task in an NLP system.
To cite a simple example for such an expression, consider modified indefinite pronouns like everyone in this room; intuitively, the PP takes scope between every- and -one, which incompatible with the syntactic (surface) structure.
I will compare several interface strategies that are proposed in the literature for their way of handling these scope relations below the word level. The strategies are cast in Generative Grammar, underspecification formalisms, LFG, and LTAG.

If you would like to meet with the speaker, please contact Michaela Regneri.