Computational Linguistics & Phonetics Computational Linguistics & Phonetics Fachrichtung 4.7 Universität des Saarlandes
General
Home
Publications
by date
by type
invited talks
Teaching
COLI
  2006-2007
  2005-2006
  2004-2005
  2003-2004
  2002-2003
  2001-2002
  2000-2001
ACL
  ACL05 Tutorial on CS
ELSNET
  ELSNET06-SSI in HPSG
ESSLLI
  ESSLLI 2006
  ESSLLI 2004
  ESSLLI 2003
  ESSLLI 2000
  ESSLLI 1999
Other Courses
Supervised Theses
External Examiner
Projects
COLI
  LATER (coordination)
  PERFORM
  NEGRA
  TiGer
SfS Tübingen
  Verbmobil
  CLAIRE
Professional Activities
  CL Guest Editor
  Program Chair
  Committees
  Reviewer

Argument Structure: at the Syntax-Semantics Interface

Seminar in Computational Linguistics
Lecturer: PD Dr. Valia Kordoni (kordoni@coli.uni-sb.de)
Place: Building C7 2, Konferenzraum 2.11
Time: Mo, Wed 16-18
Start: 19.04.2006
Appropriate for: Diplom, B.Sc., M.Sc.
Office hour: Thursday 15-16 (OR per arrangement via email)

Course Description

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the interface between morphosyntax and semantics. One of the main reasons for that is that generalizations over word classes have been proven to help linguistic theories and large-scale grammar implementations overcome the natural limitations of syntax.

The interest in the interaction between morphosyntax and semantics has led to Baker's (1988) Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH), Grimshaw's (1990) Argument Structure theory, Dowty's (1991) Proto-Role Hypothesis, Tenny's (1992, 1994) Aspectual Interface Hypothesis, Levin's (1993) verbal classes, the Lexical Mapping Theory (LMT) of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), the Optimal Linking theory of Butt, Dalrymple and Frank (1997), the Hierarchical Lexicon models, Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS; Copestake et al. (2003)), Lexical Decomposition Grammar (LDG; Wunderlich (1997, 2000, 2001)), among others.

The aim of this course is to present and explore empirical topics, such as thematic hierarchies, proto-roles, the typology of accusatives, ergatives, etc., cross-linguistically, unaccusativity, causation, valence alternations, secondary predication, argument and event structure, and nominalisations, as well as computational issues related to the morphosyntax-semantics interface. Thus, the course will also focus on computational semantics (CS) formalisms in real life, with emphasis on semantic components of large-scale, large-coverage grammars and semantics for hybrid (deep and shallow) natural language processing.

Course functions in the COLI study programs

Elective course for M.Sc., B.Sc. and Diplom

Semantics and morphosyntax; L and CL

Teaching Material

Handouts will be given to students every week.

  • Lecture of 19.04.2006: Introduction

  • Lecture of 24.04.2006: What is Lexical Semantics and Traditional Argument Structure Theories

  • Lecture of 26.04.2006: Lexical Decomposition Approaches

  • Lecture of 03.05.2006: Lexical Semantics and Linking in LFG (Part I)

  • Lecture of 08.05.2006: Lexical Semantics and Linking in LFG (Part II)

  • Lecture of 10.05.2006: Lexical Semantics and Linking in LFG (Part III)

  • Lecture of 15.05.2006: Lexical Semantics and Linking in LFG (Part IV)

  • Lecture of 17.05.2006: "Optimal" Linking for Modern Greek Psych Verb Constructions. The paper on which the slides are based is: Kordoni, Valia. 2001. "Optimal" Linking for Modern Greek Psych Verb Constructions. In Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King (eds.), Proceedings of the LFG01 Conference, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 184-200. Stanford: CSLI Publications, ISSN 1098-6782.

  • Lecture of 22.05.2006: Stochatic OT (Part I). The discussion is based on: Joan Bresnan, Shipra Dingare, and Christopher D. Manning. 2001. "Soft Constraints Mirror Hard Constraints: Voice and Person in English and Lummi". In Proceedings of the LFG'01 Conference. CSLI Publications. 20 pages, which can be downloaded from here.

  • Lecture of 24.05.2006: No meeting.

  • Lecture of 29.05.2006: Stochatic OT (Part II). The discussion is based on: Joan Bresnan, Shipra Dingare, and Christopher D. Manning. 2001. "Soft Constraints Mirror Hard Constraints: Voice and Person in English and Lummi". In Proceedings of the LFG'01 Conference. CSLI Publications. 20 pages, which can be downloaded from here.

  • Lecture of 31.05.2005: Morphosyntax-Semantics Interface in HPSG (also in ps4 format)

  • Lecture of 07.06.2005: Morphosyntax-Semantics Interface in HPSG (Part II); see slides of lecture of 31.05.2006.

  • Lecture of 19.06.2006: Copestake, Ann, Dan Flickinger, Carl Pollard, and Ivan A. Sag. Minimal Recursion Semantics: an Introduction. Research on Language and Computation 3.4: 281--332. Presentation by Rui Wang.

  • Lecture of 21.06.2005: Morphosyntax-Semantics Interface in HPSG (Part III); see slides of lecture of 31.05.2006.

  • Lecture of 23.06.2005: Morphosyntax-Semantics Interface in HPSG (Part IV); see slides of lecture of 31.05.2006.

  • Lecture of 30.06.2005: Morphosyntax-Semantics Interface in HPSG (Part V); see slides of lecture of 31.05.2006.

  • Lecture of 10.07.2006: Kathrin Spreyer on Flickinger (1987) "Lexical Rules in the Hierarchical Lexicon" (Chapters 2 and 5).

    References

    See course description above. For an overview of the literature on the various linking models developed in LFG and HPSG, students are encouraged to use the following sources:

  • LFG

  • HPSG

  • Lexical Mapping Theory (LMT)

  • "Optimal Linking" Theory

  • Literature on Constraint-Based Semantics - An LFG-based deductive approach to the syntax-semantics interface

  • Hierarchical Lexicon models

  • Cornelia M . Verspoor's Ph.D. thesis Contextually-Dependent Lexical Semantics, University of Edinburgh, 1997

    • Language of instruction

    English

    Course certificate

    Presentation + seminar paper or exam at the end of the course.

    Credit points

    Presentation and seminar paper: M.Sc. und B.Sc.: 9 Credits; Diplom 4 Credits Only presentation: M.Sc. und B.Sc.: 4 Credits; Diplom: 2 Credits
    Valia Kordoni
    Last modified: Mon Oct 30 14:06:12 CET 2006