Coordination and parallelism in glue semantics: Integrating discourse cohesion and the element constraint (original) (raw)
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Extraction and coordination in phrase structure grammar and categorial grammar
1989
A large proportion of computationally-oriented theories of grammar operate within the confines of monostratality (i.e. there is only one level of syntactic analysis), compositionality (i.e. the meaning of an expression is determined by the meanings of its syntactic parts, plus their manner of combination), and adjacency (i.e. the only operation on terminal strings is concatenation). This thesis looks at two major approaches falling within these bounds: that based on phrase structure grammar (e.g. Gazdar), and that based on categorial grammar (e.g. Steedman). The theories are examined with reference to extraction and coordination constructions; crucially a range of 'compound' extraction and coordination phenomena are brought to bear. It is argued that the early phrase structure grammar metarules can characterise operations generating compound phenomena, but in so doing require a categorial-like category system. It is also argued that while categorial grammar contains an adequ...
Coordination and Syntactic Hierarchy*
Studia Linguistica, 2005
This article discusses the syntax of coordinate structures, in particular the status of initial coordinators, multiple coordination, and the asymmetries between conjuncts with respect to c-command relations. The idea of coordinators as heads-hence the CoP-is endorsed, but not for initial coordinators; rather they figure in a separate 'distributive phrase', which is transparently correlated to the (often ambiguous) semantics of the construction. Furthermore, it is argued that the lack of c-command between conjuncts is an instance of a broader effect, namely the 'invisibility' of paratactic material in generaland of second conjuncts in particular. Therefore, the grammar must have means to attach a paratactic constituent to the rest of the structure in a way that will eventually block c-command relations from the context. As this is not standardly available, we are led to define an operation called b-Merge, which induces a special type of inclusion relation, 'behindance'. Thus, a modern revival of the 3D approach to coordination is brought about.
Constraints on coordination in English
Language Research, 2001
This paper examines various types of coordination structures in English. Unlike regular coordinate structures, some data show that the coordinately conjoined elements are syntactically different categories, thus violating Chomsky's same type condition and Williams's Law of the Coordination of Likes. I show that the coordination of the unlike categories dubbed as CUCs in the literature can best be accounted for by a semantically oriented condition such that constituents can be coordinately conjoined if they are semantically connected with each other.
Adjuncts and the theory of phrase structure
Manuscript, University of Florence, 1995
la thia article I ah~ll ftrat review the ava1lable ev1dence concerning the poa1t1on of adverbial&. I shall conclude that the claaa1cal X-bar thuoret1cal approach to co~plex adverbials. in term• o1 r1ght adJunction, accounts adequately for the data. On the contrary. Kayne's (1994) and Shomsky's (1995) constraints aga1nst right adjunction lead to serious problems.
On Anaphora and the Binding Principles in Categorial Grammar
2010
In type logical categorial grammar the analysis of an expression is a resource-conscious proof. Anaphora represents a particular challenge to this approach in that the antecedent resource is multiplied in the semantics. This duplication, which corresponds logically to the structural rule of contraction, may be treated lexically or syntactically. Furthermore, anaphora is subject to constraints, which Chomsky (1981)[1] formulated as Binding Principles A, B, and C. In this paper we consider English anaphora in categorial grammar including reference to the binding principles. We invoke displacement calculus, modal categorial calculus, categorial calculus with limited contraction, and entertain addition of negation as failure.
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2015
This paper proposes a unified analysis of the 'respective' readings of plural and conjoined expressions, the internal readings of symmetrical predicates such as same and different, and the summative readings of expressions such as a total of $10,000. These expressions pose significant challenges to compositional semantics, and have been studied extensively in the literature. However, almost all previous studies focus exclusively on one of these phenomena, and the close parallels and interactions that they exhibit have been mostly overlooked to date. We point out two key properties common to these phenomena: (i) they target all types of coordination, including nonconstituent coordination such as Right-Node Raising and Dependent Cluster Coordination; (ii) the three phenomena all exhibit multiple dependency, both by themselves and with respect to each other. These two parallels suggest that one and the same mechanism is at the core of their semantics. Building on this intuition, we propose a unified analysis of these phenomena, in which the meanings of expressions involving coordination are formally modelled as multisets, that is, sets that allow for duplicate occurrences of identical elements. The analysis is couched in Hybrid Type-Logical Categorial Grammar. The flexible syntax-semantics interface of this framework enables an analysis of 'respective' readings and related phenomena which, for the first time in the literature, yields a simple and principled solution for both the interactions with nonconstituent coordination and the multiple dependency noted above.
Grammatical' vs. 'Lexical' Meaning Constructors for Glue Semantics
2010
Current theories of formal semantics allow arguments of predicates to be of non-basic types, such as e→p (e for 'entity', p for 'proposition', with no commitment to any particular treatment of propositions). 'Modal adjectives' such as alleged are for example standardly analysed as being of type (e→p)→(e→p). But such analyses allow certain kinds of modal adjectives that don't seem to exist, such as a hypothetical alleger, such that an alleger murderer would be somebody who has made allegations that somebody (else) is a murderer. Here I make a proposal using LFG 'glue semantics' that permits it to avoid allowing this kind of adjectival meaning, by dividing the basic compositional units of meaning into an open class of 'lexical meanings', of strongly restricted form, and a finite class fixed by UG of 'grammatical meanings', which don't obey these restrictions.