Lexical Ambiguity
Abstrat meaning vs. contextual meaning There is something wrong with the cat. a) He hasnt even had his food----> Animal b) I think you`ll have to call the mechanic---->Catalytic Converter She connot bear children. ...when they are noisy. ....because she is sterile.
Semantic Roles
Role that a noun phrase plays in the event described by a sentence Agent---> The on e who performs the action of the verb in an event. Eg. The boy kicked the ball Experiencer----> the entity that has the feeling/perception/stale described by the verb. Eg. The boy feels sad Theme----> the entity involved in or affected by the action of the verb in an event. Eg. The boy kicked the ball Instrument-----> the entity that is used to perform the action of the verb E.g. the boy cut the rope with a raxor Source -----> starting point of a movement E.g. The boy ran from the house. Goal---> endpoint of a movement. e.g. The boy walked to the mirror. Location ----> place at which entity/ action is located. Eg. The boy is sitting in the classroom.
Semantic Roles Examples!
Peter opened the safe with a key
Peter was in the living room
William stole the bicycle
William saw the bicycle
We gave the bicycle to Harry
Janet lost the ball.
1.)Peter=agent, the safe=theme, with a key=instrument 2.)Peter=theme, in the living room= location 3.)William =agent The bicycle=theme 4.)William= Experiencer, the bicycle =theme 5.)We = agent, the bicycle= theme, to harry =goal 6.) Janet =agent, the ball= theme
Corpus
a large and principled collection of natural texts (writtn and/or spoken) typically based on a specific type of text, aimed at being representative of the type under examination
Corpus Linguistics
linguistic description based on the extensive accumulation of actually occuring language data and its analysis by computer
Well known corpora
BNC- Brtish National Corpus Coca- Corpus of American English ICE Corpus- International Corpus of English Voice- Vienna oxfort international Corpus of english
Sentence Meaning
Lexicon---> Large but finite; (core) meanings can be listed Sentences----> infinite number; meanings cannot be listed; Meanings are compositional Sentence meaning ----> meaning of the sentence itselft (which is compositionally derived from the meaning of its parts and its combination)
Word meaning vs. sentence meaning
If we combine words different---> sentence meaning also changes Sky blue (himmelblau) blue sky( blauer himmel) peter hit John --- John hit Peter
Ambiguous Sentences
Lexical: Teh rabbi married my sister. a)heiraten b) verheiraten Sturctural: old men and woman may enter. a) old+ men and woman b) old men + woman
Representing Sentence meaning
Propostion----> State of affairs described by the sentence "what is said about x?" truth value---> is the propositional content true or false? Max loves Anne. The table is reading the newspaper.
Semantic Roles among sentences
Paraphrase---> two sentences have the same propostion 1.a) Mary sold a car to Tom. 1.b) Tom bought a car from Mary. 2.a) The police chased the burglar. 2.b) The burglar was chased by the police. Entailment---> the truth of one sentence necesarily implies that of the other 1.) mr. sellers killed his wife. 1b) Mrs. sellers i sdead. 2a.) mary is marks wife. 2b) mark is married Contradiction--- if one sentence is ture, the oter one is false 1.a) Chris is janes brother. 1.b) Jane is an only child. 2.a) charles is a bachelor. 2.b) charles is married. Presuppositon---> If a is true, then B is implicitly assumed to be rue 1.a) I regret leaving London. 1b) i left london
Semantic roles among sentences
Paraphrase
two sentences have the same proposition 1a) mary sold a car to Tom 1b) tom bought a car from mary 2a.) the police chased the burglar. 2b) the burglar was chased by the police
Semantic roles among sentences Entailement
the truth of one sentence necessarily implies thata of the other 1a) mr. sellers killed his wife. 1.b ) mrs. sellers is dead. 2a.) mary is marks wife 2b) mark is married.
semantic roles among sentences
contradiction
if one sentence is true, the other one is false 1.a.) chris is janes brother. 1b) jane is an only child. 2.a.) charles is a bachelor. 2b) charles is married
semantic roles aong sentences Presupposition!
If a is true, then B is implicitly assumed to be true 1.a) I regret leaving LOndon 1b) I left London
experiencer
Experiencer----> the entity that has the feeling/perception/stale described by the verb. Eg. The boy feels sad
Theme
Theme----> the entity involved in or affected by the action of the verb in an event. Eg. The boy kicked the ball
agent
Agent---> The on e who performs the action of the verb in an event. Eg. The boy kicked the ball
Instrument
Instrument-----> the entity that is used to perform the action of the verb E.g. the boy cut the rope with a raxor
source
Source -----> starting point of a movement E.g. The boy ran from the house.
goal
Goal---> endpoint of a movement. e.g. The boy walked to the mirror.
Location
Location ----> place at which entity/ action is located. Eg. The boy is sitting in the classroom.
