Showing papers on "Antecedent (grammar) published in 1989"

The role of structure in coreference assignment during sentence comprehension.

Abstract: This paper examines the role of syntactic constraints on the reactivation and assignment of antecedents to explicit and implicit anaphoric elements during sentence comprehension. Evidence from on-line studies examining the time course of coreference processing supports the view that reactivation of potential antecedents is restricted by grammatical constraints when they are available. When structural information cannot serve to constrain antecedent selection, then pragmatic information may play a role, but only at a later point in processing.

An Exploratory Investigation of Deception in Close Relationships

Abstract: This study explores the form and function of deception in close relationships. Free response descriptions of situations involving the deception of a relational partner were obtained from 357 university students and other adults. Descriptions were coded for type of deceptive communication, antecedent condition, type of information and reasons given for being deceptive. Results indicated that falsification was the most frequently reported type of deceptive communication and avoiding hurt to partner was the most frequently reported specific reason for deception. Comparisons across types of relationship revealed that (1) married respondents reported proportionately more instances of omission and fewer instances of explicit falsification relative to other relationship types, (2) dating respondents reported proportionately more reasons focused on protecting their resources and avoiding stress/abuse from partner, (3) dating respondents reported proportionately more reasons focused on avoiding relational trauma/t...

Cross-cultural differences: individual-level vs. culture-level analysis

Abstract: Two approaches to the interpretation of and theorizing about cross-cultural differences are identified. In the individual-level approach, cultural differences are assumed to be consistent with individual differences within each of the cultures included in the cross-cultural comparison. The use of antecedent variables to eliminate alternative explanations based on biases is reviewed and some problems noted. It is suggested that explicit theories be used to guide the selection of antecedent variables to minimize the impact of cultural biases. In the second approach, the culture-level approach, culture is the unit of analysis and there is no assumption regarding the correspondence between culture- and individual-level relationships. Two examples are given to illustrate the potential usefulness of this approach to developing concepts and theories that are very different from those derived from the individual-level approach. The problems of bias in this level of analysis are also discussed. Finally, i...

Empty categories in sentence processing

Abstract: An empty category is an inaudible/invisible constituent of a sentence, postulated by linguists to account for certain regularities of sentence structure. To identify an empty category and associate it with an antecedent that will determine its interpretation, a sentence processing device must apply considerable linguistic knowledge, both universal and language-particular. Experiments show that human processing of empty category constructions is efficient and linguistically informed. Different linguistic theories postulate different empty categories. Recent and ongoing experiments by several researchers attempt to determine which kinds of empty categories are recognised by the human processor. Assuming a transparent relationship between the parser and the grammar, the results of these studies could contribute to the evaluation of competing linguistic theories.

The Interpretation of English Reflexive Pronouns by Non-Native Speakers

Abstract: Ninety-six second language learners of English responded to a 30-item multiple-choice questionnaire requiring them to identify the antecedent of a reflexive pronoun. Their judgments differ from those of a native-speaker control group in that they do not require that a reflexive take a clause mate antecedent, but both groups share a preference for subject over non-subject antecedents. The second language learners do not seem to transfer first language (L1) grammar into the second language (L2), nor do they recapitulate the course of L1 acquisition. An extension of Wexler and Manzini's (1987) parameter-setting model of L1 acquisition to L2 data may account for some of these results, but the high incidence of long-distance binding of reflexives remains problematic: these second language learners have set the governing category parameter too widely without positive evidence.

Earthworks and beyond : contemporary art in the landscape

Abstract: Monument and environment - the avant-garde, 1966-1976 the ramble tradition and antecedent beyond earthworks - the public landscape beyond earthworks - the new urban landscape the greening of art

Reasons explanation of action: an incompatibilist account

Abstract: Incompatibilism is the thesis that any free action must be an undetermined event. By a free action I mean one such that until the time of its occurrence the agent had it in her power to perform some alternative action (or to be inactive) instead. By an undetermined event I mean one that was not nomically necessitated by the antecedent state of the world. (Hence, a determined event is one that was nomically necessitated by its antecedents.) By saying of an event that it was nomically necessitated by the antecedent state of the world, I mean that the antecedent state together with the laws of nature determined that that event, rather than some alternative, would occur. I believe that a compelling argument for incompatibilism can be given but I will not undertake to give it here.' I want rather to rebut two arguments against incompatibilism that have been put forward from time to time. One of these, to which I will give by far the larger response, combines the consideration that a free action can be influenced by the agent's intentions, desires, and beliefs-can have an explanation in terms of reasons for which the agent did it-with the assumption that only a determined event can have such an explanation.2 My response to this will be to counter the assumption by offering an adeterministic or anomic account of such explanations. The other argument does not assume that reasons explanations are deterministic (nor does it assume the contradictory) but simply claims that where we have an undetermined action we do not have an agent

Big boys don't cry: The values constraint in apologia

Abstract: Apologia theory thus far includes definitions, strategies, explorations of motivations, and boundaries. If apologies are made to satisfy a hierarchy of needs, they are also constrained by a complex hierarchy of cultural and personal values. This essay provides a case study of Governor Ray Blanton's apologia by applying Bitzer's concept of functional communication, and extends Jamieson's concept of the constraint of antecedent genre upon the rhetorical situation by an examination of the impact of a speaker's antecedent rhetorical style upon later apologetic efforts.

Illicit NP Movement: Locality Conditions on Chains? 1985

Abstract: One of the major syntactic discoveries of the early 1970s was that in certain central respects, NP movement obeys the same constraints as the process associating an anaphor with its antecedent. Chomsky (1973) proposed that this fact is simply a special case of the generalization that all rules obey the Tensed-S Condition and the Specified Subject Condition. The significance of such an approach was that it allowed for a great reduction in the descriptive power of transformations, leading ultimately to the current “Move a.” (1) and (2) are representative examples of illicit reflexive binding and movement, respectively.

The Representation of Noun Phrases In Logical Form

Abstract: Several researchers in artificial intelligence have recognized the usefulness of a two-stage model of sentence comprehension for building a computer model of language. In the first stage, an intermediate level of representation called logical form is derived. During the second stage, logical form is updated with additional information (e.g., quantifier scoping). We introduce three constraints we consider necessary to make this model of language computationally feasible: \begin{enumerate} \item Logical form should compactly represent ambiguity. \item Logical form should be initially computable from syntax and local (sentence-level) semantics. In particular, logical form should not be dependent on pragmatics, which requires inference and hence internal representation. \item Further processing of logical form should only disambiguate or further specify logical form. Logical form has a meaning. Any further processing must respect that meaning. \end{enumerate} Within this framework, we have devised logical-form representations for pronouns, singular definite noun phrases, and singular indefinite noun phrases. For example, we represent a pronoun as a function of all of the variables corresponding to operators that can bind the pronoun. This representation allows us to indicate a meaning for the pronoun without deciding on the antecedent for the pronoun. Later, when we can determine the antecedent for the pronoun, we replace the pronoun function with the variable or function used to represent its antecedent. Like pronouns, definites are represented as functions. However, indefinites cannot initially be represented as a function in logical form. Initially, we represent an indefinite as an existentially quantified variable. Later, when more information is available about the meaning of a noun phrase, the initial representation is limited to indicate the intended meaning of that noun phrase. We demonstrate that these representations both model the appropriate linguistic behavior and satisfy our computational constraints. This work has been implemented and tested on a wide variety of examples.

Computing pronoun antecedents in an English query system

Abstract: In this paper I discuss how the Datalog English query system resolves pronominal references to extra-sentential antecedents that represent database records. When the system encounters a pronoun in a query, it searches through saved representations of earlier queries for an antecedent. A number of criteria must be satisfied before a proposed antecedent will be accepted. Among these are satisfaction of the pronoun's grammatical features and tests for contradictions and tautologies. Additional discriminators are applied in the event that there are two competing antecedents being considered. Of special interest is use of a hold queue mechanism which allows relaxation of the grammatical features of number and gender expressed by a personal pronoun. All of the strategies are independent of any application domain and do not fall into those parts of the system that need to be replaced or modified to interface Datalog to a new database.

Truth-valued-flow inference unit

Abstract: A truth-valued-flow inference unit according to the invention is for outputting truth values representing inferential results regarding a plurality of antecedents for which consequents in implications are the same. The inference unit includes a selector circuit (18, 71-74, 81-84, 91-94, 75, 76, 85, 86, 95, 96) for selectively outputting, for each of a plurality of antecedents in accordance with set rules and with regard to each of a plurality of kinds of input variables, truth values inputted thereto in correspondence with respective ones of the input variables with regard to a plurality kinds of predetermined functions used by the antecedents, and an operation circuit (19, 77-80, 90) for performing an operation between the truth values outputted by the selector circuit and all input variables for each antecedent, and further for performing a unifying operation on the results of this operation.

Hume on Our Notion of Causality

Abstract: 1. In his recent 'David Hume and Necessary Connections' (Philosophy 62 (1987), 49-58), T. F. Lindley has suggested that Hume's subjective explication of necessary connection has been designed 'to weaken our notion of causality' (57). Citing a well-known passage from Hume's Enquiry in support of his suggestion, Lindley goes on to claim that we need not accept Hume's explication of the term 'necessary connection', and by implication, his (negative) assessment of the notion of causality. For as Lindley puts it: I have argued that there is a least one use of 'necessary connection' that refers to an objective relation. And if Hume had taken note of it, he would have had to distinguish, at the very least, between it and some more nebulous idea for which he had no antecedent impression (58). Now Lindley may, or may not, be correct in his specification of an objective use of 'necessary connection'. I shall not take issue with him on this score: this is something that others may want to decide on. However, where his interpretation of Hume's account of necessary connection is concerned, as I see it, Lindley is wide of the mark. For it appears that Hume does not maintain that the idea of necessary connection lacks an impression. Rather than argue that the idea of necessary connection is a 'nebulous idea for which he [i.e. Hume] had no antecedent impression' (58), my contention is that Hume endorses the quite different view according to which the idea of necessary connection is associated with an impression, and that this impression is a specific internal propensity, or determination of the mind. Before we consider the case for my interpretation, consider the basis of Lindley's version of Hume's views on necessary connection.

Las construcciones de 'como que si' en el habla culta de Caracas y sus relaciones con 'como que y como si'

Abstract: Frequently in Spanish some senses of many grammatical particles are atributes only through the reason of the context without considering the real semantic pattern. In this way como que and como si have been studied as integrated in causal clauses or comparative clauses respectively. But como que can never be equivalent to those clauses in which porque appears; if we consider the idiomatic signs, we can conclude that there are two main uses of como que; the "modal relative use" and the "necessary consequence use". On the other hand, como si presents a different structure as there is within it another relative particle which defers off que. It is not correct that como si is a comparative particle, it has only a sporadic use in this way as a consequence of the context. lis many uses can be as numerous as where this structure is found, and depend mainly on the antecedent. In the learned speech of Caracas, we have found a new union of particles which in any case would be equivalent to como que or como si; como que si has its own characteristics; The subjuntive mood is always present in these constructions and the antecedent must always be concrete, weakening the modal relative sense and approaching at the continuative sense.