Showing papers on "Antecedent (grammar) published in 1998"

Robust Pronoun Resolution with Limited Knowledge

Abstract: Most traditional approaches to anaphora resolution rely heavily on linguistic and domain knowledge. One of the disadvantages of developing a knowledge-based system, however, is that it is a very labour-intensive and time-consuming task. This paper presents a robust, knowledge-poor approach to resolving pronouns in technical manuals, which operates on texts pre-processed by a part-of-speech tagger. Input is checked against agreement and for a number of antecedent indicators. Candidates are assigned scores by each indicator and the candidate with the highest score is returned as the antecedent. Evaluation reports a success rate of 89.7% which is better than the success rates of the approaches selected for comparison and tested on the same data. In addition, preliminary experiments show that the approach can be successfully adapted for other languages with minimum modifications.

Comprehension of Sluiced Sentences.

Abstract: We report two reading experiments and two questionnaire studies designed to investigate the processing of “sluiced” sentences, like Somebody left- guess who. A self-paced reading experiment showed that sentences with explicit (overt) antecedents are read more quickly than sentences with implicit (covert) antecedents, both when the antecedents in question were arguments and when they were adjuncts. An eye movement experiment showed that sluiced sentences containing two potential antecedents were read faster than sentences containing only a single antecedent in matrix subject position. We suggest this is because only the ambiguous sentences contained an antecedent in a normal focus position (embedded object position). Two questionnaire studies suggested that perceivers prefer a focused constituent as the antecedent of the sluiced constituent. Since we argue that the interpretation of a sluiced constituent take place at the representational level of “logical form” (LF), we conclude that implicit arguments ar...

Accessing singular antecedents in conjoined phrases

Abstract: Two experiments examined processing of singular pronouns when the antecedent (e.g., Mary) was a noun phrase (NP) in a conjoined phrase (e.g., Mary and John). Whole-sentence reading times showed an increase in processing time associated with splitting the conjoined phrase to access a single NP antecedent. The increase in processing occurred both when the antecedent was in the subject position and when it was in a nonsubject position. The source of the disruption was further investigated using eyetracking methods. Summing over regions of the text, the magnitude of the processing cost incurred by having to split a conjoined NP was closely comparable when there was and when there was not a gender-appropriate distracting potential antecedent. When there was no such potential antecedent, the increase in processing time occurred immediately in the pronoun region when eye movements were measured. In contrast, when there was a second discourse entity that matched the gender and number of the pronoun (but was not a plausible antecedent for the pronoun), eyetracking measures suggested that the processing difficulty was delayed until additional information was read that forced the antecedent to be one of the conjoined NPs. The results are interpreted in terms of Sanford and Garrod’s (1981) scenario-based model of text comprehension.

Effects of Social versus Musical Antecedents on Communication Responsiveness in Five Children with Developmental Disabilities.

Abstract: The present study involved a comparison of social versus musical antecedents on communication responsiveness in five children with developmental disabilities. During the social antecedent condition, the teacher presented opportunities for the children to greet, name objects, and request materials. In the musical antecedent condition, these same opportunities were embedded within a music/singing activity. A reversal design was used to compare the percentage of opportunities with appropriate communication responses across the two conditions. For three of the five children, the musical antecedent condition was associated with higher percentages of appropriate communication responses. For the other two children, the two conditions were associated with approximately equal rates of appropriate communication. Across both conditions, appropriate responses were more likely during opportunities for greeting and requesting than during opportunities to name objects. The results suggest that embedding communication opportunities within a musical activity may lead to increased appropriate communication responses for some children with developmental disabilities.

Representations as mediators of adolescent deductive reasoning.

Abstract: In Experiment 1, preadolescents, middle adolescents, and late adolescents were presented 3 deductive reasoning tasks. With some important exceptions, conditional reasoning improved with age on problems containing permission conditional relations, and reasoning fallacies increased with age on problems containing causal conditional relations. The results of Experiments 2a and 2b indicated that problem type (i.e., permission or causal) does not mediate the activation of conditional reasoning skills. Rather, valid conditional inferences are more common on problems for which plausible alternative antecedents can be generated than on problems for which alternative antecedent generation is difficult. Conditional rules for which alternative antecedent generation is difficult may be misrepresented as biconditionals, resulting in biconditional rather than conditional reasoning.

Closeness, prominence, and binding theory

Abstract: The relationship between a reflexive and its antecedent is characterized by (a) a locality condition, and (b) a syntactic prominence condition. In Chomsky (1981) locality is defined in terms of governing category, and syntactic prominence is via c-command. In this article I show that, to account for the long-distance binding properties of complex reflexive ta-ziji '3s-self' in Chinese, properties which cast doubt on 'Pica's generalization' that only morphologically simplex reflexives can be long-distance bound, locality should be regulated by a closeness condition. Locality is thus considered a relative rather than a strict condition. I propose that the prominence condition should be defined in terms of animacy hierarchy for Chinese reflexive ta-ziji. Thus, the interpretation of reflexives is unified not under Chomsky's Binding Condition A, but under the Anaphor Condition proposed in this article, which is defined in terms of closeness and prominence. It is suggested that languages differ only in their definitions of prominence

Robust pronoun resolution with limited knowledge

Abstract: Most traditional approaches to anaphora resolution rely heavily on linguistic and domain knowledge. One of the disadvantages of developing a knowledge-based system, however, is that it is a very labour-intensive and time-consuming task. This paper presents a robust, knowledge-poor approach to resolving pronouns in technical manuals, which operates on texts pre-processed by a part-of-speech tagger. Input is checked against agreement and for a number of antecedent indicators. Candidates are assigned scores by each indicator and the candidate with the highest score is returned as the antecedent. Evaluation reports a success rate of 89.7% which is better than the success rates of the approaches selected for comparison and tested on the same data. In addition, preliminary experiments show that the approach can be successfully adapted for other languages with minimum modifications.

AntecedentContained Deletion and Pied-Piping: Evidence for a Variable-Free Semantics

Abstract: ion) . From this it follows that: (2) The elided or missing material here must be a VP meaning (or, LF) , where the missing VP will contain an individual variable in object position. (3) It thus follows in tum that the antecedent must be some expression which has a VP-type of meaning (or, LF) . (4) But on the surface, there is no full VP which can supply the missing meaning (or, LF) . The only full VP itself contains the ellipsis site. Hence if we used this VP to determine the meaning of and/or LF of the "missing" material , we arrive at a paradox. (5) Thus, in order to avoid the antecedent containment paradox, we need a level of LF at which the object is pulled out and where there is a variable in its place. In other words, the LF for ( 1 1 ) is ( 12) � from here we can find the antecedent read x which can serve as the antecedent for the ellipsis: ( 12) every x: [book, x & John read xl [Bill did read xJ Cormack ( 1985) , however, shows that once one rejects the original assumption in ( 1 ) , there is no antecedent containment paradox here: the "missing" material can simply be a 2-place relation rather than a VP meaning. Thus the antecedent can simply be a transitive verb phrase (in this case, the simple transitive verb read). To elucidate, we will consider first the semantic composition of a non­ ellipsis case like ( 13) under a Categorial Grammar account of the semantics of relati ve clauses: ( 13) John read every boo k which Bill react. Actually, there is more than one (closely related) approaches to extraction within the general CG program (see, e. g . , Steedman, 1987 � Jacobson, 1 989� Oehrle, 1990) � for expository ease I will adopt the approach of Steedman ( 1987) , although similar remarks will for the other approaches. Thus assume that the way the meaning is put together here is that the 2-place relation read' simply function­ composes with the (type-lifted) meaning of Bill, as follows: ( 14) /..P[P(b)] 0 read' = Ax[read'(x)(b)]] Notice, incidentally, that in the " standard" account this also is the eventual meaning of Bill read; the usual view is that we first compose the meaning read'(x)(b) which contains an open variable, but this variable is then closed off by A­ abstraction. In the CG account sketched above the semantics directly yields the property rather than invoking the process of A-abstraction (note that A-abstraction itself is a type-shift rule, which in this case maps an open proposition into a closed property) . Since there is no stage in the semantic composition in which there is an open variable, this is a variable-free analysis of the semantics of extraction. There is no expression whose meaning (at any stage in the semantic composition) contains an open variable and thus must be seen as a function from assignment functions � there is also no need for a trace in the syntax to "correspond" to a variable in the semantics. What happens in the rest of the semantic composi tion depends on the precise analysis of the relative pronoun which. For now let us simply assume that which Bill read has the same meaning as Bill read ( thus, it i s the property Ndread'(x) (b)l) , and that this then intersects with the meaning of the head noun. (See Sec. 3 .4 for discussion of the meaning of which.) The idea, then, is that in an ACD case, exactly the same thing happens. In ( 1 1 ) , the "missing" meaning is simply the two-place relation read' . This function composes with did', and did'(read') in tum function composes with the (type79

Selective Retention of Information about the Superficial Form of Text: Ellipses W ith Antecedents in Main and Subordinate Clauses

Abstract: Elliptical verb phrases must be interpreted indirectly, using a representation of the surface form of nearby (usually preceding) text. We used this fact to demonstrate the different availability of superficial representations of the two clauses in main-subordinate pairs. The acceptability of a later ellipsis was reduced when it took its meaning from a main clause that was followed by a subordinate clause, as compared with other combinations. In addition, positive acceptability judgements were made more quickly (1) when the antecedent clause was subordinate, rather than main, suggesting that the superficial form of a subordinate clause is more important, and (2) when the antecedent was in the immediately preceding clause, rather than two clauses back. These results support the idea that the surface form of subordinate clauses is selectively retained until the corresponding main clause has been read, but the surface form of a main clause is not retained after it has been interpreted.

Constraints on Spanish NP Anaphora: the Syntactic versus the Pragmatic Domain

Abstract: Anaphoric NP use and interpretation in Spanish may be constrained by grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic factors. While syntactic and semantic constraints place restrictions on what is referentially possible or acceptable in sentences, empirical data suggest that the use and interpretation of anaphoric NPs in Spanish conversational discourse (excluding reflexives and reciprocals) adhere to two neo-Gricean principles of language use. Furthermore, analysis of naturally occurring conversations among native speakers reveals that the pattern of anaphora predicted by the neo-Gricean framework is constrained by antecedent salience, mutual knowledge, and semantic entailments. These data suggest that instances of intended coreference may be considered conversational implicatures that can be explained in terms of pragmatic rules of language use and intervening consistency constraints.

Qualitative and quantitative analyses of a 'lock and key' hypothesis of depression.

Abstract: Background. We examine a 'lock and key' ('L-K') hypothesis to depression which posits that early adverse experiences establish locks that are activated by keys mirroring the earlier adverse experience to induce depression. Methods. Two-hundred and seventy clinically depressed patients were examined with open-ended and pre-coded interview questions to ascertain both early adverse experiences and precipitating life events. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses examined for any associations between developmental 'locks' and precipitating 'keys'. Results. Qualitative assessment suggested 'L-K' links in almost one-third of the sample, and examples are provided. While quantitative analyses indicated significant associations between several identical 'lock' and 'key' constructs, evidence of specificity was rare. When individual 'locks' and 'keys' were consolidated into three higher-order constructs, variable models were suggested, including a non-specific link, a specific link and absence of any link, 'L-K' links appeared more likely in those with 'non-melancholic' (versus 'melancholic') depression, with the seemingly greater relevance to 'reactive' (versus 'neurotic') depression in the quantitative analyses inviting speculation that that 'disorder' may be more a reaction to a salient rather than a severe stressor. Conclusions. This exploratory study suggests that early adverse experiences may variably establish specific and non-specific patterns of vulnerability to having depression triggered by exposure to salient mirroring life event stressors.

Concerning the Spiritual in Twentieth-Century Art and Science

Abstract: A recent proliferation of writings on the spiritual by scientists suggests that this is an appropriate time to reevaluate the spiritual in twentieth-century art. The author looks at three artistic groupings— Wassily Kandinsky and the Bauhaus school, the Abstract Expressionists and the contemporary electronic arts—and traces the influences of various spiritual movements on them. The author then turns to the spiritual in modern science, observing that quantum theory has been the main starting point for many physicists to write about religious ideas. Several issues are examined: whether science at this juncture is more receptive to the spiritual than are the arts; whether art can mediate between science and the spiritual; and whether the spiritual is antecedent to both the arts and science.

Infinitival Relative Clauses in Spoken Discourse.

Abstract: This article concerns infinitival relative clauses, such as Mary is the person to ask, and their distribution in spoken English. It analyzes the correlation between the function of the antecedent in the relative clause and the function of the whole postmodified NP (the relative complex) in the matrix clause. On the basis of a quantitative analysis of a corpus of spoken British English, I show that the grammatical function of the antecedent in the infinitival relative clause depends on the function of the antecedent in the matrix clause. I argue that the distribution of antecedent functions in the matrix clause can be explained in terms of thematic properties and information structure of the clauses in which the infinitival relatives occur. A key notion is that speakers center their discourse around information that they assume to be important for the communicative event.

Three Kinds of Korean Reflexives : A Corpus Linguistic Investigation on Grammar and Usage

Abstract: This paper discusses the relationship between grammar as linguistic knowledge, as envisaged in Generative Grammar, and usage, the result of performance. In concrete, I analyze the use of Korean reflexives icaki l, 'casin, and 'cakicasin' by examining the occurrences of these reflexives in a 5-million-word Korean corpus, taken from a 10-million-word Korean corpus which is called "KOREA-1 Corpus" compiled at Korea University (H. Kim and B. Kang 1996). This corpus is composed of various genres of Korean texts including 10% of spoken material. From the KWIC concordance of accusative forms of these reflexives, 'cakilul, 'casin-ur, and 'cakicasin-ur, I examined whether a reflexive has a local antecedent or a long-distance antecedent. The result is that 'caki' is almost even in having local and long-distance antecedents, but 'casin' has more and 'cakicasin' has much more local antecedents. I also examined the thematic roles of the local antecedents of reflexives, which shows that 'casin' has relatively more Experiencer antecedents than icaki` has, although in both cases Agent antecedents dominate. The outcome of these frequency analysis suggests that a tendency (probably not grammaticalized yet), or degree of "naturalness" is real and can be captured in the usage data provided that we have a sizable amount of material manageable in an efficient way as provided by the corpus linguistic method of the present day.

Young Children, Questions and Nonfiction Books.

Abstract: This article discusses the use of nonfiction as a powerful antecedent for success in the types of reading required later on in the intermediate grades. Recent trends in informational (nonfiction) books, values of bringing together young children, and informational books and criteria for selecting high quality informational books are identified. Several question types are highlighted and incorporated into three strategies for bringing together young children, informational books, and questions. Also, a bibliography of high quality informational books is provided.

Acquisition of the Chinese reflexive 'ziji' by Russian and English speakers

Abstract: The cross-linguistic variation between English, Chinese and Russian lies in that (i) the English reflexive ‘himself’ must be bound locally both in finite and non-finite clauses, the Chinese reflexive ‘ziji’ can be bound either long-distance or locally both in finite and non-finite clauses, whereas the Russian reflexive ‘sebja’ must be bound locally in finite clauses but can be bound either long-distance or locally in non-finite clauses; (ii) the Chinese reflexive can only take a subject as its antecedent and so does the Russian reflexive, while the English reflexive can take both a subject and an object as its antecedent.

Identifying Syntactic Role of Antecedent in Korean Relative Clause using Corpus and Thesaurus Informationes

Abstract: This paper describes an approach to identifying the syntactic role of an antecedent in a Korean relative clause, which is essential to structural disambiguation and semantic analysis. In a learning phase, linguistic knowledge such as conceptual co-occurrence patterns and syntactic role distribution of antecedents is extracted from a large-scale corpus. Then, in an application phase, the extracted knowledge is applied in determining the correct syntactic role of an antecedent in relative clauses. Unlike previous research based on co-occurrence patterns at the lexical level, we represent co-occurrence patterns with concept types in a thesaurus. In an experiment, the proposed method showed a high accuracy rate of 90.4% in resolving ambiguities of syntactic role determination of antecedents.

On antecedent causes

Abstract: Introduction 1. Galen's life 2. The ancient concept of causation 3. The medical schools 4. The text of 'De Causis Procatarcticis' Liber Galieni de Procatarcticis Causis/Galen's book on antecedent causes Commentary Appendix: a guide to the editions and abbreviations of the Galenic corpus Glossary of Latin-Greek equivalences Bibliography Indexes.

Anchoring Floating Quantifiers in Japanese-to-English Machine Translation

Abstract: In this paper we present an algorithm to anchor floating quantifiers in Japanese, a language in which quantificational nouns and numeral-classifier combinations can appear separated from the noun phrase they quantify. The algorithm differentiates degree and event modifiers from nouns that quantify noun phrases. It then finds a suitable anchor for such floating quantifiers. To do this, the algorithm considers the part of speech of the quantifier and the target, the semantic relation between them, the case marker of the antecedent and the meaning of the verb that governs the two constituents. The algorithm has been implemented and tested in a rule-based Japanese-to-English machine translation system, with an accuracy of 76% and a recall of 97%.

Southern Sotho verbal relative constructions

Abstract: It transpires that Southern Sotho relative clauses can, on structural as well as functional grounds, be categorised as being either direct or indirect. The differences between the two categories pertain to the following: (a) differences in concordial agreement between the antecedent and the relative clause; and (b) differences in discourse-pragmatic function in as much as the direct relative predicates a characteristic feature or trait of the antecedent, while the indirect relative contextualises its antecedent by associating it with another referent. This article proposes that the direct relative should be regarded as a non-typical grammatical category, viz. a qualificative word with a clausal function.

Conflict management satisfaction and relational and sexual satisfaction

Abstract: This study examines predictors of relational, and sexual, satisfaction. Specifically, it is hypothesized that the discrepancy between real and ideal conflict management style is antecedent to relational satisfaction, which is a direct antecedent of sexual satisfaction. It is suggested that communicating in the manner that one sees as ideal is important in predicting relational satisfaction. Surveys including measures for conflict management style, relational satisfaction, and sexual satisfaction were administered to 290 participants. These data were consistent with the proposed model.

Theta role assignment, internal structures of reflexives and reflexive binding

Abstract: In Chinese, there are three kinds of reflexive: the simplex reflexive ziji (self'), complex reflexives such as taziji (himself') and the double reflexive construction ziji-benshen (self-self)'. Based on Yu (1996), this paper will show that under certain conditions all sets of reflexives can show the full range of local and non-local binding possibilities and argue that there are two distinct systems of anaphoric resolution at work. When a reflexive is locally bound, its interpretation is constrained by the Binding Theory as implemented via head-to-head movement. When a reflexive is either long-distance bound or fails to have a syntactic antecedent in the sentence, its interpretation is constrained by the interaction between the morphological structure of the reflexive itself and the predicates which license it in the syntactic structure. The role of the predicates is fundamental and determines the logophoric subject - the referent from whose point of view the clause containing the reflexive is evaluated

Potential for Learning as An Antecedent Variable in Pascual-Leone's Theory of Constructive Operators

Abstract: A major contribution of Pascual-Leone's Theory of Constructive Operators is the postulation of antecedent variables, that can be measured independently and provide a set of underlying constructs to explain and predict changes in cognitive development and academic performance (Pascual-Leone, 1987) Brainerd (1978) considered the postulation of such antecedent variables essential for ddferentiating between descriptive and explanatory theories Niaz (1990, 1994) presented empirical evidence to confirm that the following variables of M-power, Field factor, and Mobhty-Fixity Dimension, based on the Theory of Constructive Operators can be considered as antecedent variables The objective of this note is to review research which provides empirical evidence for yet another antecedent variable, viz, potential for learnmg (L-power) in the Theory of Constructive Operators The importance for cognitive theories of studying both developmental and learning factors has been recognized (Miller, Pascual-Leone, Campbell, & Juckes, 1989) In this theory potential for learning refers to the subjects' ab~lity to learn, which leads to the development of new problem-solving strategies based on prior knowledge and intratask experience A repeated testing with the Figural Intersection Test can provide 'I the equivalent of what may be called 'L-power' or 'learning-to-learn' abilityv (Mder, et al, 1989, p 310) The Figural Intersection Test (Pascual-Leone & Burtis, 1974) is a group-administered paper-andpencil test designed to measure M-power, ie, abihty to process information The rationale for selecting a version for repeated testing is based on the assumption that students are expected to learn new executive strategies on every trial and to improve their scores Niaz and Caraucan (in press) showed that success on repeated testing

Literal Reconstruction: the Motivation and Characterization

Abstract: Assuming that himself, being an anaphor, must be c-commanded by its antecedent in order to be appropriately licensed,l) we are led to conclude that the moved phrase containing the anaphor behaves as if i t were in the intermediate or the base position with respect to binding. T h s phenomenon is known as reconstruction in the literature. Among the possible approaches to this phenomenon are those that are usually referred to as "reconstruction" approaches. Hence, a terminological confusion may arise between "reconstruction" referring to the phenomenon and that referring to the operation. In this paper, however, the term 'reconstruction' refers to the

Natural language conditionals 1

Abstract: This paper introduces a formal theory of natural language conditional statements. Traditionally, the best models for conditional statements have been defined in the field of possible world semantics (Stalnaker, Lewis, Pollock, Nute), but all of them failed to give a complete account of the set of relevant conditional statements belonging to a standard example of natural language (as, for example, English). The possible world approach owes this fault not to lack of formal expressiveness, but to a wrong pretheoretical setting apart of the different kinds of conditionals. The theory presented here bases the classification not in the verb of the antecedent (indicative or subjunctive) but in the "implicational strength" expressed by the conditional: the degree to which compliance with the antecedent of a conditional sentence ensures satisfaction of the consequent. Four conditional operators are defined, and some novel features are introduced in the semantics, in order to give an interpretation to these operators.

The semantic function of chained pronouns

Abstract: The pronouns in (1), if used non-demonstratively, are anaphoric on the antecedent indefinite noun phrase 'a man' that heads (1). Now it might be thought that these pronouns function semantically as do the bound variables of quantification theory. But recent work in linguistics and in the philosophy of language (see, for example, Evans 1977 and Neale 1990) suggests that this is not so. What, then, is the semantic function of these pronouns? In answer to this question, a number of theories have been proposed. In ? 2-4 of this paper, I argue that none of these theories does justice to our intuitions concerning the truth-conditions of the sentences in (1). In the last section, S5, I briefly sketch a theory that accommodates these very intuitions.