CAREER: Scalar Representations in Natural Language Semantics

职业：自然语言语义中的标量表示

• 批准号: 0094263
• 负责人: Christopher Kennedy
• 金额: $ 28.14万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-01-01 至 2006-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0094263&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Scalar; Representations; Natural; Language

The ability to establish orderings among objects and make comparisons between them according to the amount or degree to which they possess some gradable property is a basic component of human cognition. Natural languages reflect this fact: all languages have syntactic categories that express gradable concepts, and all languages have constructions that are used to make comparisons. 'Gradable' adjectives like 'tall', 'bright', 'beautiful', and so forth are canonical examples of such expressions, and have formed the central empirical domain for studies of grading in natural language.An important conclusion of this work is that natural language semantics must make reference to abstract representations of measurement, or 'scales'. A question that has not been seriously addressed, however, is whether scalar representations underlie the semantic properties of categories other than adjectives. This study will address this question through a systematic and comprehensive investigation of the role of scalar representations across categories. The primary focus will be on relations between adjectives and verbs, both because their core semantic properties are well understood, and because preliminary research points towards a regular relation between scale structure in adjectives and event structure in verbs. The study will also explore scalar representations in the prepositional and nominal domains.The empirical domain of the project will provide the foundation for an integrated three-quarter sequence in lexical semantics, formal semantics, and pragmatics, as well as a freshman seminar focusing on linguistic, cognitive, and philosophical questions about meaning. The project will also support graduate and undergraduate researcher assistants, providing an opportunity for supervised independent research on a topic that allows a range of variation in individual research focus. Finally, the project will introduce students and colleagues directly to contemporary research by bringing in outside scholars for guest lectures, and through a workshop on scalar representations in natural language.

在对象之间建立排序并根据它们拥有某种可分级性质的数量或程度进行比较的能力是人类认知的基本组成部分。自然语言反映了这一事实：所有语言都有表达分级概念的句法范畴，所有语言都有用来进行比较的结构。“高”、“亮”、“美”等“可分级”形容词都是此类表达的典型例子，并构成了自然语言分级研究的中心经验域。这项工作的一个重要结论是，自然语言语义必须参考度量或“尺度”的抽象表示。然而，一个尚未得到认真解决的问题是，除了形容词之外，标量表示是否构成了类别的语义属性。这项研究将通过系统和全面地调查标量表征在不同类别中的作用来解决这个问题。主要关注形容词和动词之间的关系，这既是因为人们很好地理解了它们的核心语义属性，也是因为初步研究指向了形容词的等级结构和动词的事件结构之间的规则关系。这项研究还将探索介词和名词域的标量表征。该项目的经验域将为词汇语义学、形式语义学和语用学的综合四分之三序列提供基础，以及一个新生的研讨会，重点是关于意义的语言、认知和哲学问题。该项目还将支持研究生和本科生研究人员助理，为在监督下对一个主题进行独立研究提供机会，该主题允许个人研究重点的一系列变化。最后，该项目将通过邀请外部学者进行客座讲座，并通过一个关于自然语言标量表示的研讨会，直接向学生和同事介绍当代研究。