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.

在对象之间建立顺序并根据其具有某些渐变特性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：所有语言都有表达可分析概念的句法类别，并且所有语言都有用于进行比较的结构。诸如“高个子”，“明亮”，“美丽”之类的“渐变”形容词是这种表达式的规范示例，并且已经形成了自然语言中评分的主要经验领域。这项工作的重要结论是，自然语言语义语义必须引用测量的抽象表示，或者“ scales”或“ scales''。但是，一个尚未认真解决的问题是，标量表示以外的类别的语义属性是否构成了其他形容词的语义属性。这项研究将通过对跨类别标量表示的作用进行系统和全面的研究来解决这个问题。主要的重点将放在形容词和动词之间的关系上，这都是因为它们的核心语义属性是充分理解的，并且初步研究指出了形容词中规模结构与动词中事件结构之间的定期关系。该研究还将探索介词和名义领域中的标量表示。该项目的经验领域将为词汇语义，正式语义和务实学方面的综合四分之三序列以及针对语言，认知和哲学问题的新生研讨会奠定基础。该项目还将支持研究生和本科研究人员助理，为一个主题进行监督的独立研究提供机会，该研究允许单个研究重点差异。最后，该项目将通过引入外部学者供嘉宾讲座以及通过自然语言的标量代表的讲习班，将学生和同事直接介绍给当代研究。