Syntax-Semantics Mapping Rajat Kumar Mohanty CFILT.

Syntax-Semantics Mapping

Rajat Kumar Mohanty

CFILT

Friday, June 03, 2005 CFILT

Outline

Conceptual constituents Lexical categories and phrasal

categories Syntax and conceptual structure Internal structure of arguments Syntactic and ontological category

Mapping


Conceptual Constituents

The semantic structure of a sentence is built up from a hierarchical arrangement of conceptual constituents.

Each of them belongs to a major ontological category or semantic part of speech: Thing, Place, Path, Event, State, Manner, and Property

They are realized syntactically by means of major phrasal constituents (such as, NP, S, PP, AP, AdvP)


Example

Bill ran into the room

Syntactic Structure:

[S [NP Bill] [VP ran [PP into [NP the room]]] ]

Conceptual Structure:

EventGO ([Thing Bill ], [Path TO [Place IN [Thing the room] ] ])


Unmarked realization

Thing : NP Place and Path : PP Property : AP Manner : AdvP Event and State : S


Lexical Categories and Phrasal Categories

Corresponding to each lexical category (e.g., N, V, A, P, etc) there is a major phrasal category (e.g., NP, VP, AP, PP, etc.).

Each phrasal category contains a head–plus a variety of possible modifiers (typically other phrasal categories)

The phrasal category maximizes the possible modifiers of the lexical category.

E.g., [NP the enemy’s destruction of the city ]


Syntax and Conceptual Structure

Every major phrasal constituent in the syntax of a sentence corresponds to a conceptual constituent (such as, THING, EVENT, PLACE, etc.).

The lexical head X of a major phrasal constituent corresponds to a function in conceptual structure.

E.g., [S [NPThe man] [VPput [NPthe book] [PPon the table] ]]


Example The verb put : head of the S Subcategorizes

• A subject NP

• A direct object NP

• A PP Expresses a semantic function that maps three

arguments into an [EVENT]. Two [THING]s and a [PLACE].

EVENT

PUT (THING PLACE

THE MAN

THING

, THE BOOK , ON THE TABLE)


Internal Structure of Arguments

The first two arguments: Man and book • Subcategorize nothing

• Have no internal functional structure

• Are treated as zero-place functions that map into [THING]

The head of the third argument: on• Subcategorizes an NP

• Has internal functional structure

• Expresses a one-place function that maps a [THING] into [PLACE]


Complete Functional Structure

EVENT

PUT (THING

PLACE

THE MAN

THING

, THE BOOK ON (,

THING

THE MAN)

)

This sentence is regarded as a three-place relation between two [THING]s and a [PLACE], mediated by the verb put.


Syntactic and Ontological Category Mapping The semantics of the head of the major phrasal

constituent decides the ontological category. The relationship between syntactic and

ontological category is not one-to-one. Examples

• Put maps into [EVENT]• Know, believe, be map into [STATE]• Table, house map into [THING]• Destruction map into [EVENT]• Adjectives map into [PROPERTY]• Prepositions map into [PLACE] and [PATH]


Mapping a Thing into a Path

The preposition into is a function that maps a thing –the reference object – into a Path.

To satisfy the well-formedness conditions on the use of into, its sister phrase must be an NP (the syntactic condition) and must express a concept of a category Thing (the semantic condition).

PATH

TO ( THING

THE ROOM

)PLACE

IN ( )


Thematic Roles

The case of open (Are these sentences underlying related?)• John opened the door with a key.

• The door was opened by John with a key.

• The key opened the door.

Thematic Roles are part of the level of conceptual structure, not part of syntax.


Thematic Roles

Agent: The instigator of an event Patient: A patient is directly affected by an action Theme: the object in motion or being located Source: the object from which motion proceeds

• usually appears structurally as the argument of the PATH-function FROM

Goal: the object to which motion proceeds

• The argument of the PATH-function of TO


Place- and Path-function

PLACE

PATH

Place

Path

PLACE-FUNCTION ( [THING] )

(e.g., in the room)

(e.g., to the station)

TOFROMTOWARDVIA

( [THING] )


Examples

John passed the house

EVENT

PASS (THING

PATH

JOHN VIA (THING

THE HOUSE)

),


Example

John entered the room

EVENT

ENTER (THING

PATH

JOHN TO (PLACE

IN () )

,THINGTHE ROOM )


A few examples for discussion (in the context of UNL) John hit Bill (theme, goal) John threw the ball (source, theme) Bill entered the room (theme, goal) Bill received a letter (goal, theme) John gave a book to Mary (source, theme, goal) John got a book from Mary (goal, theme, source) John promised Mary to give a book (source, goal, theme) John order Mary to leave the place (source, goal, theme)


Patient

The affected entity Test frame:

• What happened to NP was…

• What Y did to NP was… Examples:

• John hit Mary. (patient/ goal)

• The car hit the tree. (patient/ goal)

• Mary hit the ball into the field. (patient/ theme) The NPs being patients do not eliminate their other

roles.


Actor and other thematic roles

Actor test frame:• What the NP did was…

It is necessary to specify what moves where under whose agency

Examples:• The sun radiates heat. (Actor/ source)

• John ran down the hill. (Actor/ theme)

• The sponge absorbed the water. (Actor/ goal)


The Tier Theory

Conceptual roles fall into two tiers:• Thematic tier (dealing with motion and

location)

• Action tier (dealing with Actor-Patient relationship)


Informal Annotation (two tiers) John hit Bill

theme goalActor Patient

John threw the ball source themeActor Patient

Bill entered the room Theme goalActor ---(no sense of a patient)


Informal Annotation (two tiers) Bill received a letter

goal theme--- ---

John gave a book to Mary source theme goalActor Patient

John got a book from Mary goal theme sourceActor Patient


Informal Annotation (two tiers) Bill rolled down the hill

Theme GoalActor/Patient

• What Bill did was…• What happened to Bill was..

The wind rolled the ball down the hill--- theme goal

Actor Patient

Agent: • Extrinsic instigator of an action• Volitional actor


Role of Instrument

It plays the role in the means by which the Actor accomplishes the action. (with NP can be paraphrased as by means of)

The Actor acts on the instrument The instrument acts on the Patient Examples:

• John opened the door with a key.

• The door was opened by John with a key.

• The key opened the door.


Sources & further Readings

Jackendoff, R. 1990. Semantic Structures. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Jackendoff, R. 1997. Semantics and Cognition. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Talmy, L. 1985. Force Dynamics in Language and Thought. Cognitive Science 12.

Cullicover, P. and W. Wilkins. 1986. Control, PRO and the Projection Principle. Language 62.

Syntax-Semantics Mapping Rajat Kumar Mohanty CFILT.

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