Meaning Units and the Natural Language Semantics of Anatomy

W.D. Hagamen, B.H. Partee, and V. Borschev

Table of Contents of current draft: latest as of September 3, 2004

with links to latest versions of sections.

1. Introduction

File: Intro__8-28-04.pdf

1.1. The Importance of World Knowledge

1.2. Why Anatomy?

1.3. Organization of the Rest of the Paper

1.4. Three Voices

1.5. Commentary/Dialogue

1.5.1. WDH:

1.5.2. BHP:Why is MUBS interesting from a formal linguist’s point of view?

1. A small rich real-life fragment.

2. No Lexicon, or Distributed Lexicon.

3. Where is the grammar?

4. Polysemy and compositionality.

1.5.3. VB:

1. A well-structured domain.

2. A “working realization” of formal semantics for a natural fragment of English.

3. The impact of a well-structured domain on language processing.

4. Possible contrasts between such a fragment and the ‘whole-language’.

2. MUs and the World of Anatomy

File: World_of_Anatomy__8-28-04x.pdf

2.1. MUs as Numeric Tags

2.2. The MU Structure-List

2.3. Anatomical Types

2.4 Semantic Types

2.5. The MU Relation-List

2.6. The MU Matrix

2.7. The Word Association Matrix

2.8. Generic Verbs

2.9. Algorithmic MUs

2.10. More About the MU Relation-List

2.11. What are MUs?

2.12. Commentary/Dialogue

BHP: On the syntactic variety of Relation Phrases.

WDH:

3. MUs as Semantic Values of Dyads *

File: MU_Sem_Vals__8-28-04x.pdf

3.1. Dyads as Executable Functions

3.2. SVs as Normal Syntactic Constituents

3.3. Functions and MUs Depicted in Trees

3.4. Dyads as Constituent Questions

3.5. Why Both Dyads: SV and VP?

3.6. Anatomical Type Words (ATWs)

3.7. Multiple Dyad Expressions

3.8. Empirical Evaluation of Generalized Assertions

3.8.1. Relative Clauses

3.9. Quantifiers in Object Position

3.10. Conjoined Dyads - Full versus Elliptic

3.11. Commentary/Dialogue

3.11.1. Wh-expressions

1. Dyads

2. Relative clauses, first comment.

3. Wh-questions.

3.1. One-clause wh-questions.

3.2. One-clause wh-questions with one-word wh-phrase.

3.3. One-clause wh-questions with a multi-word wh-phrase.

4. Intersection. Relative clauses, VPs, SVs.

4. Parsing and Connotations of Individual Words *

File: Parsing.pdf

4.1. Parsing a Sentence into SPs and RPs

4.1.1. The SP/RP Parser

4.1.2. Prosodic Parsing

4.2. Where MUs For Input Words Come From

4.3. How MUs are Selected

4.4. The Second Stage Parser

4.5. Prosodic Parsing into Phrases

4.6. Commentary/Dialogue

WDH:

BHP:

BHP:

WDH: This contains first explanation of GETSEQ.

BHP:

WDH:

5. Meaning Units and the Flexibility of Language *

File: Section_5__6_17_03x.pdf

5.1. Flexibility of Meaning of Two-Place Predicates

5.2. Synonyms for Names of Anatomical Structures

5.3. The Value of Lack of Specificity in Names

5.3.1. Significance of Hidden Dyads

5.3.2. Muscle Groups

5.3.3. Pronoun Reference

5.4. Flexibility by Substitution: Replacing MUs with VPs

5.5. Combining Different Antomical Types

5.6. Are Canonical Names Necessary?

5.7. The Syntax-Semantic Interface and the Flexibility of Natural Language

5.8. Commentary/Dialogue

BHP:

i.

ii.

iii.

WDH:

iv.

5.8.1. Textbook NPs vs Anatomical SPs. Grammaticality. Meaning composition in SPs.

This ends with “to be completed”. She refers to my 4-15-01 essay to BHP and VB. Can be provided on request.

Note: This comes from Pinky flexor.doc

It would be nice to have a BHP comment on 5.1.3?

6. MUs and the Semantics of Thought *

File: Semantics of Thought _5_18_03x.pdf [but this is the revised version from 12-10-03]

6.1. The Other Side of Quantification

6.1.1. Answering ‘Why’ Something is True

6.1.2. Formal Analysis of Why-Questions

6.1.3. Restrictive Quantifiers: ‘All That; All That But; Only’

6.2. The Introspective Lexicon

6.3. Thought Provoking Questions

6.4. Open Questions

6.5. Is the Database Static?

6.6. Algorithmic Reasoning

6.7. Medical Diagnosis

6.8. Commentary/Dialogue

7. Formal Grammar *

File: Formal_Grammar__121003x.pdf

7.1. Compositionality

7.2. The Role of Rewrite Rules (RRs)

7.2.1. MU Rewrite Rules

[old 7.2.2. Xxx Rewrite Rules: gone from this version. Perhaps restore, but later in section.]

7.2.2. What are RRs?

[old 7.3. Prosodic Parsing into Phrases: now in Sec 4 as 4.5.]

7.3. The Interface Between Words and Meaning

7.3.1. Words and MUs as Terminal Nodes

7.3.2. Semantic Types

7.3.3. Tree Segments for SP RRs

7.3.4 Semantic Type of RPs

7.4. RR Groups 3-6

7.4.1. The Dx Level

7.4.2. The Intersection (Ç) Level

7.4.3. The Tf (True/False) Level

7.5. Generating Trees from RRs

7.5.1. Building (3-18a)

[ old 7.6.2. Constructing (3-17a): gone 12-10-03.]

[ old 7.6.3. Doing (3-16a): gone 12-10-03.]

7.5.2. Two New Types of VP

[ old 7.7. Xxx Parsing: gone 12-10-03; Bill suggested we could replace it with one of our own if we want. BHP does want to keep xxx rules and their discussion in somewhere.]

7.6. Where Do SVs Occur? [new 12-10-03, replaces “Calculating SEQ” of 10-03.]

7.6.1. Dyadic wh-questions

7.6.2. Triadic sentence

7.6.3. Multiple dyad wh-questions

7.6.4. Multiple dyad statements

7.6.5. Trailing wh-questions

7.6.6. Quantifiers as objects of SVs

7.7. Semantics of RRs [new 12-10-03]

7.7.1. Regenerating the Denotations of Each Node

7.8. Composition of Meaning

7.8.1. Wh- or T/F?

7.8.2. Transition Points

7.8.3. The Importance of MUs

7.9. Two Grammars: Input versus Output

7.9.1 The Input Grammar

7.9.2. The Output Grammar

7.9.3. Answering Wh-Questions

7.9.4. Answering Generic Questions

7.9.5. Conjoined Elliptic Dyads

7.9.6. Pedagogical Roles of Assertions

7.9.7. Linguistic Role of Assertions

7.9.8. Formal Analysis of Why-Questions

7.9.9. The Formal Introspective Lexicon

7.9.10. A Formal Look at Open Questions

7.9.11 Decreasing versus Increasing Ambiguity [new 12-10-03]

7.10. Commentary/Dialogue [empty section so far: discussion not turned into commentary yet.]

8. The World of Anatomy, Goals of the System, and Data Structures: General Commentary by VB

File: Prague 2004 Part 1 VB and BHP.pdf

[Note: This section was prepared as a self-contained lecture handout; it would need some re-editing to eliminate some duplication with earlier parts of the paper. The 8’s in this table of contents do not appear in the handout. The handout is technically by VB and BHP together, but it was principally written by VB with some joint post-editing. WDH has offered to edit it so that it becomes a section. (Change subsection numbers, remove bibliography from here, WDH and VB can discuss what else.)]

8.1. Introduction

8.1.1. W.D. Hagamen and his system (eventually change title)

8.1.2. Main parts of the system

8.2. The World of Anatomy

8.2.1. Formal scheme of the World of Anatomy

8.2.2. Representation of the World of Anatomy in the System

8.2.3. The Language of Anatomy and Interaction with the System

8.3. The Relational Database

8.3.1. Why Databases?

8.3.2. The World of Anatomy as a Relational Database

8.3.3. Database as a Query-answering System

8.4. Predicate Logic as a Query Language

8.4.1. Formulas

8.4.2. Interpretation of Formulas

8.4.3. Formulas as Queries to Database

8.4.4. Questions in Hagamen Systems and Formulas. Why Logic?

8.4.5. Facts and Laws (Axioms)

8.5. Extensions

8.5.1. Types in Hagamen’s System

8.5.2. Parts and Branches

8.5.3. Why-questions

8.6. Conclusions

Appendix to Section 8: Representation of Data in Hagamen’s System

References -- Section 8.

9. Some Concluding Thoughts

File: Conclusions_9_02_04.pdf

9.1 The Roles of MUs

9.2. What is Meaning?

9.3. Large Scale Applications

9.4. Integers versus Images

9.5. A Refocus on Words

9.6. Acknowledgement

10. References

To be assembled