No label defined (Q4552504)

This article investigates a complex problem of on-line parsing the quantified NPs (Noun Phrases), in particular indefinites: NPs may be interpreted as giving rise to logical forms in which they have a scope very different from that indicated by the surface sequence of expressions in which they occur. This is a problem that cannot be reduced to positing referential uses of indefinites, and there is an implicit recognition that the determination of scope choice is not incremental, but can only be defined once the total structure is complete. In this paper, the authors propose that the interpretation of indefinite NPs involves an anaphoric-like dependency, in which the indefinite is lexically projected as involving a dependent name for which the anchor of the dependency has to be chosen on-line. The dependency is represented by an indexing on the name, the index indicating the expression to which the dependent element is to be anchored. The anchor dictates the mode of combination of the parts and the construction of the resulting depending terms. The proposed model of utterance interpretation is based on a structure-building operation, assigning logical forms to a sentence through a mixed process of labelled type deduction and other operations. Developed as a part of a general deductive framework for natural language understanding, the model encloses the following formal tools: (a) the labelled deduction system (LDS) to define type deduction and other mixed modes of inference (Gabbay; 1996); (b) the epsilon-calculus as the selected logical language (Meyer Viol; 1995); and (c) the modal tree logic LOFT for modelling the architecture within which the setting of premises for type deduction take place (Blackburn, Meyer Viol; 1994). The utterance processing is taken to be a goal-driven inferential task, in which the goal is to establish a logical formula of a certain type by using information as incrementally provided on a left-right basis by a given input string. The system has been partly implemented in Sicstus Prolog as part of a long-term project. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1005.68156].