From word to sentence: a pregroup analysis of the object pronoun \textit{who(m)}

DOI10.1007/S10849-006-9035-9MaRDI QIDQ1006463zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors J. Lambek

Publication date 24 March 2009

Published in Journal of Logic, Language and Information (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s10849-006-9035-9

zbMATH Keywords

computational algebraic grammar via pregroups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Logic of natural languages (03B65) Natural language processing (68T50) Linguistics (91F20)

Review text

\textit{Categorical grammar} dating back to \textit{K. Ajdukiewicz} [Erkenntnis 4, 100--138 (1934; JFM 60.0020.01); Erkenntnis 4, 100--138 (1934; JFM 60.0844.02); Studia philos., Leopolis, 1 (1935), 1--27 (1935; JFM 62.1050.03); Erkenntnis 5, 151--161 (1935; Zbl 0011.24208)] and \textit{Y. Bar-Hillel} [J. Symb. Log. 15, 1--16 (1950; Zbl 0036.00604); in: Language and information, selected essays, 19--37 (1964); (1950; Zbl 0158.25304)] is an attempt to describe the structure of a natural language by assigning types, formerly known as \textit{categories}, to the words of the language, these types living in an algebraic or logical system, as elements of the former or as terms of the latter while grammaticality of sentences being to be checked by computations on strings of types. Its underlying formal system was transformed by the present author [Am. Math. Mon. 65, 154--170 (1958; Zbl 0080.00702)] into what algebraists would call a \textit{residuated monoid}, or what he called the \textit{syntactic calculus}, a form of positive intuitionistic propositional logic in Gentzen's sequential calculus without Gentzen's three \textit{structural rules}, namely, contraction, weakening, and interchange. A newcomer of categorical grammar came from \textit{C. Casadio} [Grammars 4, No. 3, 167--185 (2001; Zbl 1005.03034)] who proposed to replace the syntactic calculus by classical non-commutative linear logic. This resulted in her coorporation with \textit{J. Lambek} [Stud. Log. 71, No. 3, 315--329 (2002; Zbl 1011.03016)]. In retrospect, the approach had been anticipated by certain ideas of Harris [Int. Comput. Center Bull. 5, 69--94 (1966)]. It was elaborated into a partially ordered algebraic system called a \textit{pregroup}, or, equivalently, into a logical system called \textit{compact biliner logic}. This new approach differed from the older one in having replaced two binary connectives of \textit{implication} by two unary operations of \textit{adjunction}, simultaneously replacing the two-dimensional proof-trees of type logical grammars by one-dimensional \ calculations. This paper concentrates on a pregroup analysis of the object pronoun \textit{who(m)} in English.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(5)

This page was built for publication: From word to sentence: a pregroup analysis of the object pronoun \textit{who(m)}

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q1006463)