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Linguistics 682
Computational Sentence and Discourse Semantics
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Course Description |
| Goals |
This course will serve as an introduction to the logical representations of meaning, focusing on issues of application-particular interpretation in context. The general problem addressed is how we are to interpret natural language expressions in the context of particular concrete goals, such as translation or orientation in space or querying a database. |
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| Practice |
The course will use the textbook Representation and Inference for Natural Language: A First Course in Computational Semantics, by Patrick Blackburn and Johan Bos. There will be exercises for the chapters covered. There will also be readings. This is essentially a semantics reading course in which we think about applying the analyses of concrete semantic phenomena in context, The final project will be a paper on one semantic phenomenon or a rule-based treatment of a substantive semantic phenomenon, using the tools given in class. |
| Concepts |
The course begins with an introduction to models and first order logic, to provide the theoretical basis used throughout. We will experiment with a simple first order logic semantics for a fragment of English and a simple query-answering system. We will then read a series of papers dealing with concrete semantic issues arising in a variety of contexts, including semantics of space, plurals, and metonymy. |
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Programming, Computational Tools |
Students will use some software supplied to write semantic rules for fragments of English and to test them. No knowledge of programming is assumed and there will be no programming assignments. Final projects may be papers or extensions of fragments that solve specific problems or combinations of both. |
| Pre-requisites | Some prior knowledge of semantics will be helpful, but no knowledge of logic or programming is assumed. |
| Required Text |
Representation and Inference for Natural Language Patrick Blackburn and Johan Bos. |
| Readings | |
| Grading |
Grading will be based on exercises and
final projects,
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Course Outline |
Here. |
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Background reading |
Dan Jurafsky and james H. Martin. Speech and Natural Language Processing. Chapters 14 and 15. Allwood, Andersson, and Dahl. Logic for Linguists. Gennaro Chierchi and Sally McConnell-Ginet. Meaning and Grammar. |
Mailing address:
Department of Linguistics and Oriental Languages
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-7727
Telephone: (619) 594-0252
Office location: BAM, room 321
Office hours: MW 3:30-4:45, Tu 6:00-7:00 Th 12:30-2:00