Semantics as a Cognitive Process I: Discourse Representation Structures in Declarative Memory

Adrian Brasoveanu,Jakub Dotlačil

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-31846-8_8

Abstract

In this chapter, we introduce our assumptions about semantic representations and build a semantic processor, that is, a basic parser able to incrementally construct such semantic representations. Our choice for a processing-friendly semantics framework is Discourse Representation Theory (DRT, Kamp 1981; Kamp and Reyle 1993).

Highlights

In this chapter, we introduce our assumptions about semantic representations and build a semantic processor, that is, a basic parser able to incrementally construct such semantic representations
This is an essential component of real-time semantic interpretation in at least two respects: i. incrementally processing semantic representations involves composing/ integrating semantic representations introduced by new sentences or new parts of a sentence with semantic representations of the previous discourse; ii. incremental interpretation involves evaluating new semantic representations relative to our mental model of the world, and integrating their content into our world knowledge database stored in declarative memory
We evaluate the truth of this Discourse Representation Structures (DRSs)/mental model by connecting it to the actual, ‘real-world’ model, which is our background database of facts stored in declarative memory

Summary

Chapter 8

Semantics as a Cognitive Process I: Discourse Representation Structures in Declarative Memory. The fan experiment investigates how basic propositional information of the kind encoded by atomic DRSs1 is (stored and) retrieved from declarative memory. This is an essential component of real-time semantic interpretation in at least two respects: i. Semantics as a Cognitive Process I: Discourse Representation Structures Because of this double function, DRT and atomic DRSs can be thought of as mental models in the sense of Johnson-Laird (1983, 2004); Johnson-Laird et al (1989), with several advantages. They provide a richer and better understood array of representations and operations They come with a comprehensive mathematical theory of their structure and interpretation (dynamic logic/dynamic semantics).

The Fan Effect and the Retrieval of DRSs from Declarative Memory

The Fan Effect Reflects the Way Meaning Representations (DRSs) Are Organized in Declarative Memory

Integrating ACT-R and DRT

Semantic (Truth-Value) Evaluation as Memory Retrieval, and Fitting the Model to Data

Model Discussion and Summary