Systematic Polysemy Research Articles

Systematic Verb Polysemy in MT: A Study of Danish Motion Verbswith Comparisons with Spanish

In this paper we propose a semantic apparatus based on Frame Semantics which enables us to treat the systematic polysemy of Danish motion verbs in a satisfactory way in relation to Machine Translation (MT). Abandoning the strategy applied in more traditional MT systems where related and unrelated meanings are in essence treated alike, i.e. as unrelated, we suggest an approach where relatedness in meaning is expressed via frame element assignments and where systematically derived senses can thus be generated on the basis of prototypical senses. By contrasting Danish data with Spanish, we demonstrate that the identified meaning variations in Danish motion verbs are crucial not only for analysis but also in the transfer phase where deviations in evoked frame elements prove to trigger translations which differ from the ``prototypical'' translations of the relevant verbs.

Lexical pragmatics

Lexical Pragmatics is a research field that tries to give a systematic and explanatory account of pragmatic phenomena that are connected with the semantic underspecification of lexical items. Cases in point are the pragmatics of adjectives, systematic polysemy, the distribution of lexical and productive causatives, blocking phenomena, the interpretation of compounds, and many phenomena presently discussed within the framework of Cognitive Semantics. The approach combines a constrained-based semantics with a general mechanism of conversational implicature. The basic pragmatic mechanism rests on conditions of updating the common ground and allows to give a precise explication of notions as generalized conversational implicature and pragmatic anomaly. The fruitfulness of the basic account is established by its application to a variety of recalcitrant phenomena among which its precise treatment of Atlas & Levinson's Q- and I-principles and the formalization of the balance between informativeness and efficiency in natural language processing (Horn's division of pragmatic labour) deserve particular mention. The basic mechanism is subsequently extended by an abductive reasoning system which is guided by subjective probability. The extended mechanism turned out to be capable of giving a principled account of lexical blocking, the pragmatics of adjectives, and systematic polysemy.

La polysémie systématique dans la description lexicale

G. Nunberg et A. Zaenen : La polysémie systématique dans la description lexicale The phenomenon of systematic polysemy offers a fruitful domain for examining the theoretical differences between lexicological and lexicographic approaches to description. We consider here the process that provides for systematic conversion of count to mass nouns in English (a chicken /chicken, an oak / oak etc.). From the point of view of lexicology, we argue, standard syntactic and pragmatic tests suggest the phenomenon should be described by means of a single unindividuated transfer function that does not distinguish between interpretations (rabbit = « meat » vs. « fur »). From the point of view of lexicography, however, these more precise interpretations are made part of explicit description via the inclusion of semantic « licences », a mechanism distinct from lexical rules.

La polysémie contre le fixisme

F. Récanati : La polysémie contre le fixisme Semantic « fixism » is the view according to which non-indexical words and phrases possess Fregean senses conventionally, that is, in a fixed and context-independent manner. I show thai fixism cannol accounl for systematic polysemy in a satisfactory way. To account for systematic polysemy, we must acknowledge that the sense of an expres sion (its condition of satisfaction) is generated rather than merely selected. In the third part of the paper I discuss two models of sense generation. According to « segregalio nism », the sense of a word is generated through the interaction of its context- independent meaning with the context-independent meanings of the other words in the sentence. According to « contextualism », the sense of an expression is generated through the interaction of that expression's meaning with the context, both linguistic and extralinguistic. Semantic « fixism » is the view according to which non-indexical words and phrases possess Fregean senses conventionally, that is, in a fixed and context-independent manner. I show that fixism cannot account for systematic polysemy in a satisfactory way. To account for systematic polysemy, we must acknowledge that the sense of an expression (its condition of satisfaction) is generated rather than merely selected. In the third part of the paper I discuss two models of sense generation. According to « segregationism », the sense of a word is generated through the interaction of its context- independent meaning with the context-independent meanings of the other words in the sentence. According to « contextualism », the sense of an expression is generated through the interaction of that expression's meaning with the context, both linguistic and extralinguistic.