Natural Language Theory Research Articles

Prepositions and Spatial Relations in Natural Languages According to Leibniz

In his 1677 Dialogue, Leibniz answers the question of how it is possible that speakers of different languages agree on the same truths by postulating “a certain correspondence between characters and things”. In the mid-1680s, he arguably attempts to specify this “correspondence” by explaining how linguistic particles are connected to our perception of spatial relations among things in the world. Firstly, this paper focuses on the role that, according to Leibniz, signs and characters play in our knowledge. Secondly, it introduces the solution that can be found in the Dialogue to the problem of how the same truth can be expressed in different languages. After briefly expounding Leibniz’s theory of natural languages, the paper gives an account of Leibniz’s analysis of the nature of prepositions and of how they contribute, in a natural language, to determine the correspondence between characters and things that is mentioned in the Dialogue.

What do we mean when we talk of object-language and metalanguage in the theory of natural languages?

What do we mean when we talk of object-language and metalanguage in the theory of natural languages?

Generalizing Prototype Theory: A Formal Quantum Framework.

Theories of natural language and concepts have been unable to model the flexibility, creativity, context-dependence, and emergence, exhibited by words, concepts and their combinations. The mathematical formalism of quantum theory has instead been successful in capturing these phenomena such as graded membership, situational meaning, composition of categories, and also more complex decision making situations, which cannot be modeled in traditional probabilistic approaches. We show how a formal quantum approach to concepts and their combinations can provide a powerful extension of prototype theory. We explain how prototypes can interfere in conceptual combinations as a consequence of their contextual interactions, and provide an illustration of this using an intuitive wave-like diagram. This quantum-conceptual approach gives new life to original prototype theory, without however making it a privileged concept theory, as we explain at the end of our paper.

A New Theory of Quantifiers and Term Connectives

This paper sets forth a new theory of quantifiers and term connectives, called shadow theory, which should help simplify various semantic theories of natural language by greatly reducing the need of Montagovian proper names, type-shifting, and ?-conversion. According to shadow theory, conjunctive, disjunctive, and negative noun phrases such as John and Mary, John or Mary, and not both John and Mary, as well as determiner phrases such as every man, some woman, and the boys, are all of semantic type e and denote individual-like objects, called shadows-- conjunctive, disjunctive, or negative shadows, such as John-and-Mary, John-or-Mary, and not-(John-and-Mary). There is no essential difference between quantification and denotation: quantification is nothing but denotation of shadows. Individuals and shadows constitute a Boolean structure. Formal language LSD (Language for Shadows with Distributivity), which takes compound terms to denote shadows, is investigated. Expansions and enrichments of LSD are also considered toward the end of the paper.

Ideen zur Veranschaulichung von Aussagen mit Modalverben Sprachwissenschaftliche Annahmen - für den Unterricht aufbereitet

The topic of the present paper is the relation between linguistics and language education. Put as a question one could ask: 'what benefit can linguistics have for language teaching?'. It will be claimed that as a precondition, language teachers should have more than just marginal insight into theories of natural language. I will try to support this postulate using sentences with modal verbs: based on a certain linguistic theory, illustrations of sentences with modal verbs will be given. These illustrations are thought to be a first step for a didactic preparation (transformation) of explanations given by a linguistic theory for natural language phenomena. As a consequence of the considerations it will be postulated that it is obligatory for the education of teachers to include linguistic modules, since, in line with the hypothesis of this paper, insight into linguistic theories can help: 1) to understand phenomena of natural language and 2) to find a didactical preparation for the phenomena in question.

Slavic in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (review)

Reviewed by: Slavic in head-driven phrase structure grammar ed. by Robert D. Borsley, Adam Przepiórkowski Natalie Sciarini-Gourianova Slavic in head-driven phrase structure grammar. Ed. by Robert D. Borsley and Adam Przepiórkowski. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1999. Pp. 345. Cloth $64.95, paper $24.95. Recent years have shown a rapid splash of activity in the frames of formal approaches to Slavic languages. Head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG), like most other theories of natural language, was initially developed largely on the basis of English. A few studies applying this type of grammar to quite different types of languages began to appear in the 1980s; works published in the 1990s show that distinctive word order and morphological properties of Slavic languages can be quite a challenge for structural analysis. The present volume, which examines a variety of phenomena from Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, Bulgarian, and Czech, is a welcome addition to the field; its contributors try to provide an explicit framework for grammatical description, supported by experimental research. Traditionally, the majority of work within any formal approach to language has been concerned with syntax. This volume is not an exception. Tania Avgustinova, Wojciech Skut, and Hans Uszkoreit examine diathesis phenomena in a range of Slavic languages. They argue that HPSG is capable of coping with crosslinguistic similarities. As a result, a formal cross-Slavic account of valency alternations is proposed. Małgorzata Marciniak aims at formulating an HPSG binding theory for Polish. In this respect she discusses middle-distance binding. She seeks to provide a comprehensive account of this phenomenon and concentrates on the formalization of Principles A and B of the binding theory. Adam Przepiórkowski examines the nature of the complement-adjunct distinction. He shows that alleged configurational tests are at odds with linguists’ views on this dichotomy and argues that his result adds weight to recent HPSG approaches to it. Syntax is not the only matter of concern in the presented works. The editors of the volume seem to have found a proper balance in the discussion. The majority of contributors look into less frequently studied topics within HPSG and try to go beyond pure syntax, dealing with important problems in phonological, syntactico-morphological, and complex syntactico-semantic interface. In this respect, Tilman N. Höhle proposes a model for phonology. He suggests that the relations between phonology and physical phonetics can be more precisely understood from the HPSG point of view, supporting his statement with data from Russian, German, and Miwok. Gerald Penn is interested in the interaction of syntactic, prosodic, and discourse effects. He argues for a more basic reform to HPSG’s notion of constituency. Robert D. Borsley discusses weak auxiliaries, certain complex verb forms, and certain complementizers in Polish. He suggests that HPSG and, in particular, certain recent proposals within the framework, allow a more satisfactory analysis of these data. Stephen Wechsler and Larisa Zlatić state that in certain contexts involving dative and instrumental cases in Serbo-Croatian, case must be morphologically realized; as a result some special undeclined nouns cannot be used. Anna Kupść deals with the status of the Polish reflexive marker ‘self’, showing its linear realization in terms of the order domains approach. Frank Richter and Manfred Sailer discuss negative concord (NC) in Polish. Understanding n-words as identifiers, rather than quantifiers, they talk of the distribution of n-words in terms of their theory of collocations. Adam Przepiórkowsky and Anna Kupść also argue that NC is subject to both syntactic and semantic island constraints and show that Italian data confirm this result. All the papers demonstrate a thorough and accurate approach to the studied topics and provide a very interesting outline of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic issues found in the Slavic languages. No doubt, the volume will be found most interesting as a guide and an inspiration for further research in the HPSG framework. [End Page 348] Natalie Sciarini-Gourianova Abraham Baldwin School, Guilford, CT Copyright © 2002 Linguistic Society of America

Natural Computation for Natural Language

Computation not only takes place in provoked contexts of scientific experimentation, but in natural circumstances too. We are going to approach computation in natural contexts. How the nature computes? Turing machines and Chomsky grammars are rewriting systems, and the same is true for Post, Thue, Markov, Lindenmayer and other classes of axiomatic systems. If, among the whole set of natural objects, we focus natural language description, we must say that major trends in contemporary linguistics look at syntax as a rewriting process. Is rewriting unavoidable in this case, does our mind work by rewriting, does the nature compute in this way? We shall attempt to defend that the answer could be negative. The arguments will come from computability theory as well as from linguistics. First we'll formally explain the former ones, then informally the latter ones. With regard to computability theory arguments, we will see that, using the operation of adjoining, a large generative capacity is obtained. This is the case with contextual grammars. It has recently been proved that each recursively enumerable language is the quotient by a regular language of a language generated by a contextual grammar of a particular form. Thus, adjoining (paste) and quotient (cut) lead to computational universality. Recursively enumerable languages can also be characterized as the quotient by a regular language of a language generated by an insertion grammar. The same result is obtained if we take the splicing operation, a formal model of the DNA recombination. This is again a cut-and-paste operation. On the basis of the proof of this result, several further characterizations of recursively enumerable languages have been obtained. Computability theory, then, could be reconstructed without rewriting (and non-terminal symbols) and without any loss in power. Our first aim will be to show some formal aspects of such reconstruction. Later, we'll try to obtain some consequences for the future development of generative theory of natural language.

Linguistic Theory in Second Language Acquisition by Suzanne Flynn and Wayne O'Neil

New for 1990 from Oxford University Press Your Professional Source Humanism in Language Teaching Earl Stevick This highly original study invites readers to radically reassess their understanding of the term humanism in relation to language teaching. REVIEWS Linguistic Theory In Second Language Acquisition by sScHynnand WayneO Ncil(Eds.). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988. 443 pp. J Second Language Research Methods Herbert W. Seliger & Elana Shohamy This book provides a clear, comprehensive, and authoritative guide to research methods in second language acquisition and bilingualism. Reviewed by Donna Lardiere Boston University Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing Lyle F. Bachman This book aims to give a conceptual foundation for answering questions regarding the measurement of language abilities. There has been much debate over the past several years5 about the nature of the relationship between Universal Grammar (UG and adult second language acquisition and about whether indeed such a relationship even exists Many second language researchers nve Ugating this relationship have often noted that, as originally formulated UG theory does not concern itself with nor make direct Literature Alan Duff& Alan Maley This innovative resource book offers a wide variety of interesting and practical ideas for using literature in the language class­ room. Grammar Dictation Ruth Wajnryb This book helps teachers to improve their students' understand­ ing and use of grammar. relation tetwccn linguistic theory and second language data would took noting that such a position (which they themselves do not subscribe to) argues that linguistic theory, because ii is a theory of natural language, musl be tested against second language daw to be validated Thus any theory of language would be false .f it failed to account for second language data Second language data can and should be used as evidence for d.sunguish.ng S e e n linguistic iheories, which, of course attnbutes the power of falsificauon to second language data. (p. 5) A ™ > moderate Dosition, they claim, would be to acknowledge mat a theo^o^^gSage could i t be falsified by second language daU if it were not intended to account for anything other than first m Aspects of Language Teaching Henry Widdowson This book provides a critical review of the most prominent issues in language teaching today. For more information, contact your local Oxford representative, or contact Oxford University Pres« ESL Department 200 Madiaon Aveoue New York, NY 10016 279 South Beverly Drive Suite 1129 Beverly Hills, CA 90212 Issues in Applied Linguistics © Regents of the University of California ISSN 1050-4273 Q Vol. 1 NO. I

Constraint modelling using a conceptual prototyping language

A conceptual language (CPL) is proposed, derived from natural language theory, for specifying both the static and dynamic component of a conceptual model using the same basic structures. A software tool is also described, which automatically generates a prototype database from the conceptual model described in CPL. The constraints, declared in the static component of the conceptual model, are automatically checked when the prototype database changes. Also the events, declared in the dynamic component of the conceptual model, are automatically converted into procedures which operate on the prototype database.

Hauptsatz for higher-order modal logic

In spite of the philosophical significance of higher-order modal logic, the modal logician's main concern has been with sentential logic. In this paper we do not intend to go into philosophical details, but we only remark that higher-order modal logic has a close relationship with Montague's well-known idea of “universal grammar”, which is an ambitious attempt to build a logical theory of natural languages with exact syntax and semantics, comparable with the artificial languages of mathematical logic. For this matter, the reader can consult, e.g., Montague [8], [9] and Gallin [2].

Theoretical formalism and the experimental study of natural language

The nature and role of theoretical formalism in the formulation of theories of natural language are described. Formalism is seen to consist of either the adoption of a highly structured preconceived system as a model for language processing or the embodiment of a rigid set of theoretical assumptions, or both. A description of various areas of research is made in order to demonstrate the consistent failure of typical formal theories to deal adequately with experimental findings, an effect argued to be a direct result of the nature of theoretical formalism.

Problems in the construction of a theory of natural language

Problems in the construction of a theory of natural language

Propositions, Possible Languages and the Liar's Revenge

An adequate theory of natural language should include a solution to the semantic paradoxes. This is not the only condition of adequacy, but it is an important one. For the paradoxes are among the crucial tests of one's theory of natural semantics, syntax and phonetics, all of which figure in the paradoxes to some degree. The theory should either show how a correct conception of our language would block the derivations of paradox, or explain why they cannot be blocked even on a correct conception, and justify a relatively simple linguistic reform which would do so. Just as a theory of natural language should afford a solution to the paradoxes, one's solution typically will presuppose a conception of language. Hence much more is at stake than sometimes meets the eye when philosophers argue about classical paradoxes such as the Liar, the Grelling, and so on. It is simply not true that these arguments are 'five-fingered exercises' or 'sterile ornaments' of a philosophy of language (as I have heard them dismissed by two prominent philosophers, who in fairness should remain unnamed, not having committed themselves on the point in print). One's treatment of semantic paradox can crucially affect one's views about meaning, truth, propositions, sentences, and utterances, together with their interrelations and much else. This fact may occasionally be obscured by the belief that the classical paradoxes have long since been solved or quarantined by some means or other. But even if they have been adequately solved-which is far from clear-there is no guarantee that the same means would suffice for any new paradox that might turn up. Of course a sweeping rejection of all self-reference has nothing to fear from a new paradox. But naturallanguage solutions typically make a virtue of allowing some self-reference, in contrast, say, to a strict language-level approach. Furthermore, all such solutions have concentrated on absolute notions of truth and falsity, as expressed in one-place predicates like 'is true' and 'is false'. Relativised predicates like 'is true (false) in possible world W' and 'is true (false) with respect to language L' have been neglected. Yet paradox lurks in this neglected portion of the expressive power of natural language.

Katz on analyticity

Katz (1966) attempts to explicate the notion of analyticity on the basis of a theory of natural languages. This theory assumes that grammatical transformations do not affect semantic interpretations, which are performed on the underlying phrase markers. Hence, the interpretation of the conjunction of two co-ordinate clauses consists of the logical conjunction of their interpretations. The following two sentences have therefore identical interpretations:1. The thief snatched the money and the clerk pressed the alarm.2. The clerk pressed the alarm and the thief snatched the money.