Reinhard Muskens - Böcker

Computational semantics is concerned with computing the meanings of linguistic objects such as sentences, text fragments, and dialogue contributions. As such it is the interdisciplinary child of semantics, the study of meaning and its linguistic encoding, and computational linguistics, the discipline that is concerned with computations on linguistic objects. From one parent computational semantics inherits concepts and techniques that have been developed under the banner of formal (or model-theoretic) semantics. This blend of logic and linguistics applies the methods of logic to the description of meaning. From the other parent the young discipline inherits methods and techniques for parsing sentences, for effective and efficient representation of syntactic structure and logical form, and for reasoning with semantic information. Computational semantics integrates and further develops these methods, concepts and techniques. This book is a collection of papers written by researchers in the emerging field of computational semantics.It is aimed at those linguists, computer scientists, and logicians who want to know more about the algorithmic realization of meaning in natural language and about what is happening in this field of research.

A collection of papers written by researchers in the emerging field of computational semantics. Computational semantics is concerned with the computation of the meanings of linguistic objects such as text fragments, spoken dialogue utterances and e-mail messages. The meaning of such an object is determined partly by linguistic information and partly by information from the context in which the object occurs. The information from these sources is combined by processes that infer which interpretation of the object applies in the given context. This applies not only to notoriously difficult aspects of interpreting linguistic objects, such as indexicals, anaphora and metonymy, but also to establishing the precise reference of common nouns and the scopes of noun phrases. The central issue in computational semantics is how processes of finding and combining the relevant linguistic and contextual information into contextually appropriate meanings can be organized. Traditional approaches of applying context information to disambiguated natural language expressions do not work well, due to the ambiguity in natural language.Recent work in computational semantics suggests that linguistic semantic information be represented in formal structures with underspecification, and that context information be applied in inference processes that result in further specification of these representations. Underspecified representation and inference are therefore key topics. This book is aimed at linguists, computer scientists and logicians who take an interest in the computation of meaning, and who want to know what is happening in this field of research.

Computational semantics is concerned with computing the meanings of linguistic objects such as sentences, text fragments, and dialogue contributions. As such it is the interdisciplinary child of semantics, the study of meaning and its linguistic encoding, and computational linguistics, the discipline that is concerned with computations on linguistic objects. From one parent computational semantics inherits concepts and techniques that have been developed under the banner of formal (or model-theoretic) semantics. This blend of logic and linguistics applies the methods of logic to the description of meaning. From the other parent the young discipline inherits methods and techniques for parsing sentences, for effective and efficient representation of syntactic structure and logical form, and for reasoning with semantic information. Computational semantics integrates and further develops these methods, concepts and techniques. This book is a collection of papers written by outstanding researchers in the newly emerging field of computational semantics. It is aimed at those linguists, computer scientists, and logicians who want to know more about the algorithmic realisation of meaning in natural language and about what is happening in this field of research. There is a general introduction by the editors.

This book is a collection of papers written by outstanding researchers in the newly emerging field of computational semantics. Computational semantics is concerned with the computation of the meanings of linguistic objects such as text fragments, spoken dialogue utterances, and e-mail messages. The meaning of such an object is determined partly by linguistic information and partly by information from the context in which the object occurs. The information from these sources is combined by processes that infer which interpretation of the object applies in the given context. This applies not only to notoriously difficult aspects of interpreting linguistic objects, such as indexicals, anaphora, and metonymy, but also to establishing the precise reference of common nouns and the scopes of noun phrases. The central issue in computational semantics is how processes of finding and combining the relevant linguistic and contextual information into contextually appropriate meanings can be organised. Traditional approaches of applying context information to disambiguated natural language expressions do not work well, due to the massive ambiguity in natural language. Recent work in computational semantics suggests, alternatively, to represent linguistic semantic information in formal structures with underspecification, and to apply context information in inference processes that result in further specification of these representations. Underspecified representation and inference are therefore the key topics in this book. The book is aimed at those linguists, computer scientists, and logicians who take an interest in the computation of meaning, and who want to know what is happening in this exciting field of research.

This book provides an in-depth view of the current issues, problems and approaches in the computation of meaning as expressed in language. Aimed at linguists, computer scientists, and logicians with an interest in the computation of meaning, this book focuses on two main topics in recent research in computational semantics. The first topic is the definition and use of underspecified semantic representations, i.e. formal structures that represent part of the meaning of a linguistic object while leaving other parts unspecified. The second topic discussed is semantic annotation. Annotated corpora have become an indispensable resource both for linguists and for developers of language and speech technology, especially when used in combination with machine learning methods. The annotation in corpora has only marginally addressed semantic information, however, since semantic annotation methodologies are still in their infancy. This book discusses the development and application of such methodologies.

This book provides an in-depth view of the current issues, problems and approaches in the computation of meaning as expressed in language. Aimed at linguists, computer scientists, and logicians with an interest in the computation of meaning, this book focuses on two main topics in recent research in computational semantics. The first topic is the definition and use of underspecified semantic representations, i.e. formal structures that represent part of the meaning of a linguistic object while leaving other parts unspecified. The second topic discussed is semantic annotation. Annotated corpora have become an indispensable resource both for linguists and for developers of language and speech technology, especially when used in combination with machine learning methods. The annotation in corpora has only marginally addressed semantic information, however, since semantic annotation methodologies are still in their infancy. This book discusses the development and application of such methodologies.

Computational linguistics studies natural language in its various manifestations from a computational point of view, both on the theoretical level (modeling grammar modules dealing with natural language form and meaning and the relation between these two) and on the practical level (developing applications for language and speech technology).

Computational linguistics studies natural language in its various manifestations from a computational point of view, both on the theoretical level (modeling grammar modules dealing with natural language form and meaning and the relation between these two) and on the practical level (developing applications for language and speech technology).

The European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI) takes place every year, each time at a di?erent location in Europe. With its focus on the largeinterdisciplinaryareawhere linguistics,logic andcomputation converge, it has become very popular since it started in 1989, attracting large crowds of students. ESSLLI is where everyone in the ?eld meets, teaches, takes courses, gives talks, dances all night, and generally has a good time. One of the enjoyable features of the School is its recurring Student Session, organized by students along the lines of a conference. The speakers are students too, who are eager to get a chance to present their work. They face sti? com- tition to get their talks accepted, as the number of papers that is sent in each year is high and acceptance rates low. In my experience many of the selected talks contain fresh and surprising insights and are a pleasure to attend. But the reader may judge the quality of the Student Session for himself, as this volume contains a selection of papers from its 2008 and 2009 installments, the ?rstheld in Hamburg,the secondin Bordeaux.The book is divided into four parts.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 19 International Conference on Formal Grammar 2014, collocated with the European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information in August 2014.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 20th and 21st International Conference on Formal Grammar 2015 and 2016, collocated with the European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information in August 2015/2016. The 19 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 34 submissions.The focus of papers are as follows:Formal and computational phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmaticsModel-theoretic and proof-theoretic methods in linguisticsLogical aspects of linguistic structureConstraint-based and resource-sensitive approaches to grammarLearnability of formal grammarIntegration of stochastic and symbolic models of grammarFoundational, methodological and architectural issues in grammar and linguisticsMathematical foundations of statistical approaches to linguistic analysis