Expressions, such as add fuel to the fire, can be interpreted literally or idiomatically depending on the context they occur in. Many Natural Language Processing applications could improve their performance if idiom recognition were improved. Our approach is based on the idea that idioms and their literal counterparts do not appear in the same contexts. We propose two approaches: (1) Compute in...

What does it tell us about the conceptual structures underlying language use that a language can use ”prick the law” but not ”sing the law” to mean ”break the law”? Some theorists have speculated about the existence of conceptual primitives, which permeate the meaning of all words in any language (Schank, 1975, Mandler, 2004). If this premise is correct, then these concepts could also be used t...

Metaphors in idioms are universal in languages. The progression from conceptual meaning to metaphorical meaning is a cognitive activity of mapping from one thing to another. This paper, based on the analysis of 2,347 metaphorical idioms, their linguistic features, grammatical structures, grammatical functions, and semantic categories, tries to identify categories of metaphorical idioms. Most of...

sig Key {} sig Special, Regular extends Key {} one sig Control, Shift, Option, Command extends Special {} sig KeyPress {keys: set Key, event: Event} {one keys & Regular} sig Event {} fact {setObject (KeyPress, keys)} Note the use of Singleton to model the special keys. A prison database system tracks pairs of inmates who must not be placed in the same cell (because they belong to opposing gangs...

This paper proposes a generation method for feature-structured)ased unification grammars. As comlx~red with fixed ~rity term notation, feature structure notation is more tlexible for representing knowledge needed to generate idiom~ttic structures as well as genem~l constructions. The method enables feature strncture retrieval via nmltiple indices. The indexing mechanism, when used with a semant...

Instrumental improvisation in Turkish makam music, the taksim, is considered to be free-rhythm, that is its rhythm develops without the underlying template of a meter or continuous organized pulsation. In this paper, we want to examine how in this setting, rhythmic idioms are formed and maintained throughout a performance. For this, we will apply a simple signal processing approach. We show dif...

We present a computational framework for chord invention based on a cognitive-theoretic perspective on conceptual blending. The framework builds on algebraic specifications, and solves two musicological problems. It automatically finds transitions between chord progressions of different keys or idioms, and it substitutes chords in a chord progression by other chords of a similar function, as a ...

A new model of inter-module dependences is proposed. ! e key idea is that dependences are mediated by specifi cations, so that not only the existence of a dependence is recorded, but also its quality. A single module does not necessarily off er only a single specifi cation; each dependent module may use it through a diff erent specifi cation. ! is notion of dependence seems to explain some comm...

The programming language Java was introduced to the IT community as an “easy-to-learn” and “easy-to-use” language (typically referring to C++ for comparison). While this is certainly true, it turns out that even this supposedly easy language offers a lot of choices and comes with many programming idioms that must be understood thoroughly in order to produce high-quality software implemented in ...