This paper presents a framework for generating locative expressions. The framework addresses the issue of combinatorial explosion inherent in the construction of relational context models by: (a) contextually defining the set of objects in the context that may function as a landmark, and (b) sequencing the order in which spatial relations are considered using a cognitively motivated hierarchy o...

In this paper, we present a novel approach using LDA (Latent Dirichlet Analysis, Blei, David, Andrew, Michael, and Jordan, 2003) to analyze synonym groups appearing in fixed frames containing Chinese locative phrases, such as [zái noun phrase (yǐ/zhī) shàng/xià/etc. biān/miàn/etc.], and to understand noun meanings related to the syntactic forms of locative phrases. We mapped the different noun ...

This paper proposes a syntax-semantics correspondence of locative expressions: This proposal is based on the syntactic hierarchy among three locative structures (PPs, VPs, and verbal affixes) and the semantic hierarchy among four locative arguments (Goal, Source, Symmetric Path, Stative Location). As for the syntactic hierarchy, the verbal affixes are closer to the head verb than the locative/p...

Locative inversion verbs seem to share the same argument structure and grammatical function assignment (i.e., ) cross-linguistically. This article discusses the nature of argument-function linking in LFG and demonstrates how the Lexical Mapping Theory (LMT) rendered in Optimality-Theoretic (OT) terms, where argument-function linking is governed by universal violable constraints...

The Mayan languages Tzeltal and Yucatec have large form classes of ‘dispositional’ roots which lexicalize spatial properties such as orientation, support/suspension/blockage of motion, and configurations of parts of an entity with respect to other parts. But speakers of the two languages deploy this common lexical resource quite differently. The roots are used in both languages to convey dispos...