Given a small number of examples of sceneutterance pairs of a novel verb, language learners can learn its syntactic and semantic features. Syntactic and semantic bootstrapping hypotheses both rely on cross-situational observation to hone in on the ambiguity present in a single observation. In this paper, we cast the distributional evidence from scenes and syntax in a unified Bayesian probablist...

Spreadsheets in accounting and Matlab in engineering are immensely popular because these glorified calculators let domain experts play : write down a problem in familiar terms and quickly try a number of solutions. Natural-language semanticists have a better tool. Not only does it compute grammar yields and truth values, it also infers types, normalizes terms, and displays truth conditions as f...

For most theories of semantics cases are irrelevant at best. For these theories the ideal language has fully regimented word order but no morphology. This means that cases have to disappear at the interface from syntax to semantics. The role of syntax is among other to provide a structural substitute for cases. This is also the philosophy of the Minimalist Program, where cases are treated as un...

I extend the recent unidimensional semantics of supplements due to Martin to a full syntax-semantics interface. The grammar formalism employs a two-component syntax, with one component modeling combinatorics and another for surface form. I show that the syntax-semantics for supplements is relatively uncomplicated, requiring only two new lexical entries. I contrast this with the complex machiner...

This paper investigates the use of sublexical units as a solution to handling the complex morphology with productive derivational processes, in the development of a lexical functional grammar for Turkish. Such sublexical units make it possible to expose the internal structure of words with multiple derivations to the grammar rules in a uniform manner. This in turn leads to more succinct and man...

We propose a syntax-semantics interface that realises the mapping between syntax and semantics as a relation and does not make functionality assumptions in either direction. This interface is stated in terms of Extensible Dependency Grammar (XDG), a grammar formalism we newly specify. XDG’s constraint-based parser supports the concurrent flow of information between any two levels of linguistic ...

The syntactic category of adverbs is generally associated with the copresence of two properties. First, adverbs, which are typically used with the function of an adjunct, have a remarkable distributional freedom. Second, at least some adverbs are scopal elements, whose scope properties may have consequences on their position. Accordingly, adverbs pose a number of acute questions for the syntax-...