SyntaxSemantics Mapping

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Syntax-Semantics Mapping

• Rajat Kumar Mohanty
• CFILT

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Outline

• Conceptual constituents
• Lexical categories and phrasal categories
• Syntax and conceptual structure
• Internal structure of arguments
• Syntactic and ontological category Mapping

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Conceptual Constituents

• The semantic structure of a sentence is built up
  from a hierarchical arrangement of conceptual
  constituents.
• Each of them belongs to a major ontological
  category or semantic part of speech Thing,
  Place, Path, Event, State, Manner, and Property
• They are realized syntactically by means of major
  phrasal constituents (such as, NP, S, PP, AP,
  AdvP)

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Example

• Bill ran into the room
• Syntactic Structure
• S NP Bill VP ran PP into NP the room
  
• Conceptual Structure

(Thing Bill , Path TO Place IN Thing the
room )
GO
Event
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Unmarked realization

• Thing NP
• Place and Path PP
• Property AP
• Manner AdvP
• Event and State S

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Lexical Categories and Phrasal Categories

• Corresponding to each lexical category (e.g., N,
  V, A, P, etc) there is a major phrasal category
  (e.g., NP, VP, AP, PP, etc.).
• Each phrasal category contains a headplus a
  variety of possible modifiers (typically other
  phrasal categories)
• The phrasal category maximizes the possible
  modifiers of the lexical category.
• E.g., NP the enemys destruction of the city

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Syntax and Conceptual Structure

• Every major phrasal constituent in the syntax of
  a sentence corresponds to a conceptual
  constituent (such as, THING, EVENT, PLACE, etc.).
• The lexical head X of a major phrasal constituent
  corresponds to a function in conceptual
  structure.
• E.g., S NPThe man VPput NPthe book PPon
  the table

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Example

• The verb put head of the S
• Subcategorizes
• A subject NP
• A direct object NP
• A PP
• Expresses a semantic function that maps three
  arguments into an EVENT.
• Two THINGs and a PLACE.

)
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Internal Structure of Arguments

• The first two arguments Man and book
• Subcategorize nothing
• Have no internal functional structure
• Are treated as zero-place functions that map into
  THING
• The head of the third argument on
• Subcategorizes an NP
• Has internal functional structure
• Expresses a one-place function that maps a
  THING into PLACE

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Complete Functional Structure
EVENT
PLACE
THING
THING
THING
PUT (
)
ON (
)
THE MAN
, THE BOOK
,
THE MAN

• This sentence is regarded as a three-place
  relation between two THINGs and a PLACE,
  mediated by the verb put.

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Syntactic and Ontological Category Mapping

• The semantics of the head of the major phrasal
  constituent decides the ontological category.
• The relationship between syntactic and
  ontological category is not one-to-one.
• Examples
• Put maps into EVENT
• Know, believe, be map into STATE
• Table, house map into THING
• Destruction map into EVENT
• Adjectives map into PROPERTY
• Prepositions map into PLACE and PATH

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Mapping a Thing into a Path

• The preposition into is a function that maps a
  thing the reference object into a Path.
• To satisfy the well-formedness conditions on the
  use of into, its sister phrase must be an NP (the
  syntactic condition) and must express a concept
  of a category Thing (the semantic condition).

PATH
PLACE
THING
TO (
)
IN (
)
THE ROOM
13
Thematic Roles

• The case of open (Are these sentences underlying
  related?)
• John opened the door with a key.
• The door was opened by John with a key.
• The key opened the door.
• Thematic Roles are part of the level of
  conceptual structure, not part of syntax.

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Thematic Roles

• Agent The instigator of an event
• Patient A patient is directly affected by an
  action
• Theme the object in motion or being located
• Source the object from which motion proceeds
• usually appears structurally as the argument of
  the PATH-function FROM
• Goal the object to which motion proceeds
• The argument of the PATH-function of TO

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Place- and Path-function
PLACE
( THING )
PLACE-FUNCTION
Place
(e.g., in the room)
TO FROM TOWARD VIA
( THING )
PATH
Path
(e.g., to the station)
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Examples

• John passed the house

EVENT
PATH
THING
THING
PASS (
)
)
VIA (
JOHN
,
THE HOUSE
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Example

• John entered the room

EVENT
PATH
THING
PLACE
ENTER (
)
TO (
)
THING THE ROOM
JOHN
,
IN (
)
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A few examples for discussion (in the context of
UNL)

• John hit Bill (theme, goal)
• John threw the ball (source, theme)
• Bill entered the room (theme, goal)
• Bill received a letter (goal, theme)
• John gave a book to Mary (source, theme, goal)
• John got a book from Mary (goal, theme, source)
• John promised Mary to give a book (source, goal,
  theme)
• John order Mary to leave the place (source, goal,
  theme)

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Patient

• The affected entity
• Test frame
• What happened to NP was
• What Y did to NP was
• Examples
• John hit Mary. (patient/ goal)
• The car hit the tree. (patient/ goal)
• Mary hit the ball into the field. (patient/
  theme)
• The NPs being patients do not eliminate their
  other roles.

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Actor and other thematic roles

• Actor test frame
• What the NP did was
• It is necessary to specify what moves where under
  whose agency
• Examples
• The sun radiates heat. (Actor/ source)
• John ran down the hill. (Actor/ theme)
• The sponge absorbed the water. (Actor/ goal)

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The Tier Theory

• Conceptual roles fall into two tiers
• Thematic tier (dealing with motion and location)
• Action tier (dealing with Actor-Patient
  relationship)

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Informal Annotation (two tiers)

• John hit Bill
• theme goal
• Actor Patient
• John threw the ball
• source theme
• Actor Patient
• Bill entered the room
• Theme goal
• Actor ---
• (no sense of a patient)

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Informal Annotation (two tiers)

• Bill received a letter
• goal theme
• --- ---
• John gave a book to Mary
• source theme goal
• Actor Patient
• John got a book from Mary
• goal theme source
• Actor Patient

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Informal Annotation (two tiers)

• Bill rolled down the hill
• Theme Goal
• Actor/Patient
• What Bill did was
• What happened to Bill was..
• The wind rolled the ball down the hill
• --- theme goal
• Actor Patient
• Agent
• Extrinsic instigator of an action
• Volitional actor

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Role of Instrument

• It plays the role in the means by which the Actor
  accomplishes the action. (with NP can be
  paraphrased as by means of)
• The Actor acts on the instrument
• The instrument acts on the Patient
• Examples
• John opened the door with a key.
• The door was opened by John with a key.
• The key opened the door.

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Sources further Readings

• Jackendoff, R. 1990. Semantic Structures. The MIT
  Press, Cambridge, Mass.
• Jackendoff, R. 1997. Semantics and Cognition.
  The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
• Talmy, L. 1985. Force Dynamics in Language and
  Thought. Cognitive Science 12.
• Cullicover, P. and W. Wilkins. 1986. Control, PRO
  and the Projection Principle. Language 62.