Title: Linguistic Essentials
1Linguistic Essentials
2Introduction
- Contents
- Parts of Speech and Morphology
- Parts of Speech
- Morphological process
- Nouns and pronouns
- Determiners and adjectives
- Verbs
- Other parts-of-speech
- Phrase Structure
- Introduction
- Phrase structure grammars
- Dependency Arguments and adjuncts
- X theory
- Phrase structure ambiguity
- Semantics and Pragmatics
3Part of Speech and MorphologyPart of Speech (1/2)
- Parts of Speech
- a group of words which show similar syntactic
behavior, and often a typical semantic type. - three important POS noun, verb, adjective
- Noun typically refer to people, animals,
concepts and things. - Verb express the action in a sentence.
- Adjective describe a property of noun.
- many words have multiple POS.
- POS tag
- more fine-grained classifications of word classes
than traditional systems. - well-established sets of abbreviations for word
class names. - Brown Corpus is used in this chapter.
- Ex adjectives JJ
4Part of Speech and MorphologyPart of Speech (1/2)
- POS separate Lexical / Functional categories
- Lexical categories ( open categories )
- Have a large number of members.
- New words are commonly added.
- Ex nouns, verbs, adjectives
- Functional categories ( closed categories )
- Have only a few members
- Normally have a clear grammatical use.
- Ex prepositions, determiners
5Part of Speech and MorphologyMorphological
process (1/2)
- Morphological process
- Word categories are systematically related by
morphological process - Major types of morphological process
- inflection, derivation, compounding
- Inflection
- systematic modifications of a root form by means
of prefixes and suffixes - Not change word class or meaning significantly.
- Varies features such as tense, number, plurality.
- lexeme a group of the inflectional forms of a
word. - Example
- dog ? dogs, speech ? speeches
- change ? changed, change ? changing
6Part of Speech and MorphologyMorphological
process (2/2)
- Derivation
- more radical change of syntactic category and
often involves a change in meaning. - less systematic than inflection
- Example
- adjective ? adverb ( -ly ) wide-ly
- adjective ? verb ( -en ) weak-en, soft-en
- verb ? adjective ( -able ) accept-able
- verb ? noun ( -er ) teach-er, lead-er
- Compounding
- the merging of two or more words into a new word.
- pronounced as a single word denote a single
semantic concept - Ex tea kettle, disk drive, downmarket, mad cow
disease
7Part of Speech and MorphologyNouns and Pronouns
(1/3)
- Nouns
- typically refer to entities in the world like
people, animals, and things. - Common Inflections of nouns
- number singular, plural
- In English
- usually regular pattern ( suffix s ), and other
is irregular - gender feminine(female), masculine(male),
neuter(neither) - English does not have a system of gender
inflections. - Example of Latin -a for feminine and us for
masculine. - case nominative, genitive, dative, accusative
- different forms when they have different
functions ( subject, object, etc. ) - Example of Latin
- the Latin for son filius ( subject ) and
filium ( object of a verb ).
8Part of Speech and MorphologyNouns and Pronouns
(2/3)
- Pronouns
- a separate small class of words that acts like
variables in that they refer to a preson or thing
that is somehow salient in the discourse context. - In English
- nominative(subject case) ? accusative(object
case) - different forms when they are used as the subject
and the object of a sentence. - posessive pronouns
- when pronouns are a possessor
- ex my car
- reflexive pronous ( anaphors )
- always refer to a nearby antecedent in the same
sentence. - normally the subject of the sentence.
- ex Mary saw herself in the mirror. ? Mary saw
her in the mirror.
9Part of Speech and MorphologyNouns and Pronouns
(3/3)
- Brown tags
- two special types of nouns in Brown tag set.
- proper nouns
- refer to particular persons or things. ( ex
Mary, United States ) - adverbial nouns
- without modifiers to give information about the
circumstances of the event described. ( ex
home, west, tomorrow )
10Part of Speech and MorphologyDeterminers and
adjectives (1/3)
- Determiners
- describe the particular reference of a noun.
- subtype
- articles the, a, an
- demonstratives this, that
- Adjectives
- describe properties of nouns.
- Used such as attributive(adnominal), or
predicative. - attributive a red rose, this long journey.
- predicative The rose id red., The journey will
be long. - In English, the form of adjectives
- positive the basic form of the adjective. (
rich, trendy, intelligent ) - morphological modifications
- the derivational endings like ly
- the comparative form ( richer, trendier )
- the superlative form ( richest, trendiest )
- periphstic form ( more intelligent, most
intelligent )
11Part of Speech and MorphologyDeterminers and
adjectives (2/3)
- Brown tags
- adjective
- positive form JJ, comparative JJR,
superlatives JJT - semantically superlative adjectives ( chief,
main, top ) JJS - numbers ( subclasses of adjectives )
- cardinals ( one, two ) CD
- ordinals ( first, second ) OD
- determiners
- articles AT
- singular determiners ( this, that ) DT
- plural determiners ( these, those ) DTS
- determiners that can be singular or plural (
some, any ) DTI - double conjunction determiners ( either,
neither ) DTX
12Part of Speech and MorphologyDeterminers and
adjectives (3/3)
- Quantifiers
- express ideas like all, many, some.
- pre-quantifier ( all, many ) ABN
- nominal quantifier ( one, something, somebody )
PN - there ( when used to express existence at the
beginning of a sentence ) EX - the interrogative pronous and determiners which
are used for questions and relative clauses - nominative wh-pronoun ( who, which, that ) WPS
- objective wh-pronoun ( which, that ) WPO
- possessive wh-pronoun ( whose ) SP
- wh-determiner ( what, which ) WDT
13Part of Speech and MorphologyVerbs (1/2)
- Verbs
- used to describe actions, activities and states.
- morphological forms
- base form
- present tense ( Ex I walk., You walk., She
walks ) - infinitive with to ( Ex She likes to walk., To
walk is fun. ) - bare infinitive ( Ex She shouldnt walk. )
- -ing form
- progressive ( Ex She is walking., She will be
walking. ) - gerund ( Ex Walking is fun. )
- -ed form
- past tense ( Ex She walked. )
- present perfect ( Ex She has walked. )
- past perfect ( Ex She had walked. )
- many verbs are irregular
- drive ? She drove the car. she has never driven a
car. - take ? She took off on Monday. She had already
taken off on Monday.
14Part of Speech and MorphologyVerbs (2/2)
- Grammatical Feature
- Morphologically ( Ex -s, -ing, -ed. )
- Means of auxiliaries ( Ex have, be, will )
- Auxiliaries
- Express aspect, mood, and some tense information.
- Periphrastic forms built using auxiliaries
- The modal auxiliaries ( modals )
- Express modalities like possibility ( may, can )
or obligation ( should ) - Ex He may or may not come to the meeting.
- Ex You should spend more time with your family.
- Brown tags
- Base form VB
- The third person singular VBZ
- The past tense VBD
- Gerund and present participle VBG
- The past participle VBN
- Modal auxiliaries ( can, may, must, ) MD
15Part of Speech and MorphologyOther parts of
speech (1/3)
- Adverbs, prepositions, and particles
- Adverb
- adverbs modify a verb. ( specify place, time,
manner, or degree ) - Ex She often travels to Las Vegas.
- some adverbs modify adjectives and other adverb
- Ex A very unlikely event., a shockingly frank
exchange. - degree adverb
- modify adjectives, adverbs and do not modify
verbs. - sometimes regarded as a separate POS called
qualifiers. - Ex very
- Brown tags
- ordinary adverb ( simply, late, well, little )
RB - comparative adverb ( later, better, less ) RBR
- superlative adverb ( latest, best, least ) RBT
- qualifier ( very, too, extremely ) QL
- post-qualifier ( enough, indeed ) QLP
- adverbial and interrogative functions
- wh-qualifier ( how ) WQL
- wh-adverb ( how, when, where ) WRB
16Part of Speech and MorphologyOther parts of
speech (2/3)
- Prepositions and particles
- preposition
- express spatial relationships.
- Ex in the glass, on the table, over their
heads. - particles
- a subclass of prepositions that can enter into
strong bonds with verbs in the formations of
so-called phrasal verbs. - phrasal verbs a separate lexical entry with
syntactic and semantic properties different from
the verb it was formed from. - Ex The plane took off at 8am. Dont give in to
him. He put me off. - Brown tags
- prepositions IN
- particles RP
17Part of Speech and MorphologyOther parts of
speech (3/3)
- Conjunctions and complementizers
- Coordinating conjunctions
- joins two sentences as equals.
- Ex husband and wife
- Ex She bought or leased the car.
- Subordinating conjunctions
- attach a secondary sentence to a primary
sentence. - secondary sentence often expresses a proposition,
a reason, a condition, a concession or a
temporally related event. - Ex She said that he would be late.
- Ex I wont wait if he is late.
- Complementizers
- a conjunction which marks a complement clause ( a
notional sentence or predication that is an
argument of a predicate ). - Ex I know that he is here
- Brown tags
- conjunctions CC
- subordinating conjunctions CS
18Phrase StructureIntroduction (1/3)
- Syntax
- the study of the regularities and constraints of
word order and phrase structure. - Paradigmatic relationship
- groupings of words behave as constituents.
- example of positioning and phrasal expansion for
a constituent - I put the bagels in the freezer. The bagels, I
put in the freezer. -
saw
. - Syntagmatic relationship
- form a phrase like sewed clothes or sewed a
dress. - collocations is important class of
syntagmatically related words.
the tall woman the tall woman with sad eyes
the very short man the short man with red hair
19Phrase StructureIntroduction (2/3)
- Major phrase types
- Noun phrase ( NP )
- noun is the head of the noun phrase.
- uses
- the arguments of verbs
- the participants in the action
- activity or state described by the verb
- constituent
- optional determiner
- zero or more adjective phrases
- a noun head
- some post-modifiers (ex prepositional phrases
or clausal modifiers) - relative clauses clausal modifiers of nouns.
- Example The homeless old man in the park that I
tried to help yesterday. - Prepositional phrases ( PPs )
- headed by a preposition and contain a noun phrase
complement. - usually express spatial and temporal locations
and other attributes.
20Phrase StructureIntroduction (3/3)
- Verb phrase ( VP )
- the verb is the head of the verb phrase.
- the verb phrase organizes all elements of the
sentence that depend syntactically on the verb. - the verb phrase does not contain the subject noun
phrase. - Example
- Getting to school on time was a struggle.
- He was trying to keep his temper.
- That woman quickly showed me the way to hide.
- Adjective phrases ( APs )
- complex adjective phrase are less common.
- Example
- She is very sure of herself.
- He seemed a man who was quite certain to succeed.
21Phrase StructurePhrase structure grammars (1/3)
- syntactic analysis of a sentence
- how to determine the meaning of the sentence from
the meaning of the words. - word order allows us to infer who did what to
whom. - Example Mary gave Peter a book. Peter gave
Mary a book. - English word order
- Subject Verb Object declaratives
- the subject and first auxiliary verb are inverted
interrogatives. - no subject imperatives
- free word order language
- use case marking to indicate who did what to
whom. - word order isnt used to indicate who the doer
is. - word order is then usually used mainly to
indicate discourse structure.
22Phrase StructurePhrase structure grammars (2/3)
- Rewrite Rules
- Form category ? category
- ex S ? NP VP
- the symbol on the left side can be rewritten as
the sequence of symbols on the right side. - possibilities for rewriting depend solely on the
category, and not on any surrounding context. (
context-free grammars ) - derivation example
- recursivity
- rewrite rules can be applied an arbitrary number
of times.
23Phrase StructurePhrase structure grammars (3/3)
- Phrase structure grammars Feature
- non-local dependencies
- subject-verb agreement
- subject and verb agree even if other words and
phrases intervene. - Ex The women who found the wallet were given a
reward. - long-distance dependencies
- example wh-extraction
- Should Peter buy a book? ? Which book should
Peter buy? - There is a long-distance dependency between buy
and which book. - empty node
- occur when a non-terminal may be rewritten as
nothing. - Example
- imperatives ( Ex Eat the cake! )
- no subject NP, so adding a rule NP ? ?
24Phrase StructureArguments and adjuncts(1/4)
- Dependents
- example Sue watched the man at the next table.
- Sue and the man are dependents of a watching
event - Sue and the man are the two arguments of the verb
watch. - Classification of the arguments
- semantic roles
- agent the person or thing that is doing
something. - patient the person or thing that is having
something done to it. - Ex Children eat sweet candy.
- The children is the agent of the action of
eating. ( sweet candy patient ) - grammatical relations
- subject the noun phrase that appears before the
verb. - object noun phrase, which normally appears
immediately after the verb. - Ex Children eat sweet candy.
- The children is the subject of eat. ( sweet candy
object ) - systematic associations semantic roles and
grammatical functions. - active voice agent subject, patient object.
- passive voice patient subject, agent
oblique role.
25Phrase StructureArguments and adjuncts(2/4)
- Classify the dependents of verbs.
- Arguments
- express entities that are centrally involved in
the activity of the verb. - most argument expressed as NPs may be PPs, VPs,
or as clauses - example
- We deprived him of food.
- John knows that he is losing.
- She put the book on the table.
- He will retire in Florida.
- Adjuncts
- phrases that have a less tight link to the verb.
- describe the time, place, or manner of that the
verb describes. - example
- She saw a Woody Allen movie yesterday.
- She saw a Woody Allen movie with great interest.
- He gave his presentation on the stage.
- I straightened the nail with a hammer.
26Phrase StructureArguments and adjuncts(3/4)
- Subcategorization
- the classifications of verbs according to the
types of complements they permit. - list of subcategorized arguments
- Subject The children eat candy.
- Object The children eat candy.
- Prepositional phrase She put the book on the
table. - Predicative adjective We made the man angry.
- Bare infinitive She helped me walk.
- Infinitive with to She likes to walk.
- Participial phrase She stopped singing that
tune eventually. - That-clause She thinks that it will rain
tomorrow. - Question-form clauses She is wondering why it
is raining in August.
27Phrase StructureArguments and adjuncts(4/4)
- subcategorization frame ( syntactic regularity )
- a particular set of arguments that a verb can
appear with. - Intransitive verb NPsubject.
- ex The woman walked.
- Transitive verb NPsubject, NPobject.
- ex John loves Mary.
- Ditransitive verb NPsubject, NPdirect
object, NPindirect object. - ex Mary gave Peter flowers.
- Intransitive with PP NPsubject, PP.
- ex I rent in Paddington.
- Transitive with PP NPsubject, NPobject, PP.
- ex She put the book on the table.
- Sentential complement NPsubject, clause.
- ex I know (that) she likes you.
- Transitive with sentential complement
NPsubject, NPobject, clause. - ex She told me that Gary is coming on Tuesday.
- selectional restrictions ( semantic regularity )
- Ex The dog barked all night. ? The cat barked
all night. - Ex I eat vegetables every day ? I eat
philosophy every day.
28Phrase StructureX theory
- X Theory
- importance of a word will be the head of a
phrase. - noun and preposition are the head of a noun and
preposition phrase respectively. and others are
dependent to head word. - name X is taken to represent a variable across
lexical categories. - Three level in X Theory
- The head is always the first (X) level
- the phrase is the XP level
- X is an intermediate level
- General pattern of constituency is repeated
across phrase types in final step.
29Phrase StructurePhrase structure ambiguity (1/2)
- Parsing
- the process of reconstructing the derivation(s)
or phrase structure tree(s) that give rise to a
particular sequence of words. - parse a phrase structure tree that is
constructed from a sentence. - Phrase structure ambiguity ( syntactic ambiguity
) - there are many different phrase structure trees
that could all have given rise to a particular
sequence of words. - attachment ambiguity
- phrases generated by two different nodes.
- Ex The children ate the cake with a spoon.
-
30Phrase StructurePhrase structure ambiguity (2/2)
- garden pathing
- the phenomenon of first being tricked into
adopting a spurious parse and then having to
backtrack to try to construct the right parse. - Ex The horse raced past the barn fell.
- The horse raced past the barn fell cannot
be added to parse. - backtrack to raced and construct a complete
different parse tree, that meaning is The horse
fell after it had been raced past the barn. - Ungrammatical
- ungrammatical sentence has no parse tree.
- sentence does not have an interpretation at all.
- Ex Slept children the.
- semantic abnormality
- sentence that semantic interpretation is
incoherent. - Ex Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. The
cat barked.
31Semantics and Pragmatics (1/2)
- Semantics
- the study of the meaning of words, constructions,
and utterances. - Divide two part
- meaning of individual words ( lexical semantics )
- one approach how word meanings are related to
each other. - hypernymy more general sense.
- hyponymy more specialized meaning.
- antonyms opposite meanings.
- meronymy part-whole relationship.
- holonym whole corresponding to a part.
- synonyms same meaning
- homonyms written same way, but really different
meanings. - polyseme a words meaning are related.
- meaning of sentences
- how meanings of individual words are combined.
- natural language does not obey compositionality (
predicted from the meaning of the parts. ) - collocations
- sum of the meaning of the part additional
meaning - Ex white wine, white skin.
32Semantics and Pragmatics (2/2)
- Pragmatics
- the study of how knowledge about the world and
language conventions interact with literal
meaning. - Discourse analysis
- explain the covert relationships between
sentences in a text. - central problem anaphoric relations
- Ex Mary helped Peter get out of the cab. He
thanked her. - Peter and He refer to the same person.
- important for information extraction.
- areas of pragmatics
- most areas have not received much attention in
Statistical NLP. - hard to model the complexity of world knowledge
with statistical means. - lack of training data.
- two areas are beginning to receive more attention
- the resolution of anaphoric relations
- the modeling of speech acts in dialogues.