scholarly journals Atomism, Concepts, and Polysemy

Philosophia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamil Lemanek
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Fundamental Distinction ◽  
Unusual Type ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to examine the theoretical architecture of semantic atomism and its consequences with respect to natural language. In particular, it looks to explore the notion of possible concepts using the fundamental distinction between simple and complex concepts and expressions in Jerry Fodor’s atomism. The distinction is exploited to produce an unusual type of concept referred to as a correlate, which effectively mirrors complex concepts while maintaining a distinct underlying structure. Though harmless in and of themselves, their presence in the context of polymorphemic expressions suggests that atomism harbors a tacit and unintuitive form of polysemy that is problematic in its own right and that leads to other complications, some of which may be demonstrated on the example of communication. These issues are tied to the way atomism is structured, and although they seem to have gone largely unnoticed, they appear to bear negatively on the adequacy of atomism where natural language is concerned.

PRINCIPAL PROBLEMS OF NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING SYSTEMS

2018 ◽  
pp. 35-38
Author(s):  
O. Hyryn
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Analysis Methods ◽  
The Way

The article deals with natural language processing, namely that of an English sentence. The article describes the problems, which might arise during the process and which are connected with graphic, semantic, and syntactic ambiguity. The article provides the description of how the problems had been solved before the automatic syntactic analysis was applied and the way, such analysis methods could be helpful in developing new analysis algorithms. The analysis focuses on the issues, blocking the basis for the natural language processing — parsing — the process of sentence analysis according to their structure, content and meaning, which aims to analyze the grammatical structure of the sentence, the division of sentences into constituent components and defining links between them.

MyrrorBot : A Digital Assistant Based on Holistic User Models for Personalized Access to Online Services

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Cataldo Musto ◽  
Fedelucio Narducci ◽  
Marco Polignano ◽  
Marco De Gemmis ◽  
Pasquale Lops ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Effective Interaction ◽  
Personal Digital Assistant ◽  
User Profiling ◽  
Online Services ◽  
Intent Recognition ◽  
User Models ◽  
Time Required ◽  
The Way

In this article, we present MyrrorBot , a personal digital assistant implementing a natural language interface that allows the users to: (i) access online services, such as music, video, news, and food recommendation s, in a personalized way, by exploiting a strategy for implicit user modeling called holistic user profiling ; (ii) query their own user models, to inspect the features encoded in their profiles and to increase their awareness of the personalization process. Basically, the system allows the users to formulate natural language requests related to their information needs. Such needs are roughly classified in two groups: quantified self-related needs (e.g., Did I sleep enough? Am I extrovert? ) and personalized access to online services (e.g., Play a song I like ). The intent recognition strategy implemented in the platform automatically identifies the intent expressed by the user and forwards the request to specific services and modules that generate an appropriate answer that fulfills the query. In the experimental evaluation, we evaluated both qualitative (users’ acceptance of the system, usability) as well as quantitative (time required to complete basic tasks, effectiveness of the personalization strategy) aspects of the system, and the results showed that MyrrorBot can improve the way people access online services and applications. This leads to a more effective interaction and paves the way for further development of our system.

scholarly journals How Efficiency Shapes Human Language, TICS 2019

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Gibson ◽  
Richard Futrell ◽  
Steven T. Piantadosi ◽  
Isabelle Dautriche ◽  
Kyle Mahowald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Research ◽  
The Way

Cognitive science applies diverse tools and perspectives to study human language. Recently, an exciting body of work has examined linguistic phenomena through the lens of efficiency in usage: what otherwise puzzling features of language find explanation in formal accounts of how language might be optimized for communication and learning? Here, we review studies that deploy formal tools from probability and information theory to understand how and why language works the way that it does, focusing on phenomena ranging from the lexicon through syntax. These studies show how apervasive pressure for efficiency guides the forms of natural language and indicate that a rich future for language research lies in connecting linguistics to cognitive psychology and mathematical theories of communication and inference.

Intention‐Based Semantics

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Borg
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Possible World ◽  
Important Respect ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Intentional Agents ◽  
The Way

There is a sense in which it is trivial to say that one accepts intention- (or convention-)based semantics. For if what is meant by this claim is simply that there is an important respect in which words and sentences have meaning (either at all or the particular meanings that they have in any given natural language) due to the fact that they are used, in the way they are, by intentional agents (i.e. speakers), then it seems no one should disagree. For imagine a possible world where there are physical things which share the shape and form of words of English or Japanese, or the acoustic properties of sentences of Finnish or Arapaho, yet where there are no intentional agents (or where any remaining intentional agents don't use language). In such a world, it seems clear that these physical objects, which are only superficially language-like, will lack all meaning.

Comments on Friederike Moltmann’s “Variable Objects and Truth-Making”

2020 ◽  
pp. 496-502
Author(s):  
Kit Fine
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Broad Agreement ◽  
Montague Semantics ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Way

I have long admired Friederike Moltmann’s work at the intersection of linguistics and philosophy; and I have always been especially impressed by the way in which she has attempted to break free of the stranglehold of the possible worlds approach by showing how the diversified ontology of objects commonly associated with traditional metaphysics provides a much better tool for the investigation of natural language than the simple and stylized ontology of Montague semantics. The present paper is a characteristically rich, original and thought-provoking contribution to the subject; and I am afraid that I can do no more than pick my way through one or two of the many interesting issues that she raises. However, any criticisms I make on this score should not be seen to detract from my broad agreement with much of what she says....

Constructivism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Downes
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Scientific Representations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

Originally proposed by sociologists of science, constructivism or social constructivism is a view about the nature of scientific knowledge held by many philosophers of science. Constructivists maintain that scientific knowledge is made by scientists and not determined by the world. This makes constructivists antirealists. Constructivism here should not be confused with constructivism in mathematics or logic, although there are some similarities. Constructivism is more aptly compared with Berkeley’s idealism. Most constructivist research involves empirical study of a historical or a contemporary episode in science, with the aim of learning how scientists experiment and theorize. Constructivists try not to bias their case studies with presuppositions about how scientific research is directed. Thus their approach contrasts with approaches in philosophy of science that assume scientists are guided by a particular method. From their case studies, constructivists have concluded that scientific practice is not guided by any one set of methods. Thus constructivism is relativist or antirationalist. There are two familiar (and related) criticisms of constructivism. First, since constructivists are self-avowed relativists, some philosophers argue that constructivism fails for the same reasons that relativism fails. But many philosophers of science note that relativism can be characterized in various ways and that versions of relativism can be useful in the interpretation of science. Therefore, constructivism’s relativism does not by itself render it unacceptable. Second, constructivists are accused of believing that scientists literally ‘make the world’, in the way some make houses or cars. This is probably not the best way to understand constructivism. Rather, constructivism requires only the weaker thesis that scientific knowledge is ‘produced’ primarily by scientists and only to a lesser extent determined by fixed structures in the world. This interprets constructivism as a thesis about our access to the world via scientific representations. For example, constructivists claim that the way we represent the structure of DNA is a result of many interrelated scientific practices and is not dictated by some ultimate underlying structure of reality. Constructivist research provides important tools for epistemologists specializing in the study of scientific knowledge.

scholarly journals LOGICS FOR PROPOSITIONAL DETERMINACY AND INDEPENDENCE

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
VALENTIN GORANKO ◽  
ANTTI KUUSISTO
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Kripke Semantics ◽  
Dependence Logic ◽  
Team Semantics ◽  
Reasoning Tasks ◽  
Image Position ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis paper investigates formal logics for reasoning about determinacy and independence. Propositional Dependence Logic${\cal D}$and Propositional Independence Logic${\cal I}$are recently developed logical systems, based on team semantics, that provide a framework for such reasoning tasks. We introduce two new logics${{\cal L}_D}$and${{\cal L}_{\,I\,}}$, based on Kripke semantics, and propose them as alternatives for${\cal D}$and${\cal I}$, respectively. We analyse the relative expressive powers of these four logics and discuss the way these systems relate to natural language. We argue that${{\cal L}_D}$and${{\cal L}_{\,I\,}}$naturally resolve a range of interpretational problems that arise in${\cal D}$and${\cal I}$. We also obtain sound and complete axiomatizations for${{\cal L}_D}$and${{\cal L}_{\,I\,}}$.

Bias, innateness and domain specificity

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 927-930
Author(s):  
SIMON KIRBY
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Domain Specificity ◽  
Further Development ◽  
The Way

For over 35 years, beliefs about the learnability of natural language have acted as roadblocks in the way of further development in linguistics. Rigorous and useful formal work has led to the unwarranted adoption of extreme positions which in turn have tended to stifle collaboration and polarize debate. In his article, MacWhinney suggests a way around such roadblocks – or rather many ways around. He demonstrates that we should look for multiple mechanisms to help understand how it is that children learn language from the evidence to which they are exposed.

scholarly journals Specificity distinction

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 85-101
Author(s):  
Donka F. Farkas
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Semantic Type ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Rich Variety ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Way

This paper is concerned with semantic noun phrase typology, focusing on the question of how to draw fine-grained distinctions necessary for an accurate account of natural language phenomena. In the extensive literature on this topic, the most commonly encountered parameters of classification concern the semantic type of the denotation of the noun phrase, the familiarity or novelty of its referent, the quantificational/nonquantificational distinction (connected to the weak/strong dichotomy), as well as, more recently, the question of whether the noun phrase is choice-functional or not (see Reinhart 1997, Winter 1997, Kratzer 1998, Matthewson 1999). In the discussion that follows I will attempt to make the following general points: (i) phenomena involving the behavior of noun phrases both within and across languages point to the need of establishing further distinctions that are too fine-grained to be caught in the net of these typologies; (ii) some of the relevant distinctions can be captured in terms of conditions on assignment functions; (iii) distribution and scopal peculiarities of noun phrases may result from constraints they impose on the way variables they introduce are to be assigned values. Section 2 reviews the typology of definite noun phrases introduced in Farkas 2000 and the way it provides support for the general points above. Section 3 examines some of the problems raised by recognizing the rich variety of 'indefinite' noun phrases found in natural language and by attempting to capture their distribution and interpretation. Common to the typologies discussed in the two sections is the issue of marking different types of variation in the interpretation of a noun phrase. In the light of this discussion, specificity turns out to be an epiphenomenon connected to a family of distinctions that are marked differently in different languages.  

scholarly journals APPLICABILITY OF THE THESAURUS APPROACH TO MODELLING THE LEXICALSEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF A TERMINOLOGICAL FIELD

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (78) ◽  
pp. 13-16
Author(s):  
A.P. Zhuravlev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Automatic Processing ◽  
Semantic Relations ◽  
Semantic Model ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Text Information ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
Current Stage ◽  
The Way

This article is the first part of the research focused on the applicability of the thesaurus approach as one of the instruments for building a lexical-semantic model of terminological fields belonging to various subject areas. Among other issues the article points out that the way of researching linguistic facts has changed from their analysis and description to modelling. After reviewing a number of scientific works by various linguists, the author proves the applicability of the thesaurus approach to a corpus of scientific lexis for its proper description, particularly for revealing the most characteristic types of semantic relations for every given terminological field. The applicability of the thesaurus approach is also proved in terms of the current stage of IT development. From this prospective, the potential of the thesaurus approach is determined in terms of analysis and structuring large amounts of text information for further automatic processing. With all this being said, the author, however, draws the conclusion that the complete formalization of a natural language lexis is essentially impossible.

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