Projecting Grammatical Features in Nominals: 23 March 2010

1. Projecting Grammatical Features in Nominals: 23 March 2010 Jerry T. Ball Senior Research Psychologist 711th HPW / RHAC Air Force Research Laboratory DISTRIBUTION A. Approved for public release; distribution unlimited.

2. Broader Research (20,000 feet) • Develop Language Capable Synthetic Teammates (Ball et al., 2009 – BRIMS) • Functional (AI) • Large-scale, end-to-end • Focus on hard problems (e.g. language comprehension) • Cognitively Plausible (Cognitive Science) • Adhere to well-established cognitive constraints (e.g. incremental processing) • Validate empirically Few research programs try to do both at once!

3. This Research (down in the trenches) • Put on your grammar hat! • As they say in the south: • All y’all know this…even if you don’t know you know it! • Grammatical features extremely useful for language comprehension

4. Representational Commitments • Localist theory of the encoding and projection of grammatical features in nominals • No access to non-local features • At level of nominal (NP), projected features are collected into a set without duplicates • Redundantly encoded features may occasionally conflict – without the expression being ungrammatical • Grammatical features may be unspecified – without the expression being ungrammatical NP local non-local

5. Grammatical Features of Nominals (Noun Phrases) in English • Definiteness – e.g. definite, indefinite • Number – e.g. singular, plural • Animacy – e.g. animate, inanimate • Gender – e.g. male, female • Case • Genitive (Possessive) • Subjective, Objective • Person – e.g. first. second, third • Distance – e.g. near, far

6. Grammatical Features (in English) • Definiteness – lexically encoded by determiners, quantifiers & nouns • All (universal) books (indefinite) – conflict resolution: projection of indefinite blocked • The (definite) books (indefinite) – conflict resolution: projection of indefinite blocked • The (definite) / a (indefinite) / no (negative – zero) book (unmarked) • Some (indefinite) books (indefinite) – redundant • Books (indefinite) are fun to read • *Book (unmarked) is fun to read – lacks marking

7. Grammatical Features (in English) • Number – lexically encoded by determiners, quantifiers & nouns. Add “s” to singular noun for plural inflection • The (unmarked) book (singular) / books (plural) • A (singular) book (singular) – redundant • A (singular) few (plural) books (plural) – conflict resolution: plural overrides singular • A lot (singular) of beans (plural) is/are… – conflict resolution: plural overrides singular (for me) • The (unmarked) data (mass – sing) is/are… – conflict unresolved: latin form is plural, but mass use is singular  confusion!

8. Grammatical Features (in English) • Animacy – lexically encoded by nouns • The rock (inanimate) • The dog (animate) • The woman (human – animate) • That (inanimate) man (human – animate) – conflict resolution: human – animate overrides inanimate • Compare to – I like that (inanimate)

9. Grammatical Features (in English) • Gender – lexically encoded by nouns. Inflectional marking on some borrowed words • The man (male), the waiter (male) • The woman (female), the waitress (female) • The child (unmarked) • The rock (unmarked) • HMS Beagle (female) (i.e. the ship) No neuter gender in English. Only human – animate nouns have gender (with a few exceptions)!

10. Why We Need Grammatical Features • Definiteness: • Give me the ball (definite) • Give me a ball (indefinite) • Number • The men (plural) kick the ball (sing). They (plural)… • Animacy • The man (human) kicks the ball (inanimate). It (inanimate)… • Gender • The man (male) likes the woman (female). She (female)… or

11. Why We Need Grammatical Features • Genitive – possessive pronouns and nominals • Provides reference point for identifying referent • It’s mine – mine refers to an implied object not explicitly named • John’s book No features specified! ? me Reference point Two objects referred to! Inanimate Singular John Reference point

12. Computational Implementation Incremental processing! object referring expression ~ nominal the… man projects “the” – determiner head predicted definite bind index the projects obj-refer-expr and functions as specifier the projects definite to obj-refer-expr

13. Computational Implementation Incremental processing! theman… singular human male man integrated as head man projects singular, human and male to obj-refer-expr

14. Computational Implementation his… book Only local feature is definite Two referring expressions projected! distinct bind indexes genitive his projects poss-obj-spec and higher level obj-refer-expr his projects definite, singular, human, male, third & genitive to reference point (poss-obj-spec) his projects definite to higher level obj-refer-expr features of reference point are non-local

15. Computational Implementation his book… singular inanimate book integrated as head of higher level obj-refer-expr book projects singular and inanimate to higher level obj-refer-expr

16. Computational Implementation Compare – I like his I like her her… books Only one referring expression projected! objective her projects obj-refer-expr (not poss-obj-spec) her projects definite, singular, human, female, third & objective (not genitive) to obj-refer-expr

17. Computational Implementation her books… Second referring expression is projected! plural inanimate books integrated as head of higher level obj-refer-expr books projects plural and inanimate to higher level obj-refer-expr

18. Computational Implementation Head of higher level object referring expression is implied Number of higher level referring expression is unspecified! hers… hers is nice hers are nice implied definite Hers projects definite, singular, human, female, third & genitive to reference point Hers projects definite to higher level obj-refer-expr

19. Conclusions • Grammatical features may be redundantly encoded and may conflict without the nominal being ungrammatical • aindef+sing fewindef+plur booksindef+plur • thedef booksindef+plur • Conflicts handled by blocking and overriding

20. Conclusions • Grammatical features may be unspecified without the nominal being ungrammatical • yoursdef issing-agree nice • yoursdef areplur-agree nice Actual referent determines number agreement! you you

21. Conclusions • Non-local features are not accessible Referent of higher level obj-refer-expr is definite, singular and inanimate his book definite inanimate singular male human Not accessible to higher level obj-refer-expr!

22. Questions?

23. Theoretical Alignment • Cognitive Linguistics • No autonomous syntax • Grammatical categories are semantically motivated • Construction Grammar • Constructions at multiple levels of idiomaticity • No sharp distinction between lexicon and syntax • X-Bar Theory • Prior to introduction of functional heads • Simpler Syntax • Flat syntax trees

24. Grammatical Features (in English) • Person – Lexically encoded by personal pronouns • First, Second, Third • I (first), we (first) • You (second) • He (third), she (third), it (third) First Second me you them Third

25. Grammatical Features (in English) • Case – Lexically and inflectionally encoded on pronouns. Add ’s to nominal for genitive. • Subjective, Objective, Genitive • I (subjective), me (objective), my (genitive), mine (genitive) • We (subjective), us (objective), our (genitive), ours (genitive) • He (subjective), him (objective), his (genitive) • My (genitive) book, mine (genitive) – two genitive pronoun forms • The man’s (genitive) book Genitive ~ Possessive

26. Why We Need Grammatical Features • Person (limited to pronouns) • Usually redundant with word order in English • Helps identify subject via subject-verb agreement • I (1st) am (1st) giving you (2nd) it (3rd) • Subjective & Objective Case (limited to pronouns) • Usually redundant with word order in English • Helps identify subject and object • We (subj) like her (obj) • Her (obj), we (subj) like