Introduction to Embodied Construction Grammar

1. Introduction to Embodied Construction Grammar March 4, 2003 Ben Bergen bergen@hawaii.edu

2. Goals of the talk • Outline ECG view of language understanding • Sketch ECG formalism in some detail • Schemas (semantic knowledge) • Lexical constructions • Phrasal constructions

3. Basics of ECG • The basic units of linguistic knowledge are form-meaning pairings, constructions • These may include words, morphemes, idioms, phrasal patterns, etc. - anything that has form and meaning. • Consider the ditransitive construction, which has a transfer-of-possession meaning • Looking to get an assist, John broomed me the ball. • With a healthy achoo, I sneezed the napkin off the table.

4. Basics of ECG • Why bring semantics into grammar? • Whether a sentence is acceptable depends on the semantic interaction between a sentence pattern (phrasal construction), a verb, and arguments. • John broomed me the ball. • ?John broomed me the Volkswagen. (acceptable if John and I are dinosaurs) • ?I sent London the newest edition. (acceptable if London stands for a person or group of people in London capable of receiving things.) • ??John ate me the ball. (presumably, it’s acceptable some time, but when?) • ?John sneezed me the ball.

5. Basics of ECG • Constructions are learned associatively • Constructions, like the pairing between /dag/ and the category DOG, or between the ditransitive phrasal pattern and the concept of a transfer of possession event must be learned because they are idiosyncratic. • The basic mechanism in the brain for learning strengthens connections between neural structures that fire together.

6. Basics of ECG • Meaning is encoded in ECG using schemas • Schemas: mental representations of a recurrent perceptual, motor, or other experience. • Most theories of the mind include schemas, aka schemes, frames, scripts, gestalts, ICMs, … • Schemas have two facets. • They are encyclopedic, capturing the motor, perceptual, etc. details of the particular experience • Some important components of these schemas are externally accessible, and serve as an interface

7. Basics of ECG • Container schema • We have lots of experiences of containers, and detailed knowledge about these • But there are certain fundamental components of the container schema that are crucial

8. Schemas • Source-Path-Goal schema encodes motion of a trajector along a path

9. Basics of ECG • Other schemas include • Contact • Transfer • Commercial transaction • Child • Bob • Jump • … and thousands more • We’ll see some more example in a moment

10. Language Understanding Process

11. Language Understanding Process • An utterance is perceived • This activates the form pole of some constructions • The analysis process assembles the constructions, binding together their forms and their meanings • The product is a constructional analysis • This yields a semspec, parameterized schemas linked together in specified ways • The understander simulates (imagines) the content by fleshing out the semspec • Resulting inferences are propagated through the conceptual system.

12. Grammar • That’s an outline of language understanding using ECG • Now: actual representation of constructions and schemas themselves • We’ll work through an example sentence • Mary tossed me a drink. • One possible constructional analysis of this sentence (where we’re going):

13. Constructional analysis

14. Referring Expressions • The sentence has three referents in it • All referring expressions share a Referent schema

15. Referring Expressions • The Referring-Expression construction, or Ref-Expr is inherited by all constructions that perform the pervasive function of referring

16. Referring Expressions • The Mary construction inherits Ref-Expr • Its form pole is specified • Its meaning pole is bound to the Mary schema • Its referent has an accessibility status

17. Referring Expressions • Me inherits Ref-Expr • Constructional feature case has the value object • Form pole is “me” • Its meaning pole is bound to speaker

18. Referring Expressions • Drink inherits Common-Noun, a type of Ref-Expr • Form is “drink” • Meaning pole is bound to Drink schema

19. Referring Expressions • A-CN-Expr inherits Ref-Expr • Takes a constituent • Has form and an ordering constraint • Category bound to meaning of com-noun

20. Referring Expressions • Drink schema evokes (refers to) Drink-Action schema • Inherits Bounded-Mass • Is the drink-entity of the Drink-Action • Has a Boundary an instance of Container schema • Has a Mass, an instance of Liquid schema

21. Referring Expressions • Bounded Mass schema inherits Bounded-Thing • Has two roles, which are constrained to be an instance of the Boundary and the Substance schema, respectively

22. Referring Expressions

23. Predicating Expressions • Predication: another major function of language • Constructions that predicate have a Predication schema • Overall event • Particular schemas • Aspect • Place, time, etc.

24. Predicating Expressions • Predicating expressions are all those that predicate something of a referring expression, e.g. the ditransitive construction • All inherit the Pred-Expr construction

25. Predicating Expressions • Tossed, a verb, evokes the predication schema, although it is not a Pred-Expr • Verbs must have its schemas role filled

26. Predicating Expressions • The tossed construction (assumed stored) • Predication’s schemas role is a Toss schema • Aspect is perfect; tense is past

27. The Semantics of Tossed • Toss schema involves a transfer of energy from an energy-source to an energy-sink • Transfer of force results in location change

28. The Semantics of Tossed • Tossed is like other verbs that encode forced motion. • Combine force transfer, SPG, and Cause-effect

29. The Semantics of Tossed • The toss Schema evokes Forced-Motion • Has tosser (causer) & tossed (trajector & Bounded-Thing) • Its meaning is bound to the action of the fm • Involves low force and means of motion is the Fly schema

30. The Ditransitive Construction • The Ditransitive Encodes something different from Toss - a Transfer • Transfers: cause-effect relationship between transfer of force and receiving schema

31. The Ditransitive Construction • Ditransitive Construction inherits Pred-Expr • Has 4 constituents and assigns case features to 3 • Ordering constraints • Bindings in the semantics

32. Constructional analysis

33. Semantic Specification

34. The Bigger Picture • We haven’t talked about: • Morphology • Learning • The analysis process • Simulation • Construal (metaphor, metonymy, etc.) • Neuroscientific and psychological evidence • The connectionist implementation of ECG • … and many others

35. The Bigger Picture • All sorts of constructions, lexical, phrasal, etc. can be represented in a unified formalism • This includes form, meanings, constructional attributes, and discourse factors • It is not only a model of human cognitive functioning, but is also being used for natural language understanding applications

36. The Bigger Picture • If you have a formal theory of human semantic representations, these can help drive syntactic behavior • Mary can fill the agent constituency because it is a Ref-Expr that occurs before the verb (with unspecified case) and whose referent can be a transfer agent • Tossed can fill the action constituency because it is a verb in the right sequential position whose schema can be interpreted as a means of transfer • Incorporating semantics into grammar is inevitable if we want to capture syntactic patterning, so we might as well do it in the most cognitively motivated way possible.