The Syntax and Semantics of ERICA. Technical Report No. 185, Psychology and Education Series.

Autor/in	Smith, Robert Lawrence, Jr.
Institution	Stanford Univ., CA. Inst. for Mathematical Studies in Social Science.
Titel	The Syntax and Semantics of ERICA. Technical Report No. 185, Psychology and Education Series.
Quelle	(1972), (328 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Ambiguity; Child Language; Computational Linguistics; Context Free Grammar; Descriptive Linguistics; Language Acquisition; Language Patterns; Language Research; Lexicology; Linguistic Theory; Mathematical Linguistics; Phrase Structure; Psycholinguistics; Semantics; Structural Analysis; Syntax + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache; Linguistics; Computerlinguistik; Deskriptive Linguistik; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Sprachmodell; Sprachstruktur; Sprachforschung; Lexikologie; Linguistische Theorie; Mathematische Linguistik; Mathematische Sprache; Phrasenstruktur; Psycholinguistik; Semantik; Strukturanalyse
Abstract	This report is a detailed empirical examination of Suppes' ideas about the syntax and semantics of natural language, and an attempt at supporting the proposal that model-theoretic semantics of the type first proposed by Tarski is a useful tool for understanding the semantics of natural language. Child speech was selected as the best place to find data on natural language because it presents a view of the real problems represented by natural language, and because it allows the study of the process of language development. The main body of data consists of a series of recordings between a 32-month-old girl, Erica, and several adults. The ERIC corpus is found to be syntactically simpler and semantically more straightforward than adult speech. It is divided into utterances; its vocabulary is compared to ADULT vocabulary; a word frequency count is made; and its words are classified gramatically. A discussion follows of the standard concepts and results of the theory of generative grammars. A grammar for ERICA is devised, with special attention to lexical ambiguity. Mathematical syntax and semantics are discussed, followed by a description of ERICA semantics, with special reference to grammatical and semantic ambiguity. Conclusions include: (1) a reasonable probabilistic grammar for ERICA can be constructed; (2) the grammar GE1 is the best model for lexical disambiguation; (3) the grammar functions reasonably well semantically; (4) the notion of probability can play a key role in the construction of a semantics; and (5) simple set-theoretical functions are often successful in describing the ERICA semantics. (Author/AM)
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2004/1/01