EVENT
GO
THING
PATH
BILL
TO
PLACE
IN
THING
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HOUSE
E.g. The car is in the garage.
[State BELoc([Thing CAR], [Place IN ([Thing GARAGE])])]
STATE BE THING loc PLACE
Event
Event
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Semantic Combination(Nouns)
Combination functions:
Including functions plural (PL) composed of (COMP) containing (CONT)
Extracting functions elelment of (ELT) partitive (PART) universal grinder (GR)
The pool emptied.
[EventINCH (State BEIdent([Thing POOL], [Place AT([Property EMPTY])])])]
John emptied the pool.
[Event CAUSE([Thing JOHN],[EventINCH [(State BEIdent([Thing POOL], [Place AT([Property EMPTY])])])])]
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Universal grinder (GR)
GR is used for instances where what are usually count nouns are used to describe substances.
There was dog all over the road. Impala tastes just like mutton.
Components and Conflation Patterns
Jackendoff's Conceptual Structure Pustejovsky's Generative
Lexicon
Problems with Components of Meaning
2
Jackendoff's Conceptual Structure
CAR Spatial location
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IN
THING GARAGE
E.g. The pool is empty.
[State BEIdent ([Thing POOL], [Place AT ([Property EMPTY])])]
Property ascription
The theatre is full.
-b, +i house comp Mat
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-b, -i wood Mat
containing (CONT)
chicken (-b, -i) curry (-b, -i) chicken curry(-b, -i)
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Elelment of (ELT)
a grain of rice
3
CAUSE:
George killed the dragon.
The dragon died.
X killed Y entails Y died
X lifted Y X gave Z to Y
entails entails
Y rose Y received Z
X persuaded Y that P entails
leg of the table table leg
top of the mountain
mountain top
The phrase identifies a bounded part (the first nouns) of a larger bounded entity (the second NP).
Y came to believe that P
X cause E to occur
entails
E occur
Semantic Categories:
Event, State, Material
Thing (or Object), Path, Place and
Property
E.g.
Bill went into the house.
a stick of spaghetti
The first noun picks out an individual from the aggregate described by the second noun, creating overall a count noun.
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Partitive (PART)
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Plural (PL)
brick[+b, -i] bricks[-b, +i]
-b, +i
pl Mat +b, -i brick Mat
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Composed of (COMP)
house (+b, -i) wood (-b,ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱ-i) a house of wood (+b, -i)
GR also allows us to use animal names for their meats.
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Meaning Components
____Jackendoff's Conceptual Structure
Contents:

Introduction
Lexical Relations in CA
Katz's Semantic Theory
Grammatical Rules and Semantic Components
[Material Entity]
individuals
groups
substances
aggregates
[+b, -i]
[+b, +i]
[+b, -i]
[+b, +i]
a banana, a car Count nouns
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a grovernment, a committee Collective nouns
Temporal location
This book belongs to John.
[State BEPoss ([Thing BOOK], [Place AT ([Thing John])])]
Possession
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The pool is empty.
[State BEIdent ([Thing POOL], [Place AT([Property EMPTY])])]
defined beginnings and ends
E.g
John is sleeping. John coughed.
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Semantic Combination

E.g
The beacon flashed. The beacon flashed until 5 a.m.
+b -b +b until pl beacon flashed Event , 5 a.m.
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Nouns:
[-b] mass nouns [+BOUNDED]
[+b] count nouns
[-i] mass nouns [+INTERNAL STRUCTURE] [+i] plural count nouns E.g
brick[+b, -i]
bricks[-b, +i]
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[State BEIdent ([Thing THEATRE], [Place AT ([Property FULL])])]
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The party is on Saterday.
[State BETemp ([Thing PARTY], [Place AT ([Time SATURDAY])])]
a. [S[NP Bill] [VP[V Went] [PP[P into] [NP the house]]]]]
b. [Event GO ([Thing Bill], [Path TO ([Place IN ([Thing HOUSE])])])]
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[Event GO ([Thing Bill], [Path TO ([Place IN ([Thing HOUSE])])])]
So The meaning of a sentence is a Conceptual semantics conceptual structure.
Mentalist Postulate:
Meaning in natural language is an information structure that is mentally encoded by human beings.
water, oxygen Mass nouns
bananas, cars Plural nouns
Verbs:
[-b] Verbs which describe on-going processes
that are not overtly limited in time.