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Syntactic indeterminacy and semantic ambiguity

A case study for German spatial phrases
  • Michael Spranger and Martin Loetzsch
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Design Patterns in Fluid Construction Grammar
This chapter is in the book Design Patterns in Fluid Construction Grammar

Abstract

This chapter presents an operational grammar for German spatial language, in particular German locative phrases, as a case study for processing distributed information. It investigates the complex interplay of syntactic phenomena and spatial semantics, with a specific emphasis on efficient processing of syntactic indeterminacy and semantic ambiguity. Since FCG applies constructions in a sequence one after the other, the main challenge lies in mutual dependencies between constructions, that is, some constructions require pieces of information in order to make decisions that are only later on provided by other constructions. We present solutions and design patterns for dealing with these processing issues, which all have in common the strategy of postponing decisions as long as possible in processing until all the necessary information for making the decision is available.

Abstract

This chapter presents an operational grammar for German spatial language, in particular German locative phrases, as a case study for processing distributed information. It investigates the complex interplay of syntactic phenomena and spatial semantics, with a specific emphasis on efficient processing of syntactic indeterminacy and semantic ambiguity. Since FCG applies constructions in a sequence one after the other, the main challenge lies in mutual dependencies between constructions, that is, some constructions require pieces of information in order to make decisions that are only later on provided by other constructions. We present solutions and design patterns for dealing with these processing issues, which all have in common the strategy of postponing decisions as long as possible in processing until all the necessary information for making the decision is available.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Part I. Introduction
  5. Introducing Fluid Construction Grammar 3
  6. A first encounter with Fluid Construction Grammar 31
  7. Part II. Grammatical structures
  8. A design pattern for phrasal constructions 71
  9. A design pattern for argument structure constructions 115
  10. Part III. Managing processing
  11. Search in linguistic processing 149
  12. Organizing constructions in networks 181
  13. Part IV. Case studies
  14. Feature matrices and agreement 205
  15. Construction sets and unmarked forms 237
  16. Syntactic indeterminacy and semantic ambiguity 265
  17. Part V. Fluidity and robustness
  18. How to make construction grammars fluid and robust 301
  19. Index 331
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.11.14spr

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. Part I. Introduction
  5. Introducing Fluid Construction Grammar 3
  6. A first encounter with Fluid Construction Grammar 31
  7. Part II. Grammatical structures
  8. A design pattern for phrasal constructions 71
  9. A design pattern for argument structure constructions 115
  10. Part III. Managing processing
  11. Search in linguistic processing 149
  12. Organizing constructions in networks 181
  13. Part IV. Case studies
  14. Feature matrices and agreement 205
  15. Construction sets and unmarked forms 237
  16. Syntactic indeterminacy and semantic ambiguity 265
  17. Part V. Fluidity and robustness
  18. How to make construction grammars fluid and robust 301
  19. Index 331
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