Sequential Construction of Logical Forms

In this paper we give a formal description of the parsing model that underlies the treatment of Long Distance Dependencies, Topic and Focus, Ellipsis and Quantification in, amongst others, the papers [1996],[1997], [1999a],[1998],[1999b]. In this model, a natural language string consists of a sequence of `instructions packages' to construct some term in a formal representation language, the logical form of the string in question. Parsing, then, is the process of executing these packages in a left to right order. Contents 1 Terms as Decorated Trees 2 2 Goal-Directedness 7 3 Actions 10 4 The Parsing Process 12 5 Conclusion 14 1 

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: LACL
• Authors: Wilfried Meyer-Viol
• Keywords: Automated Reasoning, LACL 1998, Long Distance Dependencies, Natural Language String, Parsing Model