We describe a formal framework for interpretation of words and compounds in a discourse context which integrates a symbolic lexicon/grammar, word-sense probabilities, and a pragmatic component. The approach is motivated by the need to handle productive word use. In this paper, we concentrate on compound nominals. We discuss the inadequacies of approaches which consider compound interpretation as either wholly lexico-grammatical or wholly pragmatic, and provide an alternative integrated account.
Ann A. Copestake, Alex Lascarides