Journal

Volume 16, Issue 4 (December 31, 2015)

6 articles

• Words in Books, Computers and the Human Mind (Introduction for Vol. 16-4)
  by Michael Zock
  J. CS. 2015, 16(4), 355-378;
  Abstract (No Abtract)1st paragraph:People love to communicate. They like not only to inform others about their dreams, interests and goals, but also to learn from them about their feelings and thoughts. We all like to tell stories and to listen to other peoples’ jokes. Obviously, none of this is possible it ... [Read more].
  Abstract (No Abtract)1st paragraph:People love to communicate. They like not only to inform others about their dreams, interests and goals, but also to learn from them about their feelings and thoughts. We all like to tell stories and to listen to other peoples’ jokes. Obviously, none of this is possible it we could not rely on a shared stock of words (lexicon) and an agreed method (set of rules, grammar) for combining them. Hence, words are important, but so are grammar and rules for creating and shaping words (morphology). Words are to language what bricks are to houses. They are neither the house, nor the method for building it, they are only the building blocks. Still, to build our castle we need both, the bricks and the method. [Collapse]
• Semagrams, Another Way to Capture Lexical Meaning in Dictionaries
  by Carole Tiberius & Tanneke Schoonheim
  J. CS. 2015, 16(4), 379-400;
  Abstract The Dutch dictionary Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek (ANW) offers a twofold meaning description: definitions are accompanied by a semagram, a frame-based representation of knowledge typically associated with a word. We describe in this paper the role of semagrams in the context of the ANW dictionary... [Read more].
  Abstract The Dutch dictionary Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek (ANW) offers a twofold meaning description: definitions are accompanied by a semagram, a frame-based representation of knowledge typically associated with a word. We describe in this paper the role of semagrams in the context of the ANW dictionary project and we provide some guidelines for the future. [Collapse]
• You Are What you Do. An Empirical Characterization of the Semantic Content of the Thematic Roles for a Group of Italian Verbs
  by Gianluca E. Lebani, Alessandro Bondiell, & Alessandro Lenci
  J. CS. 2015, 16(4), 401-430;
  Abstract The nature of thematic roles is a central, yet controversial, issue both for models of linguistic competence as well as for models of sentence processing. McRae et al (1997b) proposed to treat thematic roles as verb-specific prototypes that can be empirically described by resorting to a modified ver... [Read more].
  Abstract The nature of thematic roles is a central, yet controversial, issue both for models of linguistic competence as well as for models of sentence processing. McRae et al (1997b) proposed to treat thematic roles as verb-specific prototypes that can be empirically described by resorting to a modified version of the traditional feature norm paradigm. In this paper, we present the results of two norming experiments in which we extended this approach to incorporate the distinction between filler-inherent and verb-entailed features, the latter being further characterized on the basis of their association with one or more phases of the time course of the event. In the first experiment, we asked to a group of speakers to list the prototypical characteristics of the fillers of two semantic roles, agent and patient, for a set of 20 Italian transitive verbs. We then manually annotated the collected features according to our classification of feature types. In the second experiment, we encouraged participants to list as many properties as possible to describe the verb roles with respect to three different time slots: before, during and after the event described by the verb takes place. The collected data supports the claim in McRae et al (1997b) that thematic roles can be also treated as verb-specific concepts. The first experiment reveals differences between the agent and the patient roles, which instead disappears in the second experiment. The methodological novelty introduced in the latter is also able to highlight the interaction between the speakers’ knowledge of verb roles and the temporal phases of the events. [Collapse]
• Automatic Creation of a Semantic Network Encoding part_of Relations
  by Michael Zock & Debela Tesfaye
  J. CS. 2015, 16(4), 431-491;
  Abstract We describe here the principles underlying the automatic creation of a semantic map to support navigation in a lexicon. Whenever we read a book, write a letter, or launch a query on Google, we always use words, the short- hand labels for more or less well-specified thoughts. The problem is that word... [Read more].
  Abstract We describe here the principles underlying the automatic creation of a semantic map to support navigation in a lexicon. Whenever we read a book, write a letter, or launch a query on Google, we always use words, the short- hand labels for more or less well-specified thoughts. The problem is that words may refuse to come to our mind when we need them most, at the very moment of speaking or writing. This is when we tend to reach for a dictionary. Yet, even dictionaries may fail to reveal the target word, although they contain them. This is not only a problem of input (poor query word), but also a problem of design : the way how words are organized and the kind of information associated to each one of them. We will consider in this paper one of the most original hand-crafted resources, WordNet, discussing its relative strengths and weaknesses with respect to word access. We will then describe an attempt to build automatically a subset of this resource, to conclude with the presentation of an approach meant to help authors (speakers/writers) to overcome the tip-of-the-tongue-problem (TOT) even in cases where other resources, including Wordnet or Roget’s Thesaurus, would fail. [Collapse]
• A Neuro-Computational Approach to Understanding the Mental Lexicon
  by Claudia Marzi & Vito Pirrelli
  J. CS. 2015, 16(4), 493-534;
  Abstract Human lexical knowledge does not appear to be organised to minimise storage, but rather to maximise processing efficiency. The way lexical information is stored reflects the way it is dynamically processed, accessed and retrieved. A detailed analysis of the way words are memorised, of the dynamic in... [Read more].
  Abstract Human lexical knowledge does not appear to be organised to minimise storage, but rather to maximise processing efficiency. The way lexical information is stored reflects the way it is dynamically processed, accessed and retrieved. A detailed analysis of the way words are memorised, of the dynamic interaction between lexical representations and distribution and degrees of regularity in input data, can shed some light on the emergence of structures and relations within fully-stored words. We believe that a bottom-up investigation of low-level memory and processing functions can help understand the cognitive mechanisms that govern word processing in the mental lexicon. Neuro-computational models can play an important role in this inquiry, as they help understand the dynamic nature of lexical representations by establishing an explanatory connection between lexical structures and processing models dictated by the micro-functions of human brain. Starting from some linguistic, psycholinguistic and neuro-physiological evidence supporting a dynamic view of the mental lexicon as an integrative system, we illustrate Temporal Self Organising-Maps (TSOMs), artificial neural networks that can model such a view by memorising time series of symbolic units (words) as routinized patterns of short-term node activation. On the basis of a simple pool of principles of adaptive Hebbian synchronisation, TSOMs can perceive possible surface relations between word forms and store them by partially overlapping activation patterns, reflecting gradient levels of lexical specificity, from holistic to decompositional lexical representations. We believe that TSOMs offer an algorithmic model of the emergence of high-level, global and language-specific morphological structure through the working of low-level, language-aspecific processing functions, thus promising to bridge the persisting gap between high-level principles of grammar architecture (lexicon vs. rules), computational correlates (storage vs. processing) and low-level principles and localisations of brain functions. Extensions of the current TSOM architecture are envisaged and their theoretical implications are discussed. [Collapse]
• A Mental Spaces Analysis of the Answering Machine Paradox: The Agent of the Context of Utterance Revisited
  by Yoko Mizuta
  J. CS. 2015, 16(4), 535-564;
  Abstract Kaplan (1989a) claims that sentence P (I am here now) is logically true . i.e. true in every context of utterance. Its negation ~P (I am not here now) would then be logically false. Vision (1985), however, argued that ~P uttered in a voice message apparently stands for a true proposition. In the lit... [Read more].
  Abstract Kaplan (1989a) claims that sentence P (I am here now) is logically true . i.e. true in every context of utterance. Its negation ~P (I am not here now) would then be logically false. Vision (1985), however, argued that ~P uttered in a voice message apparently stands for a true proposition. In the literature, this puzzle is called the Answering Machine Paradox (AMP) and has received the continuous attention of philosophers. Some scholars identify the reference of ‘I’ in the recording context. Others argue that the reference of ‘I’ is determined by elements such as the speaker’s intention, the linguistically competent and attentive audience, and the convention in which an answering machine is used. In any case, previous works hold, just like Kaplan, that the agent of ~P (and P) should be an individual and therefore that there is no agent in the playback context. In this position, the case of AMP would then be dismissed as an ‘improper utterance’, which goes beyond the scope of Kaplan’s theory. This paper provides a novel analysis of this philosophical issue from a cognitive scientific perspective, using the mental spaces framework. AMP is explained in two steps. The key proposal made in the first step is to introduce the agent of the utterance with one’s logical identity but without his/her physical identity (Agent_log). This notion of Agent_log is given a theoretical basis in terms of a cognitive blend of mental spaces. In the second step, the voice message involves a pragmatic mapping from the Agent_log to a relevant individual, who is the ultimate reference of ‘I’. The apparent puzzle in question is attributed to Kaplan’s empirical assumption that the agent should be an individual, as in a face-to-face communication. With the introduction of the notion of Agent_log, a wider range of messages can be accommodated as proper utterances and Kaplan’s theory of indexicals is essentially defended. [Collapse]