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The sixth volume of this series contains eight contrastive studies in the syntax and semantics of English and Romanian. They are: "Criteria for the Contrastive Analysis of English Nouns," by Andrei Bantas; "Adjectives as Noun Modifiers in Post-Verbal Position," by Ioana Poenaru; "Towards a Semantic Description of 'Tense' and 'Aspect' in English and Romanian," by Alexandra Petrovanu-Cornilescu; "Main Future Expressions in English and Romanian," by Elena Bira; "The Prepositional and Adverbial Particle in Post Verbal Position in English and Implications for the Study of English by the Romanian Student," by Nora Tomosoiu; "A Pedagogical Grammar of Modal Sentences with May/Might and Can/Could and Their Nearest Romanian Equivalents," by Elena Bira; "A Contrastive Analysis of Negation in Romanian and English," by Marie-Anne Lupas and Alexandra Roceric; and "Some Remarks on the Semantic Field of Terms for Physical Pain in English and Romanian," by Florica Bancila. (CLK)

The overall objective of the natural-language understanding work is to demonstrate capabilities for 'understanding' information contained in free narrative. This understanding can be demonstrated in several ways: simulation of events described in the narrative (as done by the current Proteus system); summarization of events described in the narrative (also done by the current Proteus system); or creation of database or knowledge base. Such an understanding depends on the application of many sources of information, including syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic information, as well as detailed information about the specific domain in question. This report focused on several critical research issues in building Proteus: Portability, Modularity, Integration of multiple sources of information, Robustness, and a development environment for the construction of a large-scale natural language processing system.

The Semantics of Questions and the Questions of Semantics: Case Studies in the Interrelations of Logic, Semantics, and Syntax. by Jaakko Hintikka Review by: David Harrah

The Semantics of Questions and the Questions of Semantics: Case Studies in the Interrelations of Logic, Semantics, and Syntax. by Jaakko Hintikka Review by: David Harrah

The Semantics of Questions and the Questions of Semantics: Case Studies in the Interrelations of Logic, Semantics, and Syntax. by Jaakko Hintikka Review by: David Harrah

The Semantics of Questions and the Questions of Semantics: Case Studies in the Interrelations of Logic, Semantics, and Syntax. by Jaakko Hintikka Review by: David Harrah

We provide the syntax and semantics of the cat language, a domain specific language to describe consistency properties of parallel/distributed programs. The language is implemented in the herd7 too (http://diy.inria.fr/doc/herd.html)l.

We provide the syntax and semantics of the cat language, a domain specific language to describe consistency properties of parallel/distributed programs. The language is implemented in the herd7 too (http://diy.inria.fr/doc/herd.html)l.

We provide the syntax and semantics of the cat language, a domain specific language to describe consistency properties of parallel/distributed programs. The language is implemented in the herd7 too (http://diy.inria.fr/doc/herd.html)l.

We provide the syntax and semantics of the cat language, a domain specific language to describe consistency properties of parallel/distributed programs. The language is implemented in the herd7 too (http://diy.inria.fr/doc/herd.html)l.

We provide the syntax and semantics of the cat language, a domain specific language to describe consistency properties of parallel/distributed programs. The language is implemented in the herd7 too (http://diy.inria.fr/doc/herd.html)l.

We provide the syntax and semantics of the cat language, a domain specific language to describe consistency properties of parallel/distributed programs. The language is implemented in the herd7 too (http://diy.inria.fr/doc/herd.html)l.

Teaching should reflect the facts of current language usage. This descriptive approach, when applied to reading, means that the child's reading education should focus on the realities of daily life. Syntactic analysis in reading has been handicapped by an overemphasis on lexical content at the expense of other syntactic structures. Thus, the student analyzes language in single words. If a broadened concept of syntactic analysis is to become a valid part of the reading program, it must follow the descriptive principle. Classical studies prepare students for the reading of classics but not for reading "Time" magazine or the daily newspapers. The following syntactic and semantic problems are involved in the intelligent reading of a newspaper: (1) headlines and their accuracy in relation to the story, (2) concentration of information in the lead paragraphs, and (3) frequent use of direct and indirect quotations. The reader should be aware of the verbal jugglings of the content possible within these three areas. Another untapped source of dynamic prose material is the spoken word of radio and television. Prose analysis will probably never be popular among students; however, if the material is pertinent, their interest will be greater. (WL)

In an effort to document demographic changes in the academic linguistics community, the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) has commissioned an annual report detailing information about job titles, students, degrees awarded, average salaries, and more. The report offers information about trends in student enrollment and employment by industry. Data for the report was compiled primarily from self-reported information to the LSA's online Directory of Linguistics Programs and Departments. It also includes information based on U.S. federal surveys of PhD linguists and institutions, along with data gleaned from the LSA membership database. Trends in linguistics for this year include: (1) The most common career outcome for linguistics PhDs is a position in higher education; (2) Within higher education, departments report that most members of their faculty are full professors, but the non-professorial category is growing, particularly for women in other full-time and part-time positions; (3) The field of linguistics is growing most rapidly for undergraduates, with an increase of approximately 120 more students awarded BA degrees annually for the past 13 years; (4) Most linguistics undergraduate degrees are awarded to women. Although women represent just over half of graduate students in linguistics, a number which has been increasing over the last 50 years, women comprise almost 65 percent of the undergraduate population; and (5) The top five specializations for graduate students in linguistics are: Syntax, Applied Linguistics, Phonology, Semantics, and Historical Linguistics. [This second edition is based on the original report prepared by Lauren Friedman and Alyson Reed. The data found in this edition were compiled with assistance from Dan Foley, Robert Townsend, and Michal Temkin Martinez. For the 2013 report, see ED607296.]

In an effort to document demographic changes in the academic linguistics community, the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) has commissioned an annual report detailing information about job titles, students, degrees awarded, average salaries, and more. The report offers information about trends in student enrollment and employment by industry. Data for the report was compiled primarily from self-reported information to the LSA's online Directory of Linguistics Programs and Departments. It also includes information based on U.S. federal surveys of PhD linguists and institutions, along with data gleaned from the LSA membership database. An overview of trends in linguistics for this year include: (1) The most common career outcome for linguistics PhDs is a position in higher education; (2) Within higher education, departments report that most members of their faculty are full professors, but the non-professorial category is growing, particularly for women in other full-time and part-time positions; (3) The field of linguistics is growing most rapidly for undergraduates, with an increase of approximately 120 more students awarded BA degrees annually for the past 13 years; (4) Most linguistics undergraduate degrees are awarded to women. Although women represent just over half of graduate students in linguistics, a number which has been increasing over the last 50 years, women comprise over 65 percent of the undergraduate population; and (5) The top five specializations for graduate students in linguistics are: Syntax, Applied Linguistics, Phonology, Semantics, and Language Acquisition. [This edition is based on the original report prepared by Lauren Friedman and Alyson Reed. The data found in this edition were compiled with assistance from Robert Townsend and Dan Foley. For the 2014 report, see ED607300.]

In an effort to document demographic changes in the academic linguistics community, the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) has commissioned an annual report detailing information about job titles, students, degrees awarded, average salaries, and more. The report offers information about trends in student enrollment and employment by industry. Data for the report was compiled primarily from self-reported information to the LSA's online Directory of Linguistics Programs and Departments. It also includes information based on U.S. federal surveys of PhD linguists and institutions, along with data gleaned from the LSA membership database. An overview of trends in linguistics for this year include: (1) The most common career outcome for linguistics PhDs is a position in higher education; (2) Within higher education, departments report that most members of their faculty are full professors, but the non-professorial category is growing, particularly for women in other full-time and part-time positions; (3) The field of linguistics is growing most rapidly for undergraduates, with an increase of approximately 120 more students awarded BA degrees annually for the past 13 years; (4) Most linguistics undergraduate degrees are awarded to women. Although women represent just over half of graduate students in linguistics, a number which has been increasing over the last 50 years, women comprise over 65 percent of the undergraduate population; and (5) The top five specializations for graduate students in linguistics are: Syntax, Applied Linguistics, Phonology, Semantics, and Language Acquisition. [This edition is based on the original report prepared by Lauren Friedman and Alyson Reed. The data found in this edition were compiled with assistance from Robert Townsend and Dan Foley. For the 2014 report, see ED607300.]

African languages cover more than one fourth of the world’s languages, but still have been underrepresented in linguistic theories. The volume intends to fill this gap and addresses aspects of the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface of African languages from a Role & Reference Grammar perspective. Accordingly, distinctive linguistic phenomena of iziZulu, Gĩkũyũ, Igbo, Babungo, Emai and other African languages are discussed in the contributions.

African languages cover more than one fourth of the world’s languages, but still have been underrepresented in linguistic theories. The volume intends to fill this gap and addresses aspects of the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface of African languages from a Role & Reference Grammar perspective. Accordingly, distinctive linguistic phenomena of iziZulu, Gĩkũyũ, Igbo, Babungo, Emai and other African languages are discussed in the contributions.

African languages cover more than one fourth of the world’s languages, but still have been underrepresented in linguistic theories. The volume intends to fill this gap and addresses aspects of the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface of African languages from a Role & Reference Grammar perspective. Accordingly, distinctive linguistic phenomena of iziZulu, Gĩkũyũ, Igbo, Babungo, Emai and other African languages are discussed in the contributions.

African languages cover more than one fourth of the world’s languages, but still have been underrepresented in linguistic theories. The volume intends to fill this gap and addresses aspects of the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface of African languages from a Role & Reference Grammar perspective. Accordingly, distinctive linguistic phenomena of iziZulu, Gĩkũyũ, Igbo, Babungo, Emai and other African languages are discussed in the contributions.

Contents: Grammar; Semantics.

The Hearsay II speech understanding system being developed at Carnegie-Mellon University has an independent knowledge source module for each type of speech knowledge. Modules communicate by reading, writing, and modifying hypotheses about various constituents of the spoken utterance in a global data structure. The syntax and semantics module uses rules (productions) of four types: (1) recognition rules for generating a phrase hypothesis when its needed constituents have already been hypothesized; (2) prediction rules for inferring the likely presence of a word or phrase from previously recognized portions of the utterance; (3) respelling rules for hypothesizing the constituents of a predicted phrase; and (4) postdiction rules for supporting an existing hypothesis on the basis of additional confirming evidence. The rules are automatically generated from a declarative (i.e., non-procedural) description of the grammar and semantics, and are embedded in a parallel recognition network for efficient retrieval of applicable rules. The current grammar uses a 450- word vocabulary and accepts simple English queries for an information retrieval system. (Author)

The Hearsay II speech understanding system being developed at Carnegie-Mellon University has an independent knowledge source module for each type of speech knowledge. Modules communicate by reading, writing, and modifying hypotheses about various constituents of the spoken utterance in a global data structure. The syntax and semantics module uses rules (productions) of four types: (1) recognition rules for generating a phrase hypothesis when its needed constituents have already been hypothesized; (2) prediction rules for inferring the likely presence of a word or phrase from previously recognized portions of the utterance; (3) respelling rules for hypothesizing the constituents of a predicted phrase; and (4) postdiction rules for supporting an existing hypothesis on the basis of additional confirming evidence. The rules are automatically generated from a declarative (i.e., non-procedural) description of the grammar and semantics, and are embedded in a parallel recognition network for efficient retrieval of applicable rules. The current grammar uses a 450- word vocabulary and accepts simple English queries for an information retrieval system. (Author)

The goal of this article is to give an algebraic characterization of the abstract syntax of functional programming languages, equipped with reduction rules. We introduce a notion of \emph{2--signature}: such a signature specifies not only the terms of a language, but also reduction rules on those terms. To any 2--signature $S$ we associate a category of "models" of $S$, and we prove that this category has an initial object. The initial object deserves the name \emph{syntax associated to $S$}, and it is equipped with reductions as specified by $S$. Thus we obtain a characterisation of abstract syntax with reduction rules via a universal property. By construction of the category in question, its initial object is automatically equipped with a \emph{substitution} operation that is compatible with reduction in a suitable sense. Initiality yields a category--theoretic \emph{iteration operator} which allows to specify reduction--preserving maps, i.e. translations, on the syntax. The initiality theorem is formalized in the proof assistant Coq, yielding a machinery which, when fed with a 2--signature, provides the associated syntax, certified substitution and the iteration operator.

The goal of this article is to give an algebraic characterization of the abstract syntax of functional programming languages, equipped with reduction rules. We introduce a notion of \emph{2--signature}: such a signature specifies not only the terms of a language, but also reduction rules on those terms. To any 2--signature $S$ we associate a category of "models" of $S$, and we prove that this category has an initial object. The initial object deserves the name \emph{syntax associated to $S$}, and it is equipped with reductions as specified by $S$. Thus we obtain a characterisation of abstract syntax with reduction rules via a universal property. By construction of the category in question, its initial object is automatically equipped with a \emph{substitution} operation that is compatible with reduction in a suitable sense. Initiality yields a category--theoretic \emph{iteration operator} which allows to specify reduction--preserving maps, i.e. translations, on the syntax. The initiality theorem is formalized in the proof assistant Coq, yielding a machinery which, when fed with a 2--signature, provides the associated syntax, certified substitution and the iteration operator.

This paper is concerned with the role of meaning and understanding in the acquisition of computational skill in subtraction. Evidence on the syntactic nature of subtraction errors is reviewed, with common "bugs" described. Then, data collected from interviews with four children are summarized in terms of their semantics of concrete representations of the base system, procedures for adding and subtracting with concrete representations, semantics of the writing code, procedures for written subtraction and addition, and mapping. Finally, linking syntax and semantics and why mapping works are discussed. (MNS)

This paper is concerned with the role of meaning and understanding in the acquisition of computational skill in subtraction. Evidence on the syntactic nature of subtraction errors is reviewed, with common "bugs" described. Then, data collected from interviews with four children are summarized in terms of their semantics of concrete representations of the base system, procedures for adding and subtracting with concrete representations, semantics of the writing code, procedures for written subtraction and addition, and mapping. Finally, linking syntax and semantics and why mapping works are discussed. (MNS)

This paper is concerned with the role of meaning and understanding in the acquisition of computational skill in subtraction. Evidence on the syntactic nature of subtraction errors is reviewed, with common "bugs" described. Then, data collected from interviews with four children are summarized in terms of their semantics of concrete representations of the base system, procedures for adding and subtracting with concrete representations, semantics of the writing code, procedures for written subtraction and addition, and mapping. Finally, linking syntax and semantics and why mapping works are discussed. (MNS)

A merged lexicon for all domains has been created. The merged lexicon contains about 2400 distinct root words. A tool for extracting lexical items from a dictionary, given a word list, was used to obtain items from the merged lexicon for the resource management domain. Approximately 47% of the vocabulary (or 448 words) in this domain is new. However a large number of these words are proper names of ships and locations, which are relatively trivial to enter. There are about 225 other words, including about 50 verbs. Because there are so few verbs, we expect adding the lexical entries to take only a few days. Keywords: Syntax, Semantics, Natural language, Information retrieval.

A merged lexicon for all domains has been created. The merged lexicon contains about 2400 distinct root words. A tool for extracting lexical items from a dictionary, given a word list, was used to obtain items from the merged lexicon for the resource management domain. Approximately 47% of the vocabulary (or 448 words) in this domain is new. However a large number of these words are proper names of ships and locations, which are relatively trivial to enter. There are about 225 other words, including about 50 verbs. Because there are so few verbs, we expect adding the lexical entries to take only a few days. Keywords: Syntax, Semantics, Natural language, Information retrieval.

A merged lexicon for all domains has been created. The merged lexicon contains about 2400 distinct root words. A tool for extracting lexical items from a dictionary, given a word list, was used to obtain items from the merged lexicon for the resource management domain. Approximately 47% of the vocabulary (or 448 words) in this domain is new. However a large number of these words are proper names of ships and locations, which are relatively trivial to enter. There are about 225 other words, including about 50 verbs. Because there are so few verbs, we expect adding the lexical entries to take only a few days. Keywords: Syntax, Semantics, Natural language, Information retrieval.

A merged lexicon for all domains has been created. The merged lexicon contains about 2400 distinct root words. A tool for extracting lexical items from a dictionary, given a word list, was used to obtain items from the merged lexicon for the resource management domain. Approximately 47% of the vocabulary (or 448 words) in this domain is new. However a large number of these words are proper names of ships and locations, which are relatively trivial to enter. There are about 225 other words, including about 50 verbs. Because there are so few verbs, we expect adding the lexical entries to take only a few days. Keywords: Syntax, Semantics, Natural language, Information retrieval.

A merged lexicon for all domains has been created. The merged lexicon contains about 2400 distinct root words. A tool for extracting lexical items from a dictionary, given a word list, was used to obtain items from the merged lexicon for the resource management domain. Approximately 47% of the vocabulary (or 448 words) in this domain is new. However a large number of these words are proper names of ships and locations, which are relatively trivial to enter. There are about 225 other words, including about 50 verbs. Because there are so few verbs, we expect adding the lexical entries to take only a few days. Keywords: Syntax, Semantics, Natural language, Information retrieval.

The quality of computer generated speech keeps getting better but people are still able to identify whether speech is produced by a human or not (Bruder & Larrouy-Maestri, 2023). The lack of humanness in synthetic speech might be linked to the naturalness or quality of its prosody. In order to understand this issue we focus on the role of syntactic and semantic aspects of language (which are known to be intrinsically linked to prosody (Cutler et al., 1997)) on the perception of humanness in speech. To do so, we propose an experiment testing the effects of voice type (natural versus synthetic) and of syntactic and semantic information on humanness perception. We created German sentences that were then manipulated to obtain three more conditions conveying syntactic but no semantic information (jabberwocky sentences), no syntactic but semantic information (wordlists), and no syntactic or semantic information (jabberwocky wordlists). This material was generated by text-to-speech tools (Microsoft, Elevenlabs, Murf, and Listnr) and recorded by human speakers. We will ask participants to rate these synthetic and natural spoken sentences on how human the voice sounds to them. Whether syntactic and semantic information interacts with voice category will inform us about the potential differences in processing synthetic and natural speech.

A type theory is presented that combines (intuitionistic) linear types with type dependency, thus properly generalising both intuitionistic dependent type theory and full linear logic. A syntax and complete categorical semantics are developed, the latter in terms of (strict) indexed symmetric monoidal categories with comprehension. Various optional type formers are treated in a modular way. In particular, we will see that the historically much-debated multiplicative quantifiers and identity types arise naturally from categorical considerations. These new multiplicative connectives are further characterised by several identities relating them to the usual connectives from dependent type theory and linear logic. Finally, one important class of models, given by families with values in some symmetric monoidal category, is investigated in detail.

A type theory is presented that combines (intuitionistic) linear types with type dependency, thus properly generalising both intuitionistic dependent type theory and full linear logic. A syntax and complete categorical semantics are developed, the latter in terms of (strict) indexed symmetric monoidal categories with comprehension. Various optional type formers are treated in a modular way. In particular, we will see that the historically much-debated multiplicative quantifiers and identity types arise naturally from categorical considerations. These new multiplicative connectives are further characterised by several identities relating them to the usual connectives from dependent type theory and linear logic. Finally, one important class of models, given by families with values in some symmetric monoidal category, is investigated in detail.

A type theory is presented that combines (intuitionistic) linear types with type dependency, thus properly generalising both intuitionistic dependent type theory and full linear logic. A syntax and complete categorical semantics are developed, the latter in terms of (strict) indexed symmetric monoidal categories with comprehension. Various optional type formers are treated in a modular way. In particular, we will see that the historically much-debated multiplicative quantifiers and identity types arise naturally from categorical considerations. These new multiplicative connectives are further characterised by several identities relating them to the usual connectives from dependent type theory and linear logic. Finally, one important class of models, given by families with values in some symmetric monoidal category, is investigated in detail.

A type theory is presented that combines (intuitionistic) linear types with type dependency, thus properly generalising both intuitionistic dependent type theory and full linear logic. A syntax and complete categorical semantics are developed, the latter in terms of (strict) indexed symmetric monoidal categories with comprehension. Various optional type formers are treated in a modular way. In particular, we will see that the historically much-debated multiplicative quantifiers and identity types arise naturally from categorical considerations. These new multiplicative connectives are further characterised by several identities relating them to the usual connectives from dependent type theory and linear logic. Finally, one important class of models, given by families with values in some symmetric monoidal category, is investigated in detail.

A type theory is presented that combines (intuitionistic) linear types with type dependency, thus properly generalising both intuitionistic dependent type theory and full linear logic. A syntax and complete categorical semantics are developed, the latter in terms of (strict) indexed symmetric monoidal categories with comprehension. Various optional type formers are treated in a modular way. In particular, we will see that the historically much-debated multiplicative quantifiers and identity types arise naturally from categorical considerations. These new multiplicative connectives are further characterised by several identities relating them to the usual connectives from dependent type theory and linear logic. Finally, one important class of models, given by families with values in some symmetric monoidal category, is investigated in detail.

Progress includes continuing to port Pundit to the Trident domain of maintenance reports while at the same time extending coverage in the RAINFORMS and CASREPS domains. Parallel development in the three domains has had a synergistic effect on the overall system, as features implemented for one domain become available for the others. Keywords: Natural language comprehension, Computer programming.

The PUNDIT User's Guide is intended to provide a concise and general introduction to the facilities of the PUNDIT text-processing system. The intended audience is computational linguists familiar with Quintus Prolog. While this document is not a reference manual, and does not in itself contain sufficient information for you to either extend the system or port it to a new domain, we have tried to cover the operational basics: how to run PUNDIT (section 2) and how to interpret PUNDIT's output (Section 3). In addition, Section 4 documents the two main procedures for accessing the system (parse and pundit), as well as a number of other procedures which we make frequent use of as developers. Appendix A and Appendix B will help you set the system up. Appendix D identifies the core and domain files, and Appendix E lists papers, presentations, and technical documentation available for PUNDIT. The User's Guide is designed to accompany a subset of the text-understanding software which has been developed at the Paoli Research Center, as it exists on the date of publication: the core components of PUNDIT, together with the domain-specific components developed to process Navy tactical messages (RAINFORMs). This domain will be referred to henceforth as the MUCK domain (an acronym for the message understanding conference which occasioned the development of the software).

The PUNDIT User's Guide is intended to provide a concise and general introduction to the facilities of the PUNDIT text-processing system. The intended audience is computational linguists familiar with Quintus Prolog. While this document is not a reference manual, and does not in itself contain sufficient information for you to either extend the system or port it to a new domain, we have tried to cover the operational basics: how to run PUNDIT (section 2) and how to interpret PUNDIT's output (Section 3). In addition, Section 4 documents the two main procedures for accessing the system (parse and pundit), as well as a number of other procedures which we make frequent use of as developers. Appendix A and Appendix B will help you set the system up. Appendix D identifies the core and domain files, and Appendix E lists papers, presentations, and technical documentation available for PUNDIT. The User's Guide is designed to accompany a subset of the text-understanding software which has been developed at the Paoli Research Center, as it exists on the date of publication: the core components of PUNDIT, together with the domain-specific components developed to process Navy tactical messages (RAINFORMs). This domain will be referred to henceforth as the MUCK domain (an acronym for the message understanding conference which occasioned the development of the software).

This report is a detailed empirical examination of Suppes' ideas about the syntax and semantics of natural language, and an attempt at supporting the proposal that model-theoretic semantics of the type first proposed by Tarski is a useful tool for understanding the semantics of natural language. Child speech was selected as the best place to find data on natural language because it presents a view of the real problems represented by natural language, and because it allows the study of the process of language development. The main body of data consists of a series of recordings between a 32-month-old girl, Erica, and several adults. The ERIC corpus is found to be syntactically simpler and semantically more straightforward than adult speech. It is divided into utterances; its vocabulary is compared to ADULT vocabulary; a word frequency count is made; and its words are classified gramatically. A discussion follows of the standard concepts and results of the theory of generative grammars. A grammar for ERICA is devised, with special attention to lexical ambiguity. Mathematical syntax and semantics are discussed, followed by a description of ERICA semantics, with special reference to grammatical and semantic ambiguity. Conclusions include: (1) a reasonable probabilistic grammar for ERICA can be constructed; (2) the grammar GE1 is the best model for lexical disambiguation; (3) the grammar functions reasonably well semantically; (4) the notion of probability can play a key role in the construction of a semantics; and (5) simple set-theoretical functions are often successful in describing the ERICA semantics. (Author/AM)

${\rm \small CTT}_{\rm qe}$ is a version of Church's type theory that includes quotation and evaluation operators that are similar to quote and eval in the Lisp programming language. With quotation and evaluation it is possible to reason in ${\rm \small CTT}_{\rm qe}$ about the interplay of the syntax and semantics of expressions and, as a result, to formalize syntax-based mathematical algorithms. We present the syntax and semantics of ${\rm \small CTT}_{\rm qe}$ and give several examples that illustrate the usefulness of having quotation and evaluation in ${\rm \small CTT}_{\rm qe}$. We do not give a proof system for ${\rm \small CTT}_{\rm qe}$, but we do sketch what a proof system could look like.

Semantic feedback is an important source of information that a parser could use to deal with local ambiguities in syntax. However, it is difficult to devise a systematic communication mechanism for interactive syntax and semantics. In this article, I propose a variant of left-corner parsing to define the points at which syntax and semantics should interact, an account of grammatical relations and thematic roles to define the content of the communication, and a conflict resolution strategy based on independent preferences from syntax and semantics. The resulting interactive model has been implemented in a program called COMPERE and shown to account for a wide variety of psycholinguistic data on structural and lexical ambiguities.

Talk by Ben Hayden of the Baylor College of Medicine.  Given to the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at UC Berkeley. Abstract: The ability to record responses of single neurons in awake humans allows us to understand the neurocomputational foundations of language. We recorded responses of neural populations in hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex during speech listening and during interactive conversations. We find that single neurons in both regions use a dense code with mixed selectivity to encode both speaker identity and word meanings, consistent with the principles of vectorial coding. Meanwhile we find that morphosyntactic processes correspond to specific and consistent vectorial rotations. Bio: Ben Hayden received his Ph.D. In Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley in 2005 studying the neural basis of working memory and attention, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University until 2011. In 2023, he moved to the Department of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is a Full Professor and McNair Scholar.  His work has been supported by the Sloan Foundation, the Klingenstein-Simons Foundation, the Brain and Behavior Research foundation, Templeton Foundation, NSF, NIMH, and NIDA.

Partial contents--Grammar: Intermediate Syntactic Representation; Syntax/Semantics Interaction; Semantics: Temporal Analysis; Editor for Semantics: Rule, Norminalizations, PUNDIT Applications; Environment: Testing Procedure; Port to the TI Explorer; Facilities; Meeting Attended.

Message understanding systems are key to handling the steadily increasing volume of information required for intelligence, data fusion, logistics and maintenance operations. The capture and understanding of information in narrative text and messages is the focus of this contract. The goal is to convert this information into a representation of its meaning, which can be used to update a database with new information derived from the incoming messages, to summarize key information, or to issue appropriate commands to a back-end, e.g. to query a database or an expert system. The deliverable under this contract is the PUNDIT(Prolog Understanding of Integrated Text) natural language understanding system. The PUNDIT natural language system is the most ambitious natural language understanding system built to date. Its goal in the integration of multiple linguistically-based knowledge (a domain model), to understand messages in a restricted domain. PUNDIT has been designed with portability as a major goal. To facilitate porting the system to new domains, PUNDIT maintains a careful separation of domain-independent information from domain-specific information. The system consists of a core domain-independent portion (20K lines of Prolog code) which remains constant from application to application.

We describe an efficient bottom-up parser that interleaves syntactic and semantic structure building. Two techniques are presented for reducing search by reducing local ambiguity: Limited left-context constraints are used to reduce local syntactic ambiguity, and deferred sortal-constraint application is used to reduce local semantic ambiguity. We experimentally evaluate these techniques, and show dramatic reductions in both number of chart-edges and total parsing time. The robust processing capabilities of the parser are demonstrated in its use in improving the accuracy of a speech recognizer.

This document and overview of the SDC/NYU natural language system. Contents: grammar; noun phrase resolution; clause semantics', facilities.