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  • © 2015

Linguistic Expressions and Semantic Processing

A Practical Approach

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  • Includes the full code of computer programs for a ‘hands on’ experience in the techniques of formal semantics
  • Demonstrates how techniques of formal semantics can be made to scale to unrestricted natural language data
  • Introduces the reader to prerequisites for formal semantics and to predicate language expressions
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (4 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
  2. Predicate Languages

    • Alastair Butler
    Pages 1-24
  3. Self-Selective Evaluation

    • Alastair Butler
    Pages 25-44
  4. Self-Locating Evaluation

    • Alastair Butler
    Pages 45-84
  5. Treebank Annotation

    • Alastair Butler
    Pages 85-160
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 161-172

About this book

This book introduces formal semantics techniques for a natural language processing audience. Methods discussed involve: (i) the denotational techniques used in model-theoretic semantics, which make it possible to determine whether a linguistic expression is true or false with respect to some model of the way things happen to be; and (ii) stages of interpretation, i.e., ways to arrive at meanings by evaluating and converting source linguistic expressions, possibly with respect to contexts, into output (logical) forms that could be used with (i).

The book demonstrates that the methods allow wide coverage without compromising the quality of semantic analysis. Access to unrestricted, robust and accurate semantic analysis is widely regarded as an essential component for improving natural language processing tasks, such as: recognizing textual entailment, information extraction, summarization, automatic reply, and machine translation.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Center for the Advancement of Higher Education, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Alastair Butler

About the author

Alastair Butler is a Researcher based at the Center for the Advancement of Higher Education, Tohoku University, Japan. Before moving to Japan, he was a postdoctoral researcher first in the Institute for Logic Language and Communication at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands and secondly in the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of York, England, in 2002. He has published books with Palgrave Macmillan (The Syntax and Semantics of Split Constructions, co-authored with Eric Mathieu, 2004) and Brill Academic Publishers (The Semantics of Grammatical Dependencies, 2012 (Current Research in the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface series).

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access