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Computing the Semantics of Plurals and Massive Entities Using Many-Sorted Types

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Book cover New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence (JSAI-isAI 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9067))

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Abstract

We demonstrate how the specifics of the semantics for collective, distributive and covering readings for plurals and mass nouns can be integrated in a recent type-theoretical framework with rich lexical semantics. We also explore the significance of an higher-order type system for gradable predicates and other complex predications, as well as the relevance of a multi-sorted approach to such phenomena. All the while, we will detail the process of analysis from syntax to semantics and ensure that compositionality and computability are kept.

The present article is based upon two presentations in LENLS 10 and 11, the former dealing with plurals and the latter with the semantics of massive entities in a many-sorted type system, with an emphasis on the latter. This work is supported by the CNRS with the PEPS CoLAN, and by the ANR ContInt Polymnie.The authors are indebted to all the LENLS 11 committee and organisers, to the reviewers for their comments, as well as to Nicholas Asher, Daisuke Bekki, Stergios Chatzikyriakidis, Robin Cooper, Thomas Icard, Robert Levine, Yusuke Kubota, Zhaohui Luo and Koji Mineshima (among many others) for many helpful discussions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Technically, Link introduces two versions of this predicate: one which presupposes its argument is non-atomic and another which does not. Here, we will only consider the version which takes non-atomic individuals as an argument.

  2. 2.

    Such a number is a simple data structure comprising l, the list of digits (in base 10) of the mantissa, s, a constant indicating its sign, e, an integer representing the exponent and r, a constant indicating the sign of the exponent. Comparison between such floating point numbers is easy, and the common operations are definable.

  3. 3.

    This short point illustrates that scales (and operations) can be defined natively in pure System-F; of course, we can take floating-point numbers of sufficient precision to exist as a primitive type, as is the case in any reasonable computer implementation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LaBRI-CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Talence, France

    Bruno Mery, Richard Moot & Christian Retoré

  2. LIRMM-CNRS, Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France

    Bruno Mery, Richard Moot & Christian Retoré

Authors
  1. Bruno Mery
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  2. Richard Moot
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  3. Christian Retoré
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Correspondence to Bruno Mery .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Murata

  2. Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan

    Koji Mineshima

  3. Department Information Science, Faculty of Science, Ochanomizu University , Tokyo, Japan

    Daisuke Bekki

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Mery, B., Moot, R., Retoré, C. (2015). Computing the Semantics of Plurals and Massive Entities Using Many-Sorted Types. In: Murata, T., Mineshima, K., Bekki, D. (eds) New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. JSAI-isAI 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9067. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_11

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