Compositional Semantics - Computational Linguistics and Talking Robots - page 124

Sect. 13.1, while the LA-hear grammar producing the derivation, called LA-
hear.2, is defined in NLC'06, Sect. 13.2.
In line 1, the core values of the proplets representing the determiner the
and the adnominal little are cross-copied into the respective mdr (modifier)
and mdd (modified) slots. In line 2, the core value of the noun proplet girl
is absorbed into the determiner proplet. This involves (i) replacing the two
occurrences of the substitution value n_1 , originating from the determiner,
with the core value of the girl proplet, (ii) copying the cat value sg of the girl
proplet into the sem slot of the former determiner proplet, and (iii) discarding
the girl proplet. The gap resulting from the absorption shows up in lines 3-6.
In line 4, the core values of the proplets representing the verb eat and the
determiner an are cross-copied into the respective fnc (functor) and arg (argu-
ment) slots. In line 5, the apple proplet is absorbed into the determiner proplet;
this involves (i) replacing the two occurrences of the substitution value n_2
originating from the determiner with the core value of the apple proplet, and
(ii) discarding the apple proplet. The resulting gap appears in line 6.
Another construction with function word absorption is a prepositional phrase
like in the garden , compared below with the phrasal noun construction the
garden , both as used in a sentence-initial position:

7.2.4 C OMPARING DIFFERENT FUNCTION WORD ABSORPTIONS

determiner−noun preposition−determiner−noun

the garden in the garden

lexical lookup

noun: n_1 noun: garden adj: in n_2 noun: n_1 noun: garden

cat: np cat: sn cat: adnv cat: np cat: sn

sem: def sem: sg sem: sem: def

fnc:

sem: sg
fnc: fnc: fnc: mdd:

prn: prn: prn: prn: prn

syntactic−semantic parsing

noun: n_1 noun: garden adj: in n_2 noun: n_1

cat: np cat: sn cat: adnv cat: np

1 1

sem: def sem: sg

sem:
mdd:

sem: def
fnc: fnc: fnc:

prn: 4 prn: prn: 5 prn:

result

adj: in n_1 noun: garden

noun: garden

cat: adnv np cat: sn

cat: snp

2

sem: def
mdd:

sem: sg

sem: def sg

fnc:

fnc:

prn: 5 prn

prn: 4

result

adj: in_garden

cat: adnv snp

sem: def sg

mdd: