Linguistics
See also: [LITERATURE INDEX]
BUT: [Language] (Philo DIR)
[Languages] (i swear i was sobre when i set these files up!! :(
Linguistics
On this page: {Definitions, etc}
{Susumu Kuno's article (extract only)
{Briefing on Attention, Intentions, & Structure of Discourse}
{The Usual Suspects}
Definitions
Definitions
Briefing on Attention, Intentions, & Structure of Discourse
From {Kuno's ref}, text Pp.3&ff.
by Barbara J. Gorsz (SRI, Menlo, Calif) & Candace L.
Sidner (BBN Labs, Cambridge).
P.3
2.The Basic Theory
BEGIN BLOCK QUOTE
Discourse structure is a coposite of 3 inter-acting
constinutiends:
A linguistic structure,
An intentional structure
An attention state.
THese 3 consitutents of discourse sturcre deal with
different aspects of the utterences in a dicourse.
Utterance -- the actual saying or *writing* [tips towel to Ms. G
and Ms. S] of particualr sequences of phrase
and clauses -- are the lingusit structure's basic elements.
Intentions -- of a particular sort and a small number of
relationships between them proovide the
basic elements of intentional sturcutre..
Attetnional state -- contains information about the objects,
propertires, relations, and discourse
intetions that are most salient at any given point. [in time, i assume?]
It is an abstraction of of the focus of attention of the
discourse participlants; it serves to summarise the information
from previous utteraances crucuisal for processing subsequent
ones [Note 1], thus obviating the need for
keeping a complete history of the discourse. (again, continue with NOTE-1)
END BLOCK QUOTE
NOTES (This section only)
[1] Hmmm. This looks like a STATE
thingie to me. We could use a bingo card for part of it
if we are to "measure" or at least "lay out" the POINT of
the discourse (eg, speech to inform, convince, etc). As to
the EXACT state then we have the problem (once again) of
PRONOUNS and all of that; ie, "in-process" references to things
which changes over time. And since we are NOT numbering our
pronouns, we will occasionally be REQUIRED to re-identify
what we mean. For example, if several of the objects in
the discourse are of the same gender, we will have to
clarify what we mean (after a while) by "he" or "she" or
"it", etc. Best example is ["Eats, Shoots and Leaves"]
***
This goes back to "logging" the information. Which is of
course refered to in "2010" viz the Russian scientis's
comment "But, the 9000 series uses holographic memory,
so simple erasure would not work", and the somewhat naive
reply is "I used a tape worm; it hunts down specific memories".
This problem can not easily be solved (if it can be at all).
The problem is that with reality-based structures, you simply
end up with GAPS in the record, as well pointers to non-existent
things. In the case of time-travel (eg, the FOLD in "Babylon-Squared"
-- see below), the problem creates (potentially) paradoxes that
can not be "un-done" (similar to the "Veils of Azlaroc" by
SaberHaggen ??sp??. Thus, at best, the meaning becomes
complicated and possibly impossible to follow. Even if we
allow for Dadaist or Hermetical things, the problem simply
devolves to either very serious silliness or at the very
least muddled communications that is *completely* dismissed
by much of the audience (listeners/viewers/readers/players).
The FOLD problem (briefly)
{Back to the TEXT}
Next: Susumu Kuno's article.
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Susumu Kuno's Article
Extracted from "Language and Aritificial
Intellegence", ed. by M. Nagao, (Proceedings
of an International Symposium on Language and
Artificial Intelligence held in Kyoto,
1986.03.16 thru 1986.03.21), full text is
pages 87-111. Extracts as noted.
P.87.
NOTE: Kuno's use of SUB-SCRIPTS has been changed
here to the form '# for simplified entry.
(We appologise for the in-conveninece)
Also paragraph and spelling have been
altered to be consistent with current practice.
Anaphora and Discourse Principles
1. Discourse principles.
Every major syntactic pattern of a language requires two
kinds of characteristics - a forumulation of syntactic
conditions that need to be full-filled for the pattern
to be used, as well as a forumulation of semantic and
discourse -- based on conditions that need to be fulll-filled
at the same time.
The pronoun-antecedent relationship is no exception to this
requirement. In order to understand how pronounss work in a
language, elucidating the semantic discourse conditions that
control them is as important as explainging the structural
relations that must hold between the pronoun and the antecedent.
Unfortunately, the former taks has not received enough
attention.
...
(1) Predictability Requirement for Pronouns.
A pronounc can proceed a co-referential NP only if the
speaker can legitimately [Note 1] assume that the
hearer can determine its referent from the *preceeding*
context. [KUNO 1972]
REFERENCES (this section only)
[KUNO 1972] "Functional Sentence
Perspective - A case study from Japanese and English",
Linguistic Inquiry 3 Pp.269-320.
{Back to the TEXT}
NOTES (this section only)
[1] The act of "legitimisation" begs
the question of the knowing the audience, and is *possibly*
the most common source of mis-understanding. Also, it seems
to me that this would also be a source of humor; esp, if the
use of he/him/her/its etc is mis-used for a given object.
My most often proffered example is using "she" when refering
to "God" (see map).
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