front cover of Word Structure in Ngalakgan
Word Structure in Ngalakgan
Brett Baker
CSLI, 2008
Word Structure in Ngalakgan is the first major theoretical work on the phonology and morphology of an Australian language in 20 years. Ngalakgan is a non-configurational, polysynthetic, and agglutinative language of the Gunwinyguan family. The morphological structures of Ngalakgan require a two-level analysis: ROOT-level and WORD-level. Only the WORD-level shows regular phonologically conditioned alternations. The ROOT-level is entirely frozen. Baker demonstrates that Optimality Theory must take account of differences in the productivity of morphological relations in the input, in order to maintain the simplest analysis. Ngalakgan has a quantity-sensitive stress system which is hitherto undescribed and which contradicts the predictions of current Moraic Theory. Syllables closed by codas which share place with a following onset do not count as heavy even though heterorganic codas do. The same system is found in neighbouring languages. This and other patterns suggest that syllabification in these languages is gesture-, rather than timing-, based.
 
 
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front cover of Romance in HPSG
Romance in HPSG
Sergio Balari
CSLI, 1997
This book describes several aspects of syntax and semantics of romance languages assuming the point of view of a constraint-based, non-transformational linguistic theory, i.e. Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Besides the widening of the empirical coverage of HPSG the theory, its main significance consists in a refinement of the theory itself, on the basis of data from romance languages. It contains essays discussing phenomena from Catalan, French, Italian and Spanish.
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front cover of Language, Proof, and Logic
Language, Proof, and Logic
Second Edition
David Barker-Plummer
CSLI, 2011

Language Proof and Logic is available as a physical book with the software included and as a downloadable package of software plus the book in PDF format. The all-electronic version is available from Openproof at gradegrinder.net.

The textbook/software package covers first-order language in a method appropriate for first and second courses in logic. An on-line grading services instantly grades solutions to hundred of computer exercises. It is designed to be used by philosophy instructors teaching a logic course to undergraduates in philosophy, computer science, mathematics, and linguistics.

Introductory material is presented in a systematic and accessible fashion. Advanced chapters include proofs of soundness and completeness for propositional and predicate logic, as well as an accessible sketch of Godel's first incompleteness theorem. The book is appropriate for a wide range of courses, from first logic courses for undergraduates (philosophy, mathematics, and computer science) to a first graduate logic course.

The software package includes four programs:

Tarski's World, a new version of the popular program that teaches the basic first-order language and its semantics;

Fitch, a natural deduction proof environment for giving and checking first-order proofs;

Boole, a program that facilitates the construction and checking of truth tables and related notions (tautology, tautological consequence, etc.);

Submit, a program that allows students to submit exercises done with the above programs to the Grade Grinder, the automatic grading service.

Grade reports are returned to the student and, if requested, to the student's instructor, eliminating the need for tedious checking of homework. All programs are available for Windows and Macintosh systems. Instructors do not need to use the programs themselves in order to be able to take advantage of their pedagogical value. More about the software can be found at gradegrinder.net.

The price of a new text/software package includes one Registration ID, which must be used each time work is submitted to the grading service. Once activated, the Registration ID is not transferable.

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front cover of Logical Reasoning with Diagrams and Sentences
Logical Reasoning with Diagrams and Sentences
Using Hyperproof
David Barker-Plummer
CSLI, 2016
The Logical Reasoning with Diagrams and Sentences courseware package teaches the principles of analytical reasoning and proof construction using a carefully crafted combination of textbook, desktop, and online materials. This package is sure to be an essential resource in a range of courses incorporating logical reasoning, including formal linguistics, philosophy, mathematics, and computer science.

Unlike traditional formal treatments of reasoning, this package uses both graphical and sentential representations to reflect common situations in everyday reasoning where information is expressed in many forms, such as finding your way to a location using a map and an address. It also teaches students how to construct and check the logical validity of a variety of proofs—of consequence and non-consequence, consistency and inconsistency, and independence—using an intuitive proof system which extends standard proof treatments with sentential, graphical, and heterogeneous inference rules, allowing students to focus on proof content rather than syntactic structure. Building upon the widely used Tarski’s World and Language, Proof and Logic courseware packages, Logical Reasoning with Diagrams and Sentences contains more than three hundred exercises, most of which can be assessed by the Grade Grinder online assessment service; is supported by an extensive website through which students and instructors can access online video lectures by the authors; and allows instructors to create their own exercises and assess their students’ work.

Logical Reasoning with Diagrams and Sentences is an expanded revision of the Hyperproof courseware package.
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front cover of Possessive Descriptions
Possessive Descriptions
Chris Barker
CSLI, 1995
What do possessive noun phrases mean? Although possessives are one of the most commonly used construction types cross-linguistically, they have never received detailed or sustained study from a semantic point of view. Taking work of Abney, May, and Heim as a starting point, this book develops a comprehensive analysis of the contribution of possessive NPs to the truth conditions of the sentences in which they occur.
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front cover of Usage Based Models of Language
Usage Based Models of Language
Michael Barlow
CSLI, 2000
How do humans learn how to speak and understand language? For years, linguists have developed numerous models in attempts to explain humans' ability to communicate through language. Historically, these approaches were rooted and restricted in rule-based linguistic representations. Only recently has the field of linguistics been willing to forego formal representations and models to accommodate the usage-based perspective of studying language.

Deviating from traditional methods, the contributions presented in this volume are among the first works to approach linguistic theory by developing and utilizing usage-based models. The contributing authors were among the principal leaders in their fields to leave behind rule-based linguistic representations in favor of constraint-based systems whose structural properties actually emerge from usage. The volume begins with an introductory chapter that defines contributors' interpretations of usage-based models and theories of language. The reason for the shift from formal linguistic theories to the gradual acceptance of usage-based models is also examined. Using methods such as Cognitive Grammar, the Lexical Network Model, Competition Model, Relational Network Theory, and Accessibility Theory, the selected works demonstrate how usage-based models evince far greater cognitive and neurological plausibility than algorithmic, generative models.
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front cover of Japanese/Korean Linguistics, Volume 27
Japanese/Korean Linguistics, Volume 27
Michael Barrie
CSLI, 2020

front cover of Dynamic Conceptual Semantics
Dynamic Conceptual Semantics
A Logico-Philosophical Investigation into Concept Formation and Understanding
Renate Bartsch
CSLI, 1998
Presented in this book is a theory of concept formation and understanding that does not make use of a notion of an innate mental language as a means of concept representation. Instead, experimental concepts are treated semantically as stabilising structuring of growing sets of data, which are sets of experienced satisfaction situations for expressions, and theoretical concepts are based on coherent sets of general sentences held true. There are two kinds of structures to be established: general concepts by means of similarity sets under perspectives and historical concepts. This gives rise to a theory of understanding new situations and expressions by integrating new data into established sets of data salva stability, or by extending the conceptual structure in a metaphorical or metonymical way. The theory provides a way to understand what identity between propositional attitudes amounts to, especially how people can have more or less the same belief.
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front cover of The Situation in Logic
The Situation in Logic
Jon Barwise
CSLI, 1989
Situation theory and situation semantics are recent approaches to language and inforamtion, approaches first formulated by Jon Barwise amd John Perry in Situations and Attitudes (1983). The present volume collects some of Barwise's papers written since then, those directly concerned with relations between logic, situation theory, and situation semantics. Several appers appear here mfor the first time. JON BARWISE is director of the Symbolic Systems Program and professor of philosophy at Stanford University and a researcher at CSLI.
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front cover of Tarski's World
Tarski's World
Revised and Expanded
Jon Barwise
CSLI, 2004
Tarski’s World is an innovative and exciting method of introducing students to the language of first-order logic. Using the courseware package, students quickly master the meanings of connectives and qualifiers and soon become fluent in the symbolic language at the core of modern logic. The program allows students to build three-dimensional worlds and then describe them in first-order logic. The program, compatible with Macintosh and Windows formats, also contains a unique and effective corrective tool in the form of a game, which methodically leads students back through their errors if they wrongly evaluate the sentences in the constructed worlds.

A brand new feature in this revised and expanded edition is student access to Grade Grinder, an innovative Internet-based grading service that provides accurate and timely feedback to students whenever they need it. Students can submit solutions for the program’s more than 100 exercises to the Grade Grinder for assessment, and the results are returned quickly to the students and optionally to the teacher as well. A web-based interface also allows instructors to manage assignments and grades for their classes.

Intended as a supplement to a standard logic text, Tarski’s World is an essential tool for helping students learn the language of logic.
 
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front cover of Situation Theory and Its Applications, Volume 2
Situation Theory and Its Applications, Volume 2
Jon Barwise
CSLI, 1991
Situation theory is the result of an interdisciplinary effort to create a full-fledged theory of information. Created by scholars and scientists from cognitive science, computer science, AI, linguistics, logic, philosophy, and mathematics, the theory is forging a common set of tools for the analysis of phenomena from all these fields. This volume presents work that evolved out of the Second Conference on Situation Theory and its Applications. Twenty-six essays exhibit the wide range of the theory, covering such topics as natural language semantics, philosophical issues about information, mathematical aplications, and the visual representation of the information in computer systems. Jon Barwise is a professor of philosophy, mathematics, and logic at indiana university in Bloomington. Jean Mark Gawron is a researcher at SRI International and a consultant at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. Gordon Plotkin is a professor of theoretical computer science at the University of Edinburgh. Syun Tutiya is in the philosophy department at Chiba University in Japan. Center for the Study of Language and Information- Lecture Notes, Number 26
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front cover of Vicious Circles
Vicious Circles
Jon Barwise
CSLI, 1996
The subject of non-wellfounded sets came to prominence with the 1988 publication of Peter Aczel's book on the subject. Since then, a number of researchers in widely differing fields have used non-wellfounded sets (also called "hypersets") in modeling many types of circular phenomena. The application areas range from knowledge representation and theoretical economics to the semantics of natural language and programming languages. Vicious Circles offers an introduction to this fascinating and timely topic. Written as a book to learn from, theoretical points are always illustrated by examples from the applications and by exercises whose solutions are also presented. The text is suitable for use in a classroom, seminar, or for individual study. In addition to presenting the basic material on hypersets and their applications, this volume thoroughly develops the mathematics behind solving systems of set equations, greatest fixed points, coinduction, and corecursion. Much of this material has not appeared before. The application chapters also contain new material on modal logic and new explorations of paradoxes from semantics and game theory.
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front cover of Situations and Attitudes
Situations and Attitudes
Jon Barwise
CSLI, 1983
In this provocative book, Barwise and Perry tackle the slippery subject of "meaning," a subject that has long vexed linguists, language philosophers, and logicians. Meaning does not exist solely within words and sentences but resides largely in the situation and the attitudes brought to it by those involved. The authors present an unusually lucid treatment of important innovations in the field of natural semantics, contending that the standard view of logic (as derived from Frege, Russell, and work in mathematics and logic) is inappropriate for many of the uses to which it has been put by scholars. In Situations and Attitudes they provide the basics of a realistic model-theoretic semantics of natural language, explain the main ideas of the theory, and contrast them with those of competing theories.
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front cover of Presupposition and Assertion in Dynamic Semantics
Presupposition and Assertion in Dynamic Semantics
A Critical Review of Linguistic Theories of Presupposition and a Dynamic Alternative
David I. Beaver
CSLI, 2001
Russell and Strawson sparked a well known debate on the subject of Linguistic Presupposition inspiring many linguists and philosophers to follow suit, including Frege, whose work initiated the modern study in this area. Beaver begins with the most comprehensive overview and critical discussion of this burgeoning field published to date. He then goes on to motivate and develop his own account based on a Dynamic Semantics. This account is a recent line of theoretical work in which the Tarskian emphasis on truth conditions is questioned. The central plank of the theory of meaning is a formal account of the change in information effected by use of language on hearers or readers. The proposal thus consolidates ideas of Stalnaker, Karttunen and Heim, all of whom had suggested that such an account was needed. At the same time it provides a new impulse and motivation to Dynamic Semantics itself.
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front cover of The Construction of Meaning
The Construction of Meaning
David I. Beaver
CSLI, 2002
This volume collects leading-edge work on the semantics and pragmatics of natural language, including contributions from Eve Clark, Paul Kiparsky, Stanley Peters, Dag Westerstahl, and Arnold Zwicky. The research covers a number of languages—English, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, and Quechua—and phenomena, including adverbial modification, classifiers, constructional meaning, control phenomena, evidentiality, events semantics, focus, presupposition, and quantification. This is an essential volume for anyone interested in the latest developments in the study of meaning.
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front cover of Finite-State Morphology
Finite-State Morphology
Kenneth R. Beesley
CSLI, 2003
The finite-state paradigm of computer science has provided a basis for natural-language applications that are efficient, elegant, and robust. This volume is a practical guide to finite-state theory and the affiliated programming languages lexc and xfst. Readers will learn how to write tokenizers, spelling checkers, and especially morphological analyzer/generators for words in English, French, Finnish, Hungarian, and other languages.

Included are graded introductions, examples, and exercises suitable for individual study as well as formal courses. These take advantage of widely-tested lexc and xfst applications that are just becoming available for noncommercial use via the Internet.
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front cover of Language from a Cognitive Perspective
Language from a Cognitive Perspective
Grammar, Usage, and Processing
Emily M. Bender
CSLI, 2011

This book is a collection of papers on language processing, usage, and grammar, written to commemorate the career of Thomas Wasow on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. Wasow has been professor of linguistics and philosophy at Stanford University since 1973, and is affiliated with the Symbolic Systems Program. He has made significant contributions to the study of English syntax, psycholinguistics, and philosophy of linguistics.

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front cover of Basic Color Terms
Basic Color Terms
Their Universality and Evolution
Brent Berlin
CSLI, 1999

The work reported in this monograph was begun in the winter of 1967 in a graduate seminar at Berkeley. Many of the basic data were gathered by members of the seminar and the theoretical framework presented here was initially developed in the context of the seminar discussions.

Much has been discovered since1969, the date of original publication, regarding the psychophysical and neurophysical determinants of universal, cross-linguistic constraints on the shape of basic color lexicons, and something, albeit less, can now also be said with some confidence regarding the constraining effects of these language-independent processes of color perception and conceptualization on the direction of evolution of basic color term lexicons.

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front cover of Probabilistic Approaches to Linguistic Theory
Probabilistic Approaches to Linguistic Theory
Jean-Philippe Bernardy
CSLI, 2022
A textbook exploring predictive modes of linguistic development and analysis.

During the last two decades, computational linguists, in concert with other researchers in AI, have turned to machine learning and statistical techniques to capture features of natural language and aspects of the learning process that are not easily accommodated in classical algebraic frameworks. These developments are producing a revolution in linguistics in which traditional symbolic systems are giving way to probabilistic and deep learning approaches. This collection features articles that provide background to these approaches, and their application in syntax, semantics, pragmatics, morphology, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and dialogue modeling. Each chapter provides a self-contained introduction to the topic that it covers, making this volume accessible to graduate students and researchers in linguistics, NLP, AI, and cognitive science.
 
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front cover of The Semantics/Pragmatics Distinction
The Semantics/Pragmatics Distinction
Claudia Bianchi
CSLI, 2005
The contributors to this volume tend to agree on one thing: semantic theory cannot retain its traditional purity, free of pragmatic contextual considerations. This claim provides the setting for various provocative approaches to a precise definition of pragmatics and its reconciliation with semantics—a collection of leading-edge work examining the semantics/pragmatics dispute in terms of a broad range of phenomena, showing how these issues reach from linguistics into a number of other fields, and examining the role of pragmatics in different forms of cross-cultural communication.
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front cover of Cilungu Phonology
Cilungu Phonology
Lee Bickmore
CSLI, 2007
Cilungu is an underrepresented language spoken in northern Zambia and Tanzania whose future is far from certain, given ongoing urbanization and the ascendancy of other regional languages. The product of over fifteen years of fieldwork, Cilungu Phonology presents a comprehensive description and analysis of this endangered language.

Featuring a reference grammar and formal analysis of Cilungu, this volume will be a major contribution to our understanding of tonology, since several of the forty-four processes analyzed appear to be unique to the language. It also includes a discussion of morphology, both nominal and verbal.
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front cover of Generalized Galois Logics
Generalized Galois Logics
Relational Semantics of Nonclassical Logical Calculi
Katalin Bimbó
CSLI, 2008
Nonclassical logics have played an increasing role in recent years in disciplines ranging from mathematics and computer science to linguistics and philosophy. Generalized Galois Logics develops a uniform framework of relational semantics to mediate between logical calculi and their semantics through algebra. This volume addresses normal modal logics such as K and S5, and substructural logics, including relevance logics, linear logic, and Lambek calculi. The authors also treat less-familiar and new logical systems with equal deftness.
 
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front cover of Representation and Inference for Natural Language
Representation and Inference for Natural Language
A First Course in Computational Semantics
Patrick Blackburn
CSLI, 2005
How can computers distinguish the coherent from the unintelligible, recognize new information in a sentence, or draw inferences from a natural language passage? Computational semantics is an exciting new field that seeks answers to these questions, and this volume is the first textbook wholly devoted to this growing subdiscipline. The book explains the underlying theoretical issues and fundamental techniques for computing semantic representations for fragments of natural language. This volume will be an essential text for computer scientists, linguists, and anyone interested in the development of computational semantics.
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front cover of Logic, Language and Computation, Volume 3
Logic, Language and Computation, Volume 3
Patrick Blackburn
CSLI, 2001
With the rise of the internet and the proliferation of technology to gather and organize data, our era has been defined as "the information age." With the prominence of information as a research concept, there has arisen an increasing appreciation of the intertwined nature of fields such as logic, linguistics, and computer science that answer the questions about information and the ways it can be processed. The many research traditions do not agree about the exact nature of information. By bringing together ideas from diverse perspectives, this book presents the emerging consensus about what a conclusive theory of information should be. The book provides an introduction to the topic, work on the underlying ideas, and technical research that pins down the richer notions of information from a mathematical point of view.

The book contains contributions to a general theory of information, while also tackling specific problems from artificial intelligence, formal semantics, cognitive psychology, and the philosophy of mind. There is focus on the dynamics of information flow, and also a consideration of static approaches to information content; both quantitative and qualitative approaches are represented.
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front cover of Specifying Syntactic Structures
Specifying Syntactic Structures
Patrick Blackburn
CSLI, 1997
The papers in this book apply mathematical and logical methods to the description of linguistic structures. Such descriptions are useful for a variety of purposes. For example, they make it easier to design and debug software for dealing with human languages. The purpose of the volume is to introduce a number of new and better methods for describing linguistic structures. The volume contains contributions on the logical foundations of current syntactic theories, as well as on logical methods that lead to new ways of describing syntactic structures.
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front cover of Optimal Communication
Optimal Communication
Reinhard Blutner
CSLI, 2005
This volume explores how the effectiveness of communication is shaped by aspects of semantics and pragmatics such as compositionality, the role of the speaker and hearer, and the acquisition of meaning. Optimal Communication surveys recent research in the fields of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and draws from optimality theory to argue that optimal meanings result from a compromise between competing constraints. Optimal Communication will be an invaluable resource for students in cognitive science, linguistics, and natural language semantics.
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front cover of A Constructional Approach to Resultatives
A Constructional Approach to Resultatives
Hans C. Boas
CSLI, 2003
Providing a unified solution within the frameworks of Construction Grammar and Frame Semantics, Hans Boas develops an account of resultative constructions in English by grouping them in two classes: conventionalized and non-conventionalized. The usage-based model used here proposes that each particular sense of a verb constitutes a conventionalized mini-construction, which is crucial information for the licensing of arguments. In contrast, verbs in non-conventionalized resultative constructions can acquire a novel meaning and thereby a new syntactic frame. English and German resultatives are compared to illustrate the distinct lexical polysemy networks of English and German verbs.
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front cover of Sign-Based Construction Grammar
Sign-Based Construction Grammar
Hans C. Boas
CSLI, 2012
This book offers a long-awaited unified and precise treatise on construction-based grammar. The approach to grammar presented here is the union of Berkeley Construction Grammar, as represented by the early work of Charles J. Fillmore and Paul Kay, with construction HPSG as pioneered by Ivan Sag, Carl Pollard, and others. The presentation of this theory in a detailed chapter by Sag presents the full outlines of a new approach to grammar. It reflects the confluence of two separate, although converging, traditions, and constitutes a novel synthesis.
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front cover of Beyond Grammar
Beyond Grammar
An Experience-Based Theory of Language
Rens Bod
CSLI, 1998
During the last few years, a new approach to language processing has started to emerge, which has become known under the name of "Data Oriented Parsing" or "DOP". This approach embodies the assumption that human language comprehension and production works with representations of concrete past language experiences, rather than with abstract grammatical rules. The models that instantiate this approach therefore maintain corpora of linguistic representations of previously occurring utterances. New utterance-representations are constructed by freely combining partial structures from the corpus. A probability model is used to choose from the collection of different structures of different sizes those that make up the most appropriate representation of an utterance. In this book, DOP models for several kinds of linguistic representations are developed, ranging from tree representations, compositional semantic representations, attribute-value representations, and dialogue representations. These models are studied from a formal, linguistic and computational perspective and are tested with available language corpora. The main outcome of these tests suggests that the productive units of natural language cannot be defined in terms of a minimal set of rules (or constraints or principles), as is usually attempted in linguistic theory, but need to be defined in terms of a large, redundant set of previously experienced structures with virtually no restriction on their size and complexity. I will argue that this outcome has important consequences for linguistic theory, leading to a new notion of language competence. In particular, it means that the knowledge of a speaker/hearer cannot be understood as a grammar, but as a statistical ensemble of language experiences that changes slightly every time a new utterance is processed.
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front cover of Data-Oriented Parsing
Data-Oriented Parsing
Rens Bod
CSLI, 2003
Data-Oriented Parsing (DOP) is one of the leading paradigms in Statistical Natural Language Processing. In this volume, a collection of computational linguists offer a state-of-the-art overview of DOP, suitable for students and researchers in natural language processing and speech recognition as well as for computational linguistics.

This handbook begins with the theoretical background of DOP and introduces the algorithms used in DOP as well as in other probabilistic grammar models. After surveying extensions to the basic DOP model, the volume concludes with close study of the applications that use DOP as a backbone: speech understanding, machine translation, and language learning.
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front cover of Let's Speak Twi
Let's Speak Twi
A Proficiency Course in Akan Language and Culture
Adams Bodomo
CSLI, 2010

Let’s Speak Twi is an introductory language-learning textbook for speakers of English and other languages who seek proficiency in Akan Twi, the most widely used and understood native language of Ghana. Included in the book are several practice exercises and activities; an extensive range of culturally relevant topics and dialogues; lists of idiomatic, colloquial, and euphemistic expressions; a reference glossary; and tips on culturally appropriate behavior.

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front cover of Self-Reference
Self-Reference
Thomas Bolander
CSLI, 2006
An anthology of previously unpublished essays from some of the most outstanding scholars working in philosophy, mathematics, and computer science today, Self-Reference reexamines the latest theories of self-reference, including those that attempt to explain and resolve the semantic and set-theoretic paradoxes. With a thorough introduction that contextualizes the subject for students, this book will be important reading for anyone interested in the general area of self-reference and philosophy.
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front cover of Readings in Japanese Natural Language Processing
Readings in Japanese Natural Language Processing
Francis Bond
CSLI, 2014
Readings in Japanese Natural Language Processing surveys a wide range of texts that explore Japanese morphology and syntactic analysis, discourse, and natural language process applications. Presenting such techniques in a manner accessible to those with little or no familiarity with Japanese, these carefully selected papers will broaden the scope of our study of Japanese linguistic phenomena, making this collection indispensable in the field.
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front cover of Slavic in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
Slavic in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
Robert D. Borsley
CSLI, 1999
This book is the first collection of papers on Slavic language within a formal non-transformational linguistic formalism. The articles presented here are concerned with all components of grammar, from semantics, through syntax and morphology, to phonology. In particular, the following phenomena are given HPSG analyses: syntax and semantics of negation, anaphor binding, syntax and morphology of auxiliaries, {\em wh}-extraction, syntax and morphology of case assignment, diathesis and voice, complement vs. adjunct distinction, and syntactic haplology. The main languages dealt with are Polish and Serbo-Croatian, but Russian, Czech and Bulgarian are also represented.
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front cover of Constraints and Resources in Natural Language Syntax and Semantics
Constraints and Resources in Natural Language Syntax and Semantics
Gosse Bouma
CSLI, 1999
This collection draws together recent work on constraint-based and resource-sensitive approaches to the grammar of natural languages. Some of the issues addressed are: extraction phenomena in a range of languages, the syntax of nominal phrases, the role of argument structure, defining the interface between syntax and morphology and between semantics and prosody, quantifier scope, remnant movement, construction grammar, and formal and computational aspects of grammar formalisms. This volume brings together the leading linguists, logicians, and computer scientists working on Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar and Categorial Grammar. Derived from two recent conferences on Formal Grammar and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar in Aix (1997) and Saarbrücken (1998), this volume represents the most current work in these frameworks.
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front cover of Perspectives on Contexts
Perspectives on Contexts
Paolo Bouquet
CSLI, 2008

Most human thinking is thoroughly informed by context but, until recently, theories of reasoning have concentrated on abstract rules and generalities that make no reference to this crucial factor. Perspectives on Contexts brings together essays from leading cognitive scientists to forge a vigorous interdisciplinary understanding of the contextual phenomenon. Applicable to human and machine cognition in philosophy, artificial intelligence, and psychology, this volume is essential to the current renaissance in thinking about context.

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front cover of Universal Logic
Universal Logic
Ross Brady
CSLI, 2001
Throughout the twentieth century, the classical logic of Frege and Russell dominated the field of formal logic. But, as Ross Brady argues, a new type of weak relevant logic may prove to be better equipped to present new solutions to persistent paradoxes. Universal Logic begins with an overview of classical and relevant logic and discusses the limitations of both in analyzing certain paradoxes. It is the first text to demonstrate how the main set-theoretic and semantic paradoxes can be solved in a systematic way and as such will be of great interest to both scholars and students of logic.
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front cover of New Perspectives on Case Theory
New Perspectives on Case Theory
Ellen Brandner
CSLI, 2003
Case is one of the central concepts in modern generative syntax, doing the work of linking arguments to predicates, moving nominal expressions, and in some languages connecting the referential properties of nominal expressions. Different languages, however, make use of overt case distinctions to very different degrees, leaving the principles of case with many open questions. This volume offers analyses of case phenomena in a broad range of languages and frameworks, including some novel approaches to case that will invite much discussion.
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front cover of Intention, Plans and Practical Reason
Intention, Plans and Practical Reason
Michael E. Bratman
CSLI, 1987
Michael E. Bratman develops a planning theory of intention. Intentions are treated as elements of partial plans of action. These plans play basic roles in practical reasoning, roles that support the organization of our activities over time and socially. Bratman explores the impact of this approach on a wide range of issues, including the relation between intention and intentional action, and the distinction between intended and expected effects of what one intends.
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front cover of Principles of Knowledge Representation
Principles of Knowledge Representation
Gerhard Brewka
CSLI, 1996
Subject: Philosophy; Theory of Knowledge
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front cover of Nonmonotonic Reasoning
Nonmonotonic Reasoning
An Overview
Gerhard Brewka
CSLI, 1997
Nonmonotonic reasoning is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence trying to find more realistic formal models of reasoning than classical logic. In common sense reasoning one often draws conclusions that have to be withdrawn when further information is obtained. The set of conclusions thus does not grow monotonically with the given information. It is this phenomenon that nonmonotonic reasoning methods try to formalize. This volume gives an overview on recent results in the field and points to relevant literature for further study. This up-to-date survey of research in the area of nonmonotonic reasoning includes a concise description of the most influential nonmonotonic logics (e.g. circumscription, autoepistemic logic and default logic), a presentation of recent research in abduction, as well as an overview of semantics for logic programs with default negation. The primary goal of this volume is to make recent results in the field more accessible. An extensive bibliography is included.
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front cover of A Paradigm for Program Semantics
A Paradigm for Program Semantics
Power Structures and Duality
Chris Brink
CSLI, 2001
This book provides a synthesis of four versions of program semantic—srelational semantics, predicate transformer semantics, information systems, and domain theory—showing, through an exhaustive case study analysis, that it is possible to do back-and-forth translation from any of these versions of program semantics into any of the others, and demonstrating that while there are many variations of each, in principle they may be thought of as intertranslatable.
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front cover of Revealing Structure
Revealing Structure
Eugene Buckley
CSLI, 2018
Drawing from a wide range of perspectives in the analysis of grammatical structures, the papers collected in this book are unified not by linguistic subfield, but by the investigative method they employ in revealing grammatical patterns. Revealing Structure explores this style of investigation across phonology, morphology, and syntax. Dedicated to celebrated linguist Larry Hyman, author of such books as A Theory of Phonological Weight, this volume also features data from diverse languages—with a special emphasis on the languages of Africa—making it unique among existing linguistics collections.
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front cover of The Structure of Complex Predicates in Urdu
The Structure of Complex Predicates in Urdu
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 1995
Complex predicates in a number of diverse languages present an interesting problem for formal linguistics as their overall semantics cannot be placed into a simple one-to-one correspondence with the syntactic or morphological pieces which form the complex predicate.  A central issue in the investigation of complex predicates thus is the interaction between syntax and semantics.

This book takes a detailed look at two differing complex predicates in the South Asian language Urdu.  The Urdu permissive in particular brings into focus the problem of the syntax-semantics mismatch.  An examination of the syntactic properties of this complex predicate shows that it is formed by the combination of two semantic heads, but that this combination is not mirrored in the syntax in terms of any kind of syntactic or lexical incorporation.
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front cover of Intelligent Linguistic Architectures
Intelligent Linguistic Architectures
Variations on Themes by Ronald M. Kaplan
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 2006

Ronald M. Kaplan has made foundational contributions to the development of computational linguistic research and linguistic theory, particularly within Lexical-Functional Grammar. Intelligent Linguistic Architectures, a tribute to Kaplan’s cutting-edge work, collects computational and theoretical linguistics papers in his research areas. From machine translation to grammar engineering, from formal issues to semantic theory, this ambitious volume represents the newest developments in linguistic scholarship.

 

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front cover of The Projection of Arguments
The Projection of Arguments
Lexical and Compositional Factors
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 1998
It is becoming increasingly clear that the standard approach to argument linking in terms of "thematic roles", which are determined by the lexical meaning of verbs, has some serious shortcomings. This volume sets out to explore alternatives to a rigid model of lexical projection. It brings together a set of papers from different backgrounds that converge on the general hypothesis that the many semantic factors which influence the projection of arguments should be attributed to compositional processes rather than to the fixed contents of lexical entries. Proposals for a reassessment of the lexicon-syntax interface include flexible models of lexical meaning with productive derivation of alternants, as well as models where the structural context supplants much of the putative role of lexical entries. The topics addressed include questions of argument hierarchies and adicity of predicates, and the syntax and semantics of argument alternations in a set of very diverse languages, which include English, Dutch, Scottish Gaelic, Finnish, Hebrew, Kannada, Malay, Inuit, and Yaqui.
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front cover of LingVis
LingVis
Visual Analytics for Linguistics
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 2018
This volume collects landmark research in a burgeoning field of visual analytics for linguistics, called LingVis. Combining linguistic data and linguistically oriented research questions with techniques and methodologies developed in the computer science fields of visual analytics and information visualization, LingVis is motivated by the growing need within linguistic research for dealing with large amounts of complex, multidimensional data sets. An innovative exploration into the future of LingVis in the digital age, this foundational book both provides a representation of the current state of the field and communicates its new possibilities for addressing complex linguistic questions across the larger linguistic community.
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front cover of Argument Realization
Argument Realization
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 2001

front cover of Lexical Semantics in LFG
Lexical Semantics in LFG
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 2006
Available for the first time in years, Lexical Semantics in LFG is a reissue of the groundbreaking "Papers in Lexical Functional Grammar." It spans a diverse range of topics, including Italian unaccusatives, Malayalam causatives, derived nominals, resultatives, and non-nominative subjects in Icelandic. With its emphasis on representations of lexical semantic information that allow operations on predicate-argument relations and grammatical relations to be independent of structural configurations, the text will be of interest to both scholars and students of linguistics.
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front cover of Nominals
Nominals
Inside and Out
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 2003
Since the early 1970s, the proper treatment and nominals and nominalization has been fundamental to syntactic theory. And yet a satisfactory approach continues to prove elusive. Working within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar, this book discusses the precise reasons why pronouns show particular distributions, why nominalized verbs inherit the predicational power of the verbs they're derived from, and what kind of syntactic category derived nominals should be assigned. Recent developments in LFG make it possible to examine discourse clitics and case markers as well, meaning this collection can address both "classic" nominal issues and novel new perspectives.
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front cover of Time Over Matter
Time Over Matter
Diachronic Perspectives on Morphosyntax
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 2001

front cover of A Grammar Writer's Cookbook
A Grammar Writer's Cookbook
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 1999
A Grammar Writer's Cookbook is an introduction to the issues involved in the writing and design of computational grammars, reporting on experiences and analyses within the ParGram parallel grammar development project. Using the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) framework, this project implemented grammars for German, French, and English to cover parallel corpora.
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front cover of Theoretical Perspectives on Word Order in South Asian Languages
Theoretical Perspectives on Word Order in South Asian Languages
Miriam Butt
CSLI, 1994
Subject: Linguistics; South Asian Languages; Indo-Aryan Languages
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