Similarity semantics and building probabilistic semantic maps from parallel texts

This paper deals with statistical (non-implicational) semantic maps, built automatically using classical multidimensional scaling from a direct comparison of parallel text data (the Gospel according to Mark) in the domain of motion events (case/adpositions) in 153 languages from all continents in 190 parallel clauses. The practical objective of is to present one way (among other possible ways) how semantic maps can be built easily and fully automatically from large typological datasets (Section 3). Its methodological objective is to demonstrate that semantic maps can be built in various ways and that sampling of languages and small differences in the method chosen to build a semantic map can have a strong influence on the results (Section 4), which does not mean that semantic space is arbitrary, but rather that it is dynamic (having stretching and shrinking dimensions). The theoretical aim of the paper is to discuss similarity semantics, the implicit theoretical basis behind the semantic map approach, and to show that similarity semantics is not novel, but has a long-standing tradition in philosophy and psychology (Section 2).

[1]  Balthasar Bickel,et al.  Himalayan space: cultural horizons and practices , 1999 .

[2]  Paul John Thibault,et al.  Saussure, Ferdinand de , 2004 .

[3]  F. D. Saussure.  Cours de linguistique générale , 1924 .

[4]  Fernando Zúñiga,et al.  Source-Goal (in)difference and the typology of motion events in the clause , 2006 .

[5]  Christian Biemann,et al.  Using Strong's Numbers in the Bible to test an automatic alignment of parallel texts , 2007 .

[6]  Karl Otto Erdmann.  Die Bedeutung des Wortes : Aufsätze aus dem Grenzgebiet der Sprachpsychologie und Logik , 2022 .

[7]  William Croft,et al.  Inferring Universals from Grammatical Variation:Multidimensional Scaling for Typological Analysis , 2008 .

[8]  Gabriel Altmann,et al.  Allgemeine Sprachtypologie : Prinzipien und Messverfahren , 1973 .

[9]  A treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge. By George Berkeley ... With prolegomena, and with annotations, select, translated, and original. By Charles P. Krauth , 2003 .

[10]  George Berkeley,et al.  A treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge, 1734 , 1971 .

[11]  Rada Mihalcea,et al.  Parallel texts , 2005, Natural Language Engineering.

[12]  G. Logan.  Toward an instance theory of automatization. , 1988 .

[13]  David Lightfoot,et al.  Explaining language change: an evolutionary approach , 2002 .

[14]  Samuel P. Morgan,et al.  Hamming, Richard W. , 2003 .

[15]  David Kilby,et al.  On case markers , 1981 .

[16]  Martin Haspelmath,et al.  The geometry of grammatical meaning: Semantic maps and cross-linguistic comparison , 2003 .

[17]  Murray B. Emeneau,et al.  Defining a Linguistic Area: South Asia , 1978 .

[18]  Thomas J. Palmeri,et al.  An Exemplar-Based Random Walk Model of Perceptual Categorization , 1997 .

[19]  David Gil,et al.  Riau Indonesian sama, Explorations in Macrofunctionality , 2004 .

[20]  J. Nichols.  Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time , 1992 .

[21]  Zbigniew Michalewicz,et al.  An Evolutionary Approach , 2004 .

[22]  Ekkehart Malotki.  Hopi-Raum : Eine sprachwissenschaftliche Analyse der Raumvorstellungen in der Hopi-Sprache , 1979 .

[23]  Arthur Schopenhauer,et al.  Theorie des Erkennens , 1913 .

[24]  S. Levinson.  Space in language and cognition , 2003 .

[25]  Bernhard Wälchli,et al.  Co-compounds and natural coordination , 2005 .

[26]  Jules Davidoff,et al.  Similarity and categorisation: neuropsychological evidence for a dissociation in explicit categorisation tasks , 1999, Cognition.

[27]  William J. Samarin,et al.  The Gbeya language : grammar, texts, and vocabularies , 1968 .

[28]  Richard W. Hamming,et al.  Error detecting and error correcting codes , 1950 .

[29]  I. A. Richards,et al.  The Meaning of Meaning: a Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism , 1923, Nature.

[30]  S. Levinson.  Space in language and cognition: Explorations in cognitive diversity , 2003 .

[31]  D. Huson,et al.  Application of phylogenetic networks in evolutionary studies. , 2006, Molecular biology and evolution.

[32]  Bernhard Wälchli,et al.  Advantages and disadvantages of using parallel texts in typological investigations , 2007 .

[33]  Greg Shepherd,et al.  Grammar and vocabulary , 1995 .

[34]  Michael Cysouw,et al.  Parallel texts: using translational equivalents in linguistic typology , 2007 .

[35]  R. Shepard,et al.  Toward a universal law of generalization for psychological science. , 1987, Science.

[36]  Eve V. Clark,et al.  The Lexicon in Acquisition , 1996 .

[37]  Robert M Nosofsky,et al.  Speeded old-new recognition of multidimensional perceptual stimuli: modeling performance at the individual-participant and individual-item levels. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[38]  Michael Cysouw,et al.  Building semantic maps: the case of person marking , 2007 .

[39]  I. A. Richards.  Selected works 1919-1938 , 2001 .

[40]  P. Garvin,et al.  Prolegomena to a Theory of Language , 1953 .

[41]  Claire Bowern,et al.  Linguistic Fieldwork: A Practical Guide , 2007 .

[42]  Matthew S. Dryer,et al.  Large Linguistic Areas and Language Sampling , 1989 .

[43]  R. Nosofsky,et al.  An exemplar-based random walk model of speeded classification. , 1997, Psychological review.

[44]  Roger Lass,et al.  On Explaining Language Change , 1980 .

[45]  Matti Miestamo,et al.  New challenges in typology : broadening the horizons and redefining the foundations , 2007 .

[46]  Karl Otto Erdmann.  Die Bedeutung des Wortes , 1900 .

[47]  C. K. Ogden,et al.  The Meaning of Meaning , 1923 .

[48]  Lourens de Vries.  Some remarks on the use of Bible translations as parallel texts in linguistic research , 2007 .

[49]  Joseph Pasquale Crazzolara.  A study of the Acooli language , 1955 .

[50]  John A. Goldsmith,et al.  Unsupervised Learning of the Morphology of a Natural Language , 2001, CL.

[51]  William Croft,et al.  Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic Theory in Typological Perspective , 2001 .

[52]  Alessandro Lenci,et al.  Space in Language , 2010 .

[53]  Fritz Mauthner,et al.  Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache , 1901 .

[54]  S. Levinson,et al.  'Natural Concepts' in the Spatial Topologial Domain--Adpositional Meanings in Crosslinguistic Perspective: An Exercise in Semantic Typology , 2003 .

[55]  J. P. Crazzolara,et al.  A study of the Acooli language : grammar and vocabulary , 1947 .

[56]  Stéphane Robert,et al.  Deictic space in Wolof: discourse, syntax and the importance of absence , 2006 .

[57]  David Gil,et al.  The World Atlas of Language Structures , 2005 .

[58]  W. Bruce Croft.  Radical Construction Grammar , 2001 .

[59]  Bernard Comrie,et al.  Markedness, Grammar, People, and the World , 1986 .