A Simple Syntax for Complex Semantics

As part of a long-ranged project that aims at establishing databasetheoretic semantics as a model of computational semantics, this presentation focuses on the development of a syntactic component for processeing strings of words or sentences to construct semantic data structures. For design and modeling purposes, the present treatment will be restricted to the analysis of some problematic constructions of Korean involving semi-free word order, conjunction and temporal anchoring, and adnominal modification and antecedent binding. The present work heavily relies on Hausser's (1999, 2000) SLIM theory for language that is based on surface compositionality, timelinearity and two other conditions on natural language processing. Time-linear syntax for natural language has been shown to be conceptually simple and computationally efficient. The associated semantics is complex, however, because it must deal with situated language involving interactive multi-agents. . Nevertheless, by processing input word strings in a time-linear mode, the syntax can incrementally construct the necessary semantic structures for relevant queries and valid inferences. The fragment of Korean syntax will be implemented in Malaga, a Ctype implementation language that was enriched for both programming and debugging purposes and that was particluarly made suitable for implementing in Left-Associative Grammar. This presentation will show how the system of syntactic rules with constraining subrules processes Korean sentences in a step-by-step time-linear manner to incrementally construct semantic data structures that mainly specify relations with their argument, temporal, and binding structures.