Abstract of "Vector Space Semantics: a modeltheoretic analysis
of locative prepositions"
Abstract of "Vector Space Semantics: a modeltheoretic analysis
of locative prepositions"
Joost Zwarts
and Yoad Winter
Journal of Logic, Language and Information 9 (2000): 171-213
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This paper introduces a compositional semantics of locative
prepositional phrases which
is based on a vector space ontology. Modeltheoretic properties
of prepositions like monotonicity and conservativity are defined in this
system in a straightforward way. These notions are shown to describe central
inferences with spatial expressions and to account for the grammaticality of
preposition modification. Modeltheoretic constraints on the
set of possible prepositions in natural language are specified, similar
to the semantic universals of Generalized Quantifier Theory.
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