Introduction to Embodied Construction Grammar March 4, 2003 Ben Bergen

Goals of the talk Outline ECG view of language understanding Sketch ECG formalism in some detail –Schemas (semantic knowledge) –Lexical constructions –Phrasal constructions

Basics of ECG The basic units of linguistic knowledge are form-meaning pairings, constructions –These may include words, morphemes, idioms, phrasal patterns, etc. - anything that has form and meaning. –Consider the ditransitive construction, which has a transfer-of-possession meaning Looking to get an assist, John broomed me the ball. With a healthy achoo, I sneezed the napkin off the table.

Basics of ECG Why bring semantics into grammar? Whether a sentence is acceptable depends on the semantic interaction between a sentence pattern (phrasal construction), a verb, and arguments. –John broomed me the ball. –?John broomed me the Volkswagen. (acceptable if John and I are dinosaurs) –?I sent London the newest edition. (acceptable if London stands for a person or group of people in London capable of receiving things.) –??John ate me the ball. (presumably, it’s acceptable some time, but when?) –?John sneezed me the ball.

Basics of ECG Constructions are learned associatively –Constructions, like the pairing between /dag/ and the category DOG, or between the ditransitive phrasal pattern and the concept of a transfer of possession event must be learned because they are idiosyncratic. –The basic mechanism in the brain for learning strengthens connections between neural structures that fire together.

Basics of ECG Meaning is encoded in ECG using schemas –Schemas: mental representations of a recurrent perceptual, motor, or other experience. –Most theories of the mind include schemas, aka schemes, frames, scripts, gestalts, ICMs, … –Schemas have two facets. They are encyclopedic, capturing the motor, perceptual, etc. details of the particular experience Some important components of these schemas are externally accessible, and serve as an interface

Basics of ECG Container schema –We have lots of experiences of containers, and detailed knowledge about these –But there are certain fundamental components of the container schema that are crucial

Schemas Source-Path-Goal schema encodes motion of a trajector along a path

Basics of ECG Other schemas include –Contact –Transfer –Commercial transaction –Child –Bob –Jump –… and thousands more We’ll see some more example in a moment

Language Understanding Process

An utterance is perceived This activates the form pole of some constructions The analysis process assembles the constructions, binding together their forms and their meanings The product is a constructional analysis This yields a semspec, parameterized schemas linked together in specified ways The understander simulates (imagines) the content by fleshing out the semspec Resulting inferences are propagated through the conceptual system.

Grammar That’s an outline of language understanding using ECG Now: actual representation of constructions and schemas themselves We’ll work through an example sentence –Mary tossed me a drink. One possible constructional analysis of this sentence (where we’re going):

Constructional analysis

Referring Expressions The sentence has three referents in it All referring expressions share a Referent schema

Referring Expressions The Referring-Expression construction, or Ref-Expr is inherited by all constructions that perform the pervasive function of referring

Referring Expressions The Mary construction inherits Ref-Expr –Its form pole is specified –Its meaning pole is bound to the Mary schema –Its referent has an accessibility status

Referring Expressions Me inherits Ref-Expr Constructional feature case has the value object Form pole is “me” Its meaning pole is bound to speaker

Referring Expressions Drink inherits Common-Noun, a type of Ref-Expr Form is “drink” Meaning pole is bound to Drink schema

Referring Expressions A-CN-Expr inherits Ref-Expr Takes a constituent Has form and an ordering constraint Category bound to meaning of com-noun

Referring Expressions Drink schema evokes (refers to) Drink-Action schema Inherits Bounded-Mass Is the drink-entity of the Drink-Action Has a Boundary an instance of Container schema Has a Mass, an instance of Liquid schema

Referring Expressions Bounded Mass schema inherits Bounded-Thing Has two roles, which are constrained to be an instance of the Boundary and the Substance schema, respectively

Referring Expressions

Predicating Expressions Predication: another major function of language Constructions that predicate have a Predication schema –Overall event –Particular schemas –Aspect –Place, time, etc.

Predicating Expressions Predicating expressions are all those that predicate something of a referring expression, e.g. the ditransitive construction All inherit the Pred-Expr construction

Predicating Expressions Tossed, a verb, evokes the predication schema, although it is not a Pred-Expr Verbs must have its schemas role filled

Predicating Expressions The tossed construction (assumed stored) Predication’s schemas role is a Toss schema Aspect is perfect; tense is past

The Semantics of Tossed Toss schema involves a transfer of energy from an energy-source to an energy-sink Transfer of force results in location change

The Semantics of Tossed Tossed is like other verbs that encode forced motion. Combine force transfer, SPG, and Cause-effect

The Semantics of Tossed The toss Schema evokes Forced-Motion Has tosser (causer) & tossed (trajector & Bounded-Thing) Its meaning is bound to the action of the fm Involves low force and means of motion is the Fly schema

The Ditransitive Construction The Ditransitive Encodes something different from Toss - a Transfer Transfers: cause- effect relationship between transfer of force and receiving schema

The Ditransitive Construction Ditransitive Construction inherits Pred-Expr Has 4 constituents and assigns case features to 3 Ordering constraints Bindings in the semantics

Constructional analysis

Semantic Specification

The Bigger Picture We haven’t talked about: –Morphology –Learning –The analysis process –Simulation –Construal (metaphor, metonymy, etc.) –Neuroscientific and psychological evidence –The connectionist implementation of ECG –… and many others

The Bigger Picture All sorts of constructions, lexical, phrasal, etc. can be represented in a unified formalism This includes form, meanings, constructional attributes, and discourse factors It is not only a model of human cognitive functioning, but is also being used for natural language understanding applications

The Bigger Picture If you have a formal theory of human semantic representations, these can help drive syntactic behavior –Mary can fill the agent constituency because it is a Ref- Expr that occurs before the verb (with unspecified case) and whose referent can be a transfer agent –Tossed can fill the action constituency because it is a verb in the right sequential position whose schema can be interpreted as a means of transfer Incorporating semantics into grammar is inevitable if we want to capture syntactic patterning, so we might as well do it in the most cognitively motivated way possible.