Institute for Linguistics Stuttgart University Regine Brandtner (SFB 732) Constraints on...

Institute for LinguisticsStuttgart University

Regine Brandtner (SFB 732)

Constraints on copredication

Deverbal Nominalization-Constraints on copredication

Regine Brandtner, M.A.University of Stuttgart, Germany

SFB 732 / Project B1




Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Klaus von Heusinger

Project B1: Formation and Interpretation of derived nominals

SFB 732: Incremental specification in context• collaborative research centre established in 2006• funded by the German National Science Foundation• 14 research projects, about 40 researchers

(Institute of Natural Language Processing & Institute of

Linguistics)




Introduction to deverbal –ung nominals in German:

Base

• mostly transitive verbs, often prefixed:e.g. Absperrung ‘obstruction’

• no modal or auxiliary verbs:e.g. *Seiung ‘being’, *Wollung ‘wanting’





Semantics

Entführung ‘kidnapping’

Absperrung ‘obstruction’

Einladung ‘invitation’

Zahlung ‘payment’

Lüftung ‘air conditioning’

Unterführung ‘underpass’

Bedienung ‘waitress’

Verwaltung ‘administration’

EVENT

RESULT STATE / OBJECT

INFO OBJECT (Medium)

RESULT (abstract)

MEANS

LOCATION

AGENT

COLLECTIVE





Indicators for these readings:

Event and process indicators:

• Time frame predicates: beginnen/ abschließen ‘begin’/ ’complete’

• Duration: hat 6 Monate gedauert ‘lasted 6 months’

• Dates: am 7.Juli ‘July 7th’

• Process modifying predicates: vorsichtig ‘cautious’

• Iteration: permanent/ wiederholt ‘permanent’/ ‘repeated’





Indicators for these readings:

Result object indicators:

• Physical change: überreichen / erscheinen ‘present’/ ‘appear’

• Location: auf dem Tisch liegen / vorliegen ‘lie on the table’/ ‚be available’

• Size, shape etc.: lang, hoch, rot sein ‘be long, high, red’

(based on Ehrich & Rapp 2000)




Special issue: Copredication

Two of these indicators are in conflict

(1) Die [langwierige]EV Übersetzung [brachte mir viel Geld]RE.

‘The tedious translation earned me a lot of money.’

(2) Die [am Montag durchgeführte]EV Messung [belegt]RE,

dass der Grenzwert überschritten wurde.

‘The measurement conducted on Monday shows that the

critical value was exceeded.’




Classification of the phenomenon nominalization

• Ambiguity ?Selection of an interpretation out of a given set of senses while cancelling the others

Question: do we really want to establish a theory where a once disambiguated lexical item itself is allowed to change in context?

Implication: two disambiguation processes in a row, hence one predication must fail or the nominalization would have to be shifted




Classification of the phenomenon nominalization

• Underspecification / dot objects / local disambiguation? (Bierwisch, Pustejovsky, Solstad & Rossdeutscher)

No cancellation of the other options (after the first disambiguation)

focus on one of them(others available for reference in the ongoing discourse)

Implication: copredication is not a paradox, everycombination should be possible




Underspecification

Question: what about examples like (3) and (4):

(3) ?Die Absperrung [aus Holz]RE [hat drei Tage gedauert]EV.

‘The wooden obstruction has taken three days.’

(4) ?Die [gemeinsame]EV Bemalung [hat Flecken]RE.

‘The collective painting has stains.’




Copredication

• Two main issues:

Underspecification has a solution for A), But: we have to define constraints for copredication

A) Predication conflict (concerning the nominal‘s IP in context)

B) Constraints on the combinations of indicators




Global constraints on copredication

Combination of different types:

(5) ??Die Leitung der Anwaltskanzlei ist [schwierig]EV.Sie hat [angerufen]agentive

‘The management of the law firm is difficult.It has called.’

(6) ?? Die teure Reinigung [der Kleider]EV [liegt in der Innenstadt]locative.

‘The expensive dry cleaning of the clothes is located in the city centre.’




Global constraints on copredication

Combination of different types:

But:(8) Die Übersetzung war [langwierig]EV …

a. und [fehlerlos]Info b. und [liegt jetzt auf dem Tisch]medium.

‘The translation was tedious and faultless/and is on the table now.’

(7) ?Die [regelmäßige]EV Lüftung des Kinderzimmers ist wichtig, aber [kaputt]means.

‘The regular ventilation of the nursery is important, but damaged.’




Local constraints on copredication – some data

Compare:

(10) ?Die einfache Übersetzung brachte mir viel Geld ein.‘The easy translation earned me a lot of money.’

(9) Die [langwierige]EV Übersetzung [brachte mir viel Geld]RE

‘The tedious translation earned me a lot of money.’

causal relation between the manner of the event and the resulting object





(10) ?Die einfache Übersetzung brachte mir viel Geld ein.‘The easy translation earned me a lot of money.’

Repair / Accomodation:

(10’) Die einfache Übersetzung brachte mir dennoch viel Geld ein.‘The easy translation still earned me a lot of money.’





(11) Die [abblätternde]RE Bemalung [wurde schlampig durchgeführt]EV.

‘The peeling painting (of the wall) was conducted negligently.’

Causal relation

Compare:

(11’) ?Die abblätternde Bemalung [dauerte 4 Stunden]EV.

‘The peeling painting (of the wall) took four hours.’





(12’) ?Die abblätternde Bemalung [dauerte 4 Stunden]EV.

‘The peeling painting (of the wall) took four hours.’

Repair / Accomodation:

(12’’) Die abblätternde Bemalung [dauerte dennoch 4 h]EV.

‘The peeling painting (of the wall) still took four hours.’





(13) Die [täuschend echte]RE Fälschung [dauerte lange]EV.‘The deceptively real-looking imitation took a long time.’

Compare

(13’) ?Die [schlechte]RE Fälschung [dauerte lange]EV.

‘The bad imitation took a long time.’





(13’) ?Die [schlechte]RE Fälschung [dauerte lange]EV.

‘The bad imitation took a long time.’

Repair /Accomodation

(13’) Die [schlechte]RE Fälschung [dauerte dennoch lange]EV.

‘The bad imitation still took a long time.’





(15) Obwohl die Messung von Studenten [durchgeführt wurde]EV ist sie sehr [aussagekräftig]RE.

‘Although the measurement was conducted by students it is very significant.’

Other repairs

(14) Lunch was delicious, but took forever. (Asher 2007)





Simple nouns:

(13) ?The newspaper was founded in 1878 and is printed in Frankfurt.

(13‘) The newspaper was founded in 1878 and is typed in Sütterlin .

Repair / Accommodation:

(13’’) The newspaper was founded in 1878 and is still typed in Sütterlin .





(14) ?Die Übersetzung [liegt auf dem Tisch]RE - sie hat [6 Monate gedauert]EV.‘The translation was on the table - it had taken 6 months.’

Repair / Accommodation:

(14‘) Die Übersetzung [liegt endlich auf dem Tisch]RE sie hat wirklich [6 Monate gedauert]EV.‘The translation was finally on the table it had really

taken 6 months.’

Expected narration structure violated





(15) Die Übersetzung war [langwierig]EV und [liegt jetzt endlich auf dem Tisch]RE.

‘The translation was tedious and is finally on the table now.’

(16) Die Übersetzung war [langwierig]EV, [liegt jetzt aberendlich auf dem Tisch]RE.

‘The translation was tedious, but is finally on the table now.’

Construction of a relation between the manner of a past event and the present




Aims and open questions:

• Evaluate existing theories on nominalization and polysemy concerning copredication

• Make the constraints on copredication more explicit

• Verify the acceptability of the examples by questionnaires

• Collect more ‘real’ examples from corpora

? Which indicators do you use?

? (How) can we search for copredication examples directly?

? Comments / suggestions / severe criticism?

THANK YOU!!




References:

• Asher, N. 2008. A web of words: Lexical meaning in context. Ms., UT-Austin

• Bierwisch, M. 1989. “Event Nominalization: Proposals and Problems“. In: W. Motsch (ed.). Wortstruktur und Satzstruktur. Berlin, 1- 73

• Brandtner, R. 2008. Meaning Transfer and the Compositional Semantics of Nominalizations. In: SinSpeC. Working Papers of the SFB 732 "Incremental Specification in Context", ed. Florian Schäfer. Online Publikationsverbund der Universität Stuttgart (OPUS)

• Brandtner, R. & von Heusinger, K. (submitted). Nominalization in Context - Conflicting Readings and Predicate Transfer. submitted to: Artemis Alexiadou &Monika Rathert (eds.). Nominalizations across Languages and Frameworks. Berlin: deGruyter (Interface explorations)•Cruse, D. A. 2000. Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press

•Ehrich, V. & Rapp, I. 2000. Sortale Bedeutung und Argumentstruktur: ung- Nominalisierungen im Deutschen. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 19: 245303.




• Heid, U. et al. 2007. Indicators for sortal readings of German nominalizations with –ung: properties and extraction from corpora. Paper presented at the SFB 732 colloquium “Theoretical and Computational Perspectives on Underspecification”, University of Stuttgart, 3.11.2007.

• Nunberg, G. 2004. The Pragmatics of Deferred Interpretation. In: The Handbook of Pragmatics, eds. Laurence Horn & Gregory Ward, 344364. Oxford: Blackwell

• Pustejovsky, J. 1995. The Generative Lexicon. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

• Roßdeutscher, A. , Kamp, H., Solstad, T. & Reyle, U. 2007. Lexical and supra-lexical underspecification rooted in a dm-based theory of word formation. Paper presented at the SFB 732 colloquium “Theoretical and Computational Perspectives on Underspecification”, Universität Stuttgart, 3.11.2007.

• Solstad, T. 2008. Constructing anaphoric relations. Manuskript, Universität Stuttgart

• Weiland, H. 2009. "Empirische Untersuchungen zu pragmatischen Bedingungen für Bedeutungsverschiebungen im Deutschen". Magisterarbeit, Universität Stuttgart




Appendix: An alternative analysis of copredication

(using Nunberg’s predicate transfer)Nunberg’s predicate transfer

(1) i. I am parked out back.

ii. I am {the owner of a car that is parked out back}

predicate transfer on the VP instead of shift on the pronoun (Nunberg 2004)

Test for transfer position:

(2) i. Ij am {the owner of a car that is parked out back}j and have been waitingj for 15 minutes.

ii. #I am {the owner of a cari that is parked out back} and may not starti.

•




Copredication with simple nouns (Nunberg 2004):

(3) i. Roth is [Jewish]person and [widely read]books.ii. Roth is Jewish and {a person whose books are [widely read] books} person

Application to derived nominals (Brandtner & von Heusinger) Second indicator is enriched to match the requirements of the first

one:

(4) i. Die [am Montag durchgeführte]EV Messung [belegt]RE, dass...‘The measurement conducted on Monday shows that …’ii. Die [am Montag durchgeführte]EV Messung {hat Resultate, die [belegen]RE }EV, dass... {has results that [show]...}

Only one interpretation for the nominal

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