Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!ariel.unm.edu!nmsu!opus!ted From: ted@nmsu.edu (Ted Dunning) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: NLP reference wanted Message-ID: Date: 5 Dec 90 03:31:05 GMT References: <25674@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <8038@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> <285@sps.com> Sender: news@NMSU.Edu Organization: Computing Research Lab Lines: 40 In-reply-to: vjk@sps.com's message of 5 Dec 90 01:02:15 GMT In article <285@sps.com> vjk@sps.com (Vince Kovarik) writes: In article <8038@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>, mock@iris.ucdavis.edu (Kenrick J. Mock) replies: > > Semantics are necessary to really understand what is going on. > Consider the following sentences: > > "John gave Mary a book." > "John gave Mary a kiss." > "John gave Mary a beating." > > All of these sentences are syntactically the same, but obviously mean > different things. > Although a firm believer in the necessity of semantics, there is, nonetheless, syntactic differences in the examples provided. A book would be identified as a noun and, hence, some object which is the target of the "giving" action. Both kiss and beating are verbs but different forms (i.e. simple present and present participle). book is also a verb, as kiss is also a noun. beating is of course a different animal as kenrick says. a better example would the be tiresome pair: the coach married the star. the astronomer saw the star. the coach is certainly not drawn by horses, the first star is not in the sky, and the second is probably not earthly. distinguishing these syntactically leads to a very non-perspicuous syntax which must essentially make semantic disinctions, or must be non-deterministic. Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com