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From: asa@rayssd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: WANTED: Simple English Grammar - (nf)
Message-ID: <187@rayssd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Oct-83 12:54:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: rayssd.187
Posted: Fri Oct  7 12:54:21 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Oct-83 05:01:39 EDT
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Organization: Raytheon Co., Portsmouth RI
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date: 10/7/83

	Yesterday i sent a suggestion that you look at Winograd's
new book on syntax.  Upon reflection, I realized that there are
several aspects of syntax not clearly stated therein. In particular,
there is one aspect which you might wish to think about, if you
are interested in building models and using the 'expectations'
approach. This aspect has to do with the synergism of syntax and
semantics. The particular case which occured to me is an example
of the specific ways that Latin grammar terminology is innapropriate
for English. In English, there is no 'present' tense in the intuitive
sense of that word. The stem of the verb (which Winograd calls the
'infinitive' form, in contrast to the traditional use of this term to
signify the 'to+stem' form) actually encodes the semantic concept
of 'indefinite habitual' Thus, to say only 'I eat.' sounds
peculiar. When the stem is used alone, we expect a qualifier, as in
'I eat regularly', or 'I eat very little', or 'I eat every day'. In
this framework, there is a connection with the present, in the sense
that the process described is continuous, has existed in the past,
and is expected to continue in the future. Thus, what we call the
'present' is really a 'modal' form, and might better be described
as the 'present state of a continuing habitual process'. If we wish
to describe something related to our actual state at this time,
we use what I think of as the 'actual present', which is 'I am eating'.
Winograd hints at this, especially in Appendix B, in discussing verb
forms. However, he does not go into it in detail, so it might help
you understand better what's happening iif you keep in mind the fact
that there exist specific underlying semantic functions being
implemented, which are in turn based on the ltype of information
to be conveyed and the subtlety of the disinctions desired. Knowing
this at the outset may help you decide the elements you wish to
model in a simplified program. It will certainly help if you
want to try the expectations technique. This is an ideal situation
in which to try a 'blackboard' type of expert system, where the
sensing, semantics, and parsing/generation engines operate in
parallel. Good luck!

	A final note: if you would like to explore further a view
of grammar which totally dispenses with the terms and concepts of
Latin grammar, you might read "The Languages of Africa" (I think
that's the title), by William Welmer.

	By the way! Does anyone out there know if Welmer ever published
his fascinating work on the memory of colors as a function of time?
Did it at least get stored in the archives at Berkeley?

Asa Simmons
rayssd!asa