The key role of semantics in the development of large-scale grammars of natural language

The key role of semantics in the development of large-scale grammars of natural language Valia Kordoni Department of Computational Linguistics University of Saarland PO Box 15 11 50, D -66041 Saarbriicken, Germany kordoni@coli.uni—sb.de Abstract The aim of this paper is to show how large-scale (computational) gram- mars of natural language benefit from an organization of semantics which is based on Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS; Copestake et al. (1999)). This we are doing by providing an account of valence alternations in German based on MRS, showing how such an account makes a computational grammar more efficient and less complicated for the grammar writer. 1 Introduction The valence alternations in German that we focus on in this paper are the ones involving direct inter- nal arguments (i.e., objects) and indirect preposi- tional complements: NP k V NP, 113 NP31 NP k V NP3 [P NP2], where the indices denote referen- tial identity. Such alternation patterns in German character- ize among others the behaviour of verbal predi- cates which participate in the so-called Locative Alternation phenomena. 2 Locative Alternation in German: Overview 2.1 The verbs giefien and fallen Consider the following sentences in German: (1) Peter gof3 die Blumen mit Wasser. Peter poured the flowers.A with water "Peter watered the flowers". (2) Peter goB Wasser auf die Blumen. (3) Peter fiillte den Tank (mit Wasser). Peter.N filled the tank.A (with water) "Peter filled the tank (with water)". (4) Peter fiillte Wasser in den Tank. (1)-(4) are examples of German predicates which participate in the so-called Locative alterna- tion phenomena (see among others Dowty (1991), Rappaport and Levin (1988), Levin and Rap apport Hovav (1991)). Alternations in German with the locative verbs fallen (fill) and giefien (pour) are of the general form presented in Section (1). The main features of these verbs in German (English, Modern Greek, and some other languages) is that they are morphologically identical and that they involve two arguments: one denoting a location and one denoting the locatum (die Blumen (flow- ers)Iden Tank (tank) and Wasser (water), respec- tively, in (1)-(4) above). 2.2 Removal Predicates The removal predicates in German also take loca- turn and location arguments and they are distin- guished in the following groups: 1. Predicates (like leeren/entleeren (empty)) which imply a change of state of the loca- tion argument when it is realized as the direct object of the verb: (5) Peter leerte den Tank. Peter.N emptied the tank.A "Peter emptied the tank". (6) Peter leerte das Wasser aus dem Tank. Peter emptied the water.A from the tank "Peter emptied the water from the tank". 111 2. Predicates which denote a contact with the lo- cation, as well as a change of location. These predicates may also specify the manner or the instrument related to the action of mov- ing (wischen (wipe)). wischen does not admit a von-PP (of/from-PP) complement when its location argument is realized as the direct ob- ject (example (7)). In this case wischen does not entail the existence of a locatum argu- ment. …

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