Complex Types: Modeling Polysemy in Natural Language
A Graduate Research Seminar
Fall 2002
James Pustejovsky
| Location: |
Volen Center, Room 101
@ Brandeis University |
| Time: |
Th 3:30 pm. |
The goal of this seminar is to explore the nature of polysemy in
natural language, and specifically, as modeled in terms of "complex
types" in Generative Lexicon Theory. Complex types (also known as dot
objects) are concepts that cross conventional categories in semantic
typologies for language. The best known grammatical indicator of dot
objects is the presence of "polysemy governed by a logical relation."
For example, in (1) below, the polysemy exhibited by the noun "book",
according to Generative Lexicon, is a reflection of its logical type;
that is, a book can refer both to propositional content (information)
or a physical object.
(1) a. John did not believe that book.
b. John burned that book.
As a complex type, it is a specific reified relation between
informational content and its physical manifestation. This effect is
not an isolated phenomenon, but in fact manifests itself in all major
areas of the lexicon, and hence generally throughtout the
grammar. Other studied cases of complex types include
event.proposition polysemy (such as "exam"), event.event polysemy
(such as "examination", "construction"), event.human polysemy (such as
"appointment"), and object.aperture polysemy (such as "door" and
"window"). Other complex types potentially include certain
attribute.scale polysemies, such as "temperature" and "height".
In this seminar, we examine linguistic phenomena in a number of
diverse languages that exhibit or appear to exhibit the behavior of
complex types, focusing also on verbal and adjectival complex
types. It is hoped that by broadly investigating this phenomenon
cross-linguistically, a richer, more descriptive theory of complex
types will emerge.
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