Open AccessRoles and the compositional semantics of role-denoting relational adjectives
Author(s) -
Curt Anderson,
Sebastian Löbner
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.60.2018.456
Subject(s) - semantics (computer science) , ontology , lexical semantics , computer science , linguistics , context (archaeology) , natural language processing , representation (politics) , artificial intelligence , lexical item , epistemology , programming language , philosophy , history , archaeology , politics , political science , law
The semantics of adjectives related to nominals denoting societal roles, such aspresidential (from president), have remained understudied. We examine the semantics of whatwe call role-denoting relational adjectives, providing a formal analysis using the notion of aframe, a unified representation for lexical knowledge, world knowledge, and context. The frameswe propose are based on a constructivist philosophical understanding of social roles, leading usto posit a multi-tiered ontology of events and individuals. Using frames and our ontology, weprovide a general semantics for role-denoting relational adjectives and roles.Keywords: modification, adjectives, relational adjectives, events, non-intersective adjectives,roles, natural language metaphysics, frame semantics.