Open AccessFormal Representation of Temporal Expressions
Author(s) -
Svetlana P. Timoshenko
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
epic series in language and linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
ISSN - 2398-5283
DOI - 10.29007/fdnj
Subject(s) - temporality , yesterday , computer science , formal semantics (linguistics) , representation (politics) , formal system , verb , meaning (existential) , semantics (computer science) , formal language , linguistics , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , programming language , philosophy , epistemology , physics , astronomy , politics , political science , law
In this paper we address the semantics of temporal expressions in natural language (such as vchera,’yesterday’, shestnadcatogo maja, ’on the 16th of May’, tri dnja ’three days’) and the way they interact with some other manifestations of temporality (such as functioning of prepositions and aspectual verb forms). A formal and constituent description of heterogeneous temporal expressions is proposed. We consider the interval algebra presented by James Allen to be the right basis for such a description. The new formal system is compared with the known TimeML project. The latter has weak spots - the meaning of some temporal expressions simply can not be represented in terms of TimeML. We discuss such cases and show how to analyze them in our formal system.