This is an introductory course on natural language semantics.
The course has two goals:
On the practical side, students will learn to reason with and use deductive systems, and build grammars for computing the "meaning" of fragments of language. Both classroom lectures and computer laboratory exercises to reinforce the material will be used. Syllabus See Lecture 1 notes. Grading
Email List To be hosted at listserv.arizona.edu The name of the list is LING364@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Software We will use SWI-Prolog (freely available) in the computer laboratory classes. |
Instructor: Sandiway Fong sandiway@email.arizona.edu
Office (temporary): RM 308 Douglass
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Date | Lecture Notes | Number of Slides |
Topics | |
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Powerpoint | ||||
1/12 | lecture1.pdf | lecture1.ppt | 26 | Administrivia and organizational meeting. Reading 1 handed out. |
1/17 | lecture2.pdf | lecture2.ppt | 21 | Reading 1: Introduction to what is meaning? "The fundamental question". Short quiz 1. |
1/19 | lecture3.pdf | lecture3.ppt | 31 | Computer laboratory class in SBSRI ICL (Social Sciences 224). Introduction to using SWI-Prolog. Homework 1. |
1/24 | lecture4.pdf | lecture4.ppt | 22 | Review of Prolog introduction. Demo of simple question answering system we'll be building. Syntax. |
1/26 | lecture5.pdf | lecture5.ppt | 34 | Formal grammars. Prolog's Definite Clause Grammar (DCG). Chapter 2: Putting a Meaning Together from Pieces. Quiz. |
1/31 | lecture6.pdf | lecture6.ppt | 19 | Lab Class announcement. Quiz Answers. Compositionality. Idiomatic interpretation. DCG: adding in phrase structure. Adding in semantics. |
Date | Lecture Notes | Number of Slides |
Topics | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Powerpoint | ||||
2/2 | lecture7.pdf | lecture7.ppt | 24 | Modifying basic DCG to compute phrase structure and meanings. Extra lab exercise. |
2/7 | lecture8.pdf | lecture8.ppt | 22 | Homework 1 Review. Chapter 3 Reading handed out. Homework 2. |
2/9 | lecture9.pdf | lecture9.ppt | 20 | Recursion and grammar rules. Discussion of Chapter 3: More on Predicates. First mention of Lambda Calculus. Quiz 3. Extra lab session for Homework 2 exercises 1 through 3. |
2/14 | lecture10.pdf | lecture10.ppt | 14 | The Lambda Calculus Lecture. Beta-reduction. Animated examples and comparison with Prolog notation. Homework 2 deadline extended to Thursday. |
2/16 | lecture11.pdf | lecture11.ppt | 13 | Computer Lab class (SS 224). Homework 2 due at midnight. |
2/21 | lecture12.pdf | lecture12.ppt | 13 | Homework 2 Review. More lambda calculus. Semantic of Adjectives. Chapter 4: Modifiers. |
2/23 | lecture13.pdf | lecture13.ppt | 13 | Computer Lab class (SS 224). Homework 3: Meaning grammar and possible worlds, relative clauses and adjectives. |
2/28 | lecture14.pdf | lecture14.ppt | 16 | Adverbials. Event view and non-event (mapping) view. |
Date | Lecture Notes | Number of Slides |
Topics | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Powerpoint | ||||
3/2 | lecture15.pdf | lecture15.ppt | (None) | Computer Lab class: Homework #3 Help. |
3/7 | lecture16.pdf | lecture16.ppt | 21 | Homework #3 Review. Chapter 5: Complexities of Referring Expressions handout. |
3/9 | lecture17.pdf | lecture17.ppt |   | Computer Lab class: Chapter 5 Exercises. Quiz 4.
Grammar: g17.pl |
3/14 |   |   |   | Spring break: no class. |
3/16 |   |   |   | Spring break: no class. |
3/21 | lecture18.pdf | lecture18.ppt | 22 | Quiz 4 Review. Homework 4. Chapter 5: Reference. Plurals. |
3/23 |   |   |   | No class. Computer Lab is reserved. |
3/28 | lecture19.pdf | lecture19.ppt | 15 | Chapter 5 continued: Bare plurals. Kinds. Anaphors and Pronouns. |
3/30 | lecture20.pdf | lecture20.ppt | 19 | (Updated 6pm 3/30) Chapter 6: Quantifiers. Generalized Quantifiers: lambda calculus-style, and set theoretic style. Truth tables. Prolog implementation. |
Date | Lecture Notes | Number of Slides |
Topics | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Powerpoint | ||||
4/4 | lecture21.pdf | lecture21.ppt | 24 | Translation of Universally Quantified expressions into Prolog. De Morgan's rule. Negative Polarity Items (NPIs). |
4/6 | lecture22.pdf | lecture22.ppt | 22 | (Updated 4/6 (9:47pm) Homework 5. Computer Lab Class. Other Generalized Quantifiers. |
4/11 | lecture23.pdf | lecture23.ppt | 22 | Homework 4 review. Upwards and downwards entailment: every and Negative Polarity Items (NPI). |
4/13 | lecture24.pdf | lecture24.ppt | 13 | Quiz 5 review. Hints for Homework 5. |
4/18 | lecture25.pdf | lecture25.ppt | 21 | Homework 5 review. New handout. Tense: Reichenbach's S,E and R. Relations and time intervals. Past tense. Simple present tense. |
4/20 | lecture26.pdf | lecture26.ppt | 13 | More on tense. Aspectual classification of verbs. Quiz 6. |
4/25 |   |   |   | Go to ECE lecture. 2:00pm. Student Union: Kiva. |
4/27 | lecture27.pdf | lecture27.ppt | 17 | Computer lab class (Social Sciences 224). Homework 6: Time and
Tense. Inferencing with time intervals. Consistency detection.
Note: Due date is next Tuesday! |
Date | Lecture Notes | Number of Slides |
Topics | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Powerpoint | ||||
5/2 | lecture28.pdf | lecture28.ppt | 26 | Grading. Homework 6 Review. Take-home final homework. |