Nicholas Asher
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 3842250 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Nicholas Asher |
| PRENOMES | Nicholas |
| SOBRENOME | Asher |
| ASSINATURA | ASHER N |
| AFILIAÇÕES | The University of Texas at Austin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7689-8246 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 35 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 48 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 35 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1984 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2023 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
Analyzing Semantic Faithfulness of Language Models via Input Intervention on Question Answering
Transformer-based language models have been shown to be highly effective for several NLP tasks. In this article, we consider three transformer models, BERT, RoBERTa, and XLNet, in both small and large versions, and investigate how faithful their representations are with respect to the semantic content of texts. We formalize a notion of semantic faithfulness, in which the semantic content of a text should causally figure in a model’s inferences in…
Bias in semantic and discourse interpretation
A formal semantics for situated conversation
While linguists and philosophers have sought to model the various ways in which the meaning of what we say can depend on the nonlinguistic context, this work has by and large focused on how the nonlinguistic context can be exploited to ground or anchor referential or otherwise context-sensitive expressions. In this paper, we focus on examples in which nonlinguistic events contribute entire discourse units that serve as arguments to coherence rela…
Content vs. function words
Counter to the often assumed division of labour between content and function words,we argue that both types of words have lexical content in addition to their logical content. Wepropose that the difference between the two types of words is a difference in degree. We conducteda preliminary study of quantificational determiners with methods from DistributionalSemantics, a computational approach to natural language semantics. Our findings have impli…
A Dependency Perspective on RST Discourse Parsing and Evaluation
Computational text-level discourse analysis mostly happens within Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), whose structures have classically been presented as constituency trees, and relies on data from the RST Discourse Treebank (RST-DT); as a result, the RST discourse parsing community has largely borrowed from the syntactic constituency parsing community. The standard evaluation procedure for RST discourse parsers is thus a simplified variant of PAR…
Integrating Type Theory and Distributional Semantics
In this article, we explore an integration of a formal semantic approach to lexical meaning and an approach based on distributional methods. First, we outline a formal semantic theory that aims to combine the virtues of both formal and distributional frameworks. We then proceed to develop an algebraic interpretation of that formal semantic theory and show how at least two kinds of distributional models make this interpretation concrete. Focusing …
The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics
Lexical semantics is the study of what words mean. In particular, lexical semantics as opposed to formal semantics involves the study of open class words like adjectives, common nouns and verbs, as opposed to functional class words, which contribute to the logical structure of the language – quantifiers, connectives and many adverbs. The latter have been studied in compositional semantics, which uses formal languages like higher-order logic and t…
Types, meanings and coercions in lexical semantics
Time
International audience
Strategic conversation
Models of conversation that rely on a strong notion of cooperation don’t apply to strategic conversation — that is, to conversation where the agents’ motives don’t align, such as courtroom cross examination and political debate. We provide a game-theoretic framework that provides an analysis of both cooperative and strategic conversation. Our analysis features a new notion of safety that applies to implicatures: an implicature is safe when it can…
Implicatures and discourse structure
Lexical Meaning in Context
This is a book about the meanings of words and how they can combine to form larger meaningful units, as well as how they can fail to combine when the amalgamation of a predicate and argument would produce what the philosopher Gilbert Ryle called a 'category mistake'. It argues for a theory in which words get assigned both an intension and a type. The book develops a rich system of types and investigates its philosophical and formal implications, …
Reasoning dynamically about what one says
Agreement, Disputes and Commitments in Dialogue
This paper provides a logically precise analysis of agreement and disputes in dialogue. The semantics distinguishes among the public commitments of each dialogue agent, including commitments to relational speech acts or rhetorical relations (e.g. Narration, Explanation and Correction). Agreement is defined to be the shared entailments of the agents' public commitments. We show that this makes precise predictions about implicit agreement. The theo…
Were, Would, Might and a Compositional Account of Counterfactuals
This paper has two purposes. We first give a new dynamic account of epistemic modal operators that account for both their test-like behaviour with respect to whole information states and their capacity to induce quantificational dependencies across worlds (modal subordination). We then use this theory, together with an analysis of conditionals and irrealis moods, to give a fully compositional semantics of indicative and counterfactual conditional…
A large view of linguistic content
This essay lays out a view of linguistic content in which discourse context plays an essential role. It provides a role for sentential content by using underspecification but argues that discourse level phenomena are essential not only to determining content but even grammaticality judgments in certain cases. It is thus argued that the traditional view which separates very strictly the areas of semantics — a context insensitive notion of meaning …
Annotation for and Robust Parsing of Discourse Structure on Unrestricted Texts
Predicting discourse structure on naturally occurring texts and dialogs is challenging and computationally intensive. Attempts to construct hand-built systems have run into problems both in how to specify the required knowledge and how to perform the necessary computations in an efficient manner. Data-driven approaches have recently been shown to be successful for handling challenging aspects of discourse without using lots of fine-grained semant…
Free Choice Permission is Strong Permission
Subordinating and coordinating discourse relations
Discourse topic
Troubles with topics
responses by key article author to commentaries by Andy Kehler, Jon Oberlander, Manfred Stede and Henk Zeevat
Discourse parallelism, ellipsis, and ambiguity
In this paper we combine a simple recovery mechanism for ellipsis with a general, discourse account of parallelism to account for a variety of phenomena concerning ellipsis, including Sag's wide scope puzzle and complex examples concerning sloppy identity. Our recovery mechanism requires an identity of logical structure between the recovered material and antecedent in the ellipsis. The recovered material and the antecedent are then interpreted in…
Deixis, binding and presupposition
Dynamic semantic accounts of presupposition have proven to quite successful improvements over earlier theories. One great advance has been to link presupposition and anaphora together (van der Sandt 92, Geurts 95), an approach that extends to integrate bridging and other discourse phenomena (Asher and Lascarides 1998a,b). In this extended anaphoric account, presuppositions attach, like assertions, to the discourse context via certain rhetorical r…
Indirect Speech Acts
Truth Conditional Discourse Semantics for Parentheticals
It has been often argued that parentheticals, discourse adverbials and certain parts of speech like interjections do not contribute to the truth conditional content of the assertions of which they are part. In this paper I argue that many of these constructions do contribute a truth conditional content, and I propose a semantics for parentheticals and discourse adverbials that treats these constructions similarly to SDRT's treatment of presupposi…
Subordinating and coordinating discourse relations
Indirect Speech Acts
Types, meanings and coercions in lexical semantics
Integrating Type Theory and Distributional Semantics
In this article, we explore an integration of a formal semantic approach to lexical meaning and an approach based on distributional methods. First, we outline a formal semantic theory that aims to combine the virtues of both formal and distributional frameworks. We then proceed to develop an algebraic interpretation of that formal semantic theory and show how at least two kinds of distributional models make this interpretation concrete. Focusing …
Implicatures and discourse structure
Free Choice Permission is Strong Permission
A Dependency Perspective on RST Discourse Parsing and Evaluation
Computational text-level discourse analysis mostly happens within Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), whose structures have classically been presented as constituency trees, and relies on data from the RST Discourse Treebank (RST-DT); as a result, the RST discourse parsing community has largely borrowed from the syntactic constituency parsing community. The standard evaluation procedure for RST discourse parsers is thus a simplified variant of PAR…
Reasoning dynamically about what one says
L'interface pragmatique-sémantique et l'interprétation du discours
N. Asher, Université du Texas, Austin : « L'interface pragmatique-sémantique et l'interprétation du discours » The present paper extends dynamic semantics to take account of discourse structure and its semantic effects on discourse interpretation. It offers an introductory overview to the theory known as Segmented Discourse Representation Theory or SDRT, which has been applied to several domains : pronominal and temporal anaphora, lexical disambi…
Meanings Don't Grow on Trees
In “Meanings don't grow on Trees” I investigate Lewis's proposal for using syntactical information to distinguish between intensions. Lewis's proposal, if it succeeds, would eliminate certain deficiencies in the predictions made by possible world semantics concerning synonymy. I provide two criteria for judging semantic theories: descriptive adequacy and explanatory adequacy. I argue that Lewis's proposal concerning synonymy fails on both counts.…
A Computational Account of Syntactic, Semantic and Discourse Principles for Anaphora Resolution
We present a unified framework for the computational implementation of syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and even “stylistic” constraints on anaphora. We build on our BUILDERS implementation of Discourse Representation (DR) Theory and Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) discussed in Wada & Asher (1986). We develop and argue for a semantically based processing model for anaphora resolution that exploits a number of desirable features: (1) the partial se…
Realism, Meaning and Truth
Part 1 The negative programme: truth-conditions and criteria Strawson on anti-realism realism, truth-value links, other minds and the past strict finitism anti-realism, timeless truth and 1984 theories of meaning and speakers' knowledge scientific realism, observation and the verification principle misunderstandings made manifest. Part 2 The positive programme: anti-realist semantics - the role of criteria second thoughts about criteria can David…
Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse
Temporal interpretation, discourse relations and commonsense entailment
Lexical Disambiguation in a Discourse Context
In this paper we investigate how discourse structure affects the meanings of words, and how the meanings of words affect discourse structure. We integrate three ingredients: a theory of discourse structure called SDRT, which represents discourse in terms of rhetorical relations that glue together the propositions introduced by the text segments; an accompanying theory of discourse attachment called DICE, which computes which rhetorical relations …
A Typology and Discourse Semantics for Motion Verbs and Spatial PPs in French
In this paper we offer a semantic study of motion verbs and motion verb complexes determined by motion verbs and spatial prepositional phrase adjuncts. We propose a classification of motion verbs and of motion verb complexes. Unlike other semantic or syntactic studies, we build up the spatioremporal semantic properties of motion verb complexes compositionally, on the basis of the semantic properties of the verbs, their arguments and adjuncts. We …
L'interface pragmatique-sémantique et l'interprétation du discours
N. Asher, Université du Texas, Austin : « L'interface pragmatique-sémantique et l'interprétation du discours » The present paper extends dynamic semantics to take account of discourse structure and its semantic effects on discourse interpretation. It offers an introductory overview to the theory known as Segmented Discourse Representation Theory or SDRT, which has been applied to several domains : pronominal and temporal anaphora, lexical disambi…
The semantics and pragmatics of presupposition
In this paper, we offer a novel analysis of presuppositions, paying particular attention to the interaction between the knowledge resources that are required to interpret them. The analysis has two main features. First, we capture an analogy between presuppositions, anaphora and scope ambiguity (cf. van der Sandt, 1992), by utilising semantic underspecification (cf. Reyle, 1993). Second, resolving this underspecification requires reasoning about …
Bridging
In this paper, we offer a novel analysis of bridging, paying particular attention to definite descriptions. We argue that extant theories don't do justice to the way different knowledge resources interact. In line with Hobbs (1979), we claim that the rhetorical connections between the propositions introduced in the text play an important part. But our work is distinct from his in that we model how this source of information interacts with composi…
Truth Conditional Discourse Semantics for Parentheticals
It has been often argued that parentheticals, discourse adverbials and certain parts of speech like interjections do not contribute to the truth conditional content of the assertions of which they are part. In this paper I argue that many of these constructions do contribute a truth conditional content, and I propose a semantics for parentheticals and discourse adverbials that treats these constructions similarly to SDRT's treatment of presupposi…
Discourse parallelism, ellipsis, and ambiguity
In this paper we combine a simple recovery mechanism for ellipsis with a general, discourse account of parallelism to account for a variety of phenomena concerning ellipsis, including Sag's wide scope puzzle and complex examples concerning sloppy identity. Our recovery mechanism requires an identity of logical structure between the recovered material and antecedent in the ellipsis. The recovered material and the antecedent are then interpreted in…
Deixis, binding and presupposition
Dynamic semantic accounts of presupposition have proven to quite successful improvements over earlier theories. One great advance has been to link presupposition and anaphora together (van der Sandt 92, Geurts 95), an approach that extends to integrate bridging and other discourse phenomena (Asher and Lascarides 1998a,b). In this extended anaphoric account, presuppositions attach, like assertions, to the discourse context via certain rhetorical r…
Indirect Speech Acts
Discourse topic
Troubles with topics
responses by key article author to commentaries by Andy Kehler, Jon Oberlander, Manfred Stede and Henk Zeevat
Free Choice Permission is Strong Permission
Subordinating and coordinating discourse relations
Were, Would, Might and a Compositional Account of Counterfactuals
This paper has two purposes. We first give a new dynamic account of epistemic modal operators that account for both their test-like behaviour with respect to whole information states and their capacity to induce quantificational dependencies across worlds (modal subordination). We then use this theory, together with an analysis of conditionals and irrealis moods, to give a fully compositional semantics of indicative and counterfactual conditional…
A large view of linguistic content
This essay lays out a view of linguistic content in which discourse context plays an essential role. It provides a role for sentential content by using underspecification but argues that discourse level phenomena are essential not only to determining content but even grammaticality judgments in certain cases. It is thus argued that the traditional view which separates very strictly the areas of semantics — a context insensitive notion of meaning …
Annotation for and Robust Parsing of Discourse Structure on Unrestricted Texts
Predicting discourse structure on naturally occurring texts and dialogs is challenging and computationally intensive. Attempts to construct hand-built systems have run into problems both in how to specify the required knowledge and how to perform the necessary computations in an efficient manner. Data-driven approaches have recently been shown to be successful for handling challenging aspects of discourse without using lots of fine-grained semant…
Agreement, Disputes and Commitments in Dialogue
This paper provides a logically precise analysis of agreement and disputes in dialogue. The semantics distinguishes among the public commitments of each dialogue agent, including commitments to relational speech acts or rhetorical relations (e.g. Narration, Explanation and Correction). Agreement is defined to be the shared entailments of the agents' public commitments. We show that this makes precise predictions about implicit agreement. The theo…
Lexical Meaning in Context
This is a book about the meanings of words and how they can combine to form larger meaningful units, as well as how they can fail to combine when the amalgamation of a predicate and argument would produce what the philosopher Gilbert Ryle called a 'category mistake'. It argues for a theory in which words get assigned both an intension and a type. The book develops a rich system of types and investigates its philosophical and formal implications, …
Reasoning dynamically about what one says
Time
International audience
Computer Science (30 obras) · Linguistics (30 obras) · Philosophy (27 obras) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (15 obras) · Epistemology (14 obras) · Programming language (14 obras) · Artificial Intelligence (13 obras) · Psychology (11 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (11 obras) · Natural language processing (10 obras)