Design principles for DELPH-IN/MRS semantic representations identified during the Hankø meeting:

  • Interface representation should include all information that is constrained by the grammar
  • Interface representation should be highly normalized, abstracting away from details of surface syntax
  • Close paraphrases should lead to comparable or identical structures in the interface representation
    • Ex: Predicative copula does not contribute an EP (The fierce dog barks ~ The dog that is fierce barks)
    • Ex: Dative alternation, passive (modulo discourse rel)
  • Minimize ambiguity
    • Corollary: Differentiate lexical predicates only if that distinction corresponds to morphosyntactic differences
  • Decomposition is desirable, but not a goal in itself. If the predicates required for decomposition exist, then it is good.

cf. Copestake et al 2005 and “Slacker Semantics” (Copestake 2009)

Last update: 2012-07-03 by EmilyBender [edit]