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Rethinking the Semantics of Complex Nominals

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Advances in Artificial Intelligence (Canadian AI 2007)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 4509))

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Abstract

Complex Nominals (CNs) have simple syntactic structure that conceals non-trivial semantic characteristics. While speakers of natural languages combine noun(s)/adjective(s) with a head noun to indicate existing or novel concepts with ease, formalizing such a semantic process, however, has proven to be a daunting task. In this paper, we present a unified semantic approach for constructions involving a head-noun and modifier(s), i.e., adjective(s)/noun(s). Based on a rigorous typing system, this approach uses set intersection as the only underlying semantic rule. We argue that this novel approach is compositional and warrants consistent inferences.

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Ziad Kobti Dan Wu

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Abdullah, N., Frost, R.A. (2007). Rethinking the Semantics of Complex Nominals. In: Kobti, Z., Wu, D. (eds) Advances in Artificial Intelligence. Canadian AI 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4509. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72665-4_43

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72665-4_43

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-72664-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-72665-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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