SUO: Dotted notation in CoreLex
I found this passage in Paul Buitelaar's thesis where
he describes how CoreLex is generated:
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"3.2.3 Dotted Types
Qualia roles are typed to a specific class of lexical items. Types are either simple (human, arti
fact,...) or complex (e.g., information.physical) [ Pustejovsky, 1994b ]. Complex types are called
dotted types after the `dots' that are used as type constructors. Here I introduce two different dots:
`.' connects systematically related types that are always interpreted simultaneously
`@' connects systematically related types that are never interpreted simultaneously
Both `S.T' and `S@T' denote sets of pairs of objects <a,b>, a an object of type S and b an object of
type T. A condition aRb restricts this set of pairs to only those for which some relation R holds,
where R denotes a subset of the Cartesian product of the sets of type S objects and type T objects.
[[S.T]] = { <a,b> | a IsElementOf S and b IsElementOf T and aRb and <a,b> is a complex object }
[[S@T]] = { <a,b> | a IsElementOf S and b IsElementOf T and aRb }
Figure 3.1: Definition of `.' and `@' type constructors
The difference between types `S.T' and `S@T' is in the nature of the objects they denote. The
type `S.T' denotes sets of pairs of objects where each pair behaves as a complex object in discourse
structure. For instance, the pairs of objects that are introduced by the type information.physical
(book, journal, scoreboard, ...) are addressed as the complex objects <x:information, y:physical>
in discourse. On the other hand, the type `S@T' denotes simply a set of pairs of objects that do
not occur together in discourse structure. For instance, the pairs of objects that are introduced by
the type form@artifact (door, gate, window, ...) are not (normally) addressed simultaneously in
discourse, rather one side of the object is picked out in a particular context. Nevertheless, the pair
as a whole remains active during processing.
According to this definition, dotted types refer to tuples of objects. Two or more semantic sides
of a lexical item are implied and may or may not be simultaneously addressed during discourse,
depending on the type constructor used (`.' or `@'). Consider the following examples:
(15a) He threw out the book after reading it.
book: information.physical
(15b) Last week I attended his interpretation of Bach's second sonata, the one over there with
the picture on the cover.
sonata: information.physical.event
(15c) ?? The newspaper that fired its editor fell from the table.
newspaper: (information.physical)@organization
The last example suggests that once the organization interpretation has been selected there is
no or less access to the information.physical interpretation. This could be represented by the
type (information.physical)@organization, using both type constructors.
Example (16) however shows that such access restrictions can be overruled in puns and other humorous
use of language.
(16) `Freedom of the press is only guaranteed to those who own one.' (A. J. Liebling, 1960)
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I'm confused by his description of the meaning of '@'. Is he saying that, with respect
to a given corpus, information.physical instances never occur immediately preceding
organization instances?
Also, does anyone have a specific English word that means '@'? It seems to be similar to
the '.' in conventional dotted notation, but what word do you call it by to get across
the difference between the two?
Thanks,
Rich