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ERDW_ImplicitLocatives

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Alexandre Rademaker edited this page Jul 13, 2022 · 4 revisions

Implicit Locatives

English has a variety of expressions that express the location of an entity or event in time or space but don't specify any particular relationship between the entity/event and the location. These expressions include expressions of time, such as now, when, every day, the day after you met Sandy as well as ones that indicate location including here, there and where.

Examples

Where is the stick? -> no relationship other than the stick "is" somewhere
The stick is there. -> no relationship other than the stick "is" somewhere

# From the [ESD Test Suite]()
The dog barks every day. -> No relationship to day other than it "happens" every day
Browne arrived the day of the garden dog. -> no relationship to day other than it "arrived" then
The dog barks there.
The day the dog barked arrived.
The meeting that day was local.

Counter Examples

The stick is on the table. -> locates the stick in a place on the location
He arrives before/at 10am. -> locates the arrival before/at a certain time

MRS Expression

In the MRS, these "nonspecific" references are indicated by the predicate loc_nonsp and can take two forms:

For Entities: [ loc_nonsp ARG0: e2 ARG1: x3 ARG2: x4 ] This form is used when the item being located in a general place/time is an entity.

  • ARG0 is an event introduced by this loc_nonsp predicate to allow possible modification of it by other predicates (not done below).
  • ARG1 is the entity being located
  • ARG2 is the general location for the entity
Example: where is the stick

[ TOP: h0
INDEX: e2
RELS: < 
[ which_q LBL: h6 ARG0: x4 [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg ] RSTR: h7 BODY: h8 ]
[ place_n LBL: h5 ARG0: x4 [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg ] ]
[ _the_q LBL: h9 ARG0: x3 [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg IND: + ] RSTR: h10 BODY: h11 ]
[ _stick_n_1 LBL: h12 ARG0: x3 [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg IND: + ] ]
[ loc_nonsp LBL: h1 ARG0: e2 [ e SF: ques TENSE: pres MOOD: indicative PROG: - PERF: - ] ARG1: x3 ARG2: x4 ]
>
HCONS: < h0 qeq h1 h7 qeq h5 h10 qeq h12 > ]

For Events: [ loc_nonsp ARG0: e8 ARG1: e2 ARG2: x9 ] This form is used when an event "happens" in that general place/time.

  • ARG0 is an event introduced by this loc_nonsp predicate to allow possible modification of it by other predicates (not done below).
  • ARG1 is the event that is happening at the general location
  • ARG2 is the general location where the event happens
Example: The dog barks there

[ TOP: h0
INDEX: e2
RELS: < 
[ def_implicit_q LBL: h11 ARG0: x9 [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg ] RSTR: h12 BODY: h13 ]
[ place_n LBL: h10 ARG0: x9 [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg ] ]
[ _there_a_1 LBL: h10 ARG0: e14 [ e SF: prop TENSE: untensed MOOD: indicative PROG: - PERF: - ] ARG1: x9 ]
[ _the_q LBL: h4 ARG0: x3 [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg IND: + ] RSTR: h5 BODY: h6 ]
[ _dog_n_1 LBL: h7 ARG0: x3 [ x PERS: 3 NUM: sg IND: + ] ]
[ loc_nonsp LBL: h1 ARG0: e8 [ e SF: prop TENSE: untensed MOOD: indicative PROG: - PERF: - ] ARG1: e2 ARG2: x9 ]
[ _bark_v_1 LBL: h1 ARG0: e2 [ e SF: prop TENSE: pres MOOD: indicative PROG: - PERF: - ] ARG1: x3 ]
>
HCONS: < h0 qeq h1 h5 qeq h7 h12 qeq h10 > ]

Motivating Examples

This analysis involves a certain amount of ‘decomposition’ in the semantics; the alternative would be to have predicate symbols such as today_n or here_n which directly take events as the value of their ARG1. The decomposition is motivated on the basis of the parallelism to examples with prepositions contributing EPs analogous to loc_nonsp:

  • The dog barked on Tuesday./The dog barked every Tuesday.

  • The dog barks in the morning./The dog barks every morning.

  • The dog barked in the yard./The dog barked there.

Furthermore, while a lexical, non-decomposed analysis could in principle be given to forms such as today, this analysis does not scale to phrasal modifiers appearing the same use or to the relative clause examples:

  • We arrived the week after the storm.

  • The day the dog barked arrived.

Examples like the following show that the modified element can also be an entity (not just an event):

  • Exports increased 4% from the same period last year to $50 billion. [Attested example, WSJ]

ERS Fingerprints

loc_nonsp[ARG1 i, ARG2 x]

Interactions

Reflections

  • Another characteristic construction where a spatio-temporal modifier can appear without an overt mark of the type of location relation is in relative clauses whose head noun functions as a modifier within the relative clause.

  • The expressions that give rise to loc_nonsp are analyzed syntactically as either lexical PPs (e.g. here) or noun phrases (e.g. today, the day of the first meeting) which are of a class that can be pumped to PP. In the latter case, the loc_nonsp EP is contributed by the phrase structure rule that builds the PP out of the NP. Similarly, in the relative clause examples, the loc_nonsp is introduced by a syntactic construction.

  • loc_nonsp also appears in the decomposed meanings assigned to expressions such as earlier and overseas.

  • Some temporal nouns can only appear in this construction when they have a modifier or a deictic determiner:

    • Our meeting this week was interesting.

    • *Our meeting the/a week was interesting.

    • Our meeting the week after that was interesting.

  • However, the word every can seemingly turn any noun into one with this property; this likely involves a special lexical entry for every:

    • *Kim phoned Sandy the last freeway exit before the state line.

    • Kim phoned Sandy every freeway exit.

  • The interpretation of every-marked temporal locatives modifying entities involves something subtle about the interaction of the quantifiers. However, this is not specific to implicit locatives but is also found with explicitly marked locatives:

    • The earthquake the day after the eruption was barely noticed.

    • The earthquakes every ten minutes got old quickly.

    • The earthquake on the day after the eruption was barely noticed.

    • The earthquakes on every third Tuesday got old quickly.

Open Questions

  • Could on_p_temp et al be generalized to loc_nonsp?

  • ERG (1212) doesn't parse Browne arrived the tobacco garden day. Are noun-noun compounds not the sort of thing that can take a word of the day type and make it into a phrase that can function as a loc_nonsp modifier?

Grammar Version

  • 1212

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