2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Preliminary Research on Abstracting Action Types from the Denotations of Action Verbs Using Modal Logic
| Project/Area Number |
15520304
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
English linguistics
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| Research Institution | Saitama University |
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Principal Investigator |
NISHINA Hiroyuki Saitama University, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Professor, 教養学部, 教授 (20125777)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2006
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| Keywords | action verb / causativity / conceptual structure / modal formula / motion propagation / rotation / turn function / semantic representation / skeleton |
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| Research Abstract |
We explore a new semantics of action verbs based on how the motions denoted by them propagate over a simplified skeleton. An action is a bundle of ordered subactions, each of which is definable as to the relevant body part in motion. A skeleton is defined as a set of ordered vertices, which correspond to the joints and endpoint of a human body. Beginning from the most embedded part in the temporal and transitive order, we decompose each bodily action into a set of subactions in terms of their relevant body parts. Each separated motion can be expressed into a set of ordered joint-joint/endpoint pairs. The rotation/turn of a joint/endpoint around another joint is interpreted as the latter's being "caused to move" by the former. Rotation/turn function defines the points/joints caused to rotate/turn as "caused to move by the joint supporting them and acting as the center/axis of the relevant rotation/turn". We abstract a structure of each complex of rotations and/or turns using modal logic. Let each vertex is in its own world. "A's being caused by B" W is taken as "A's being accessible from B". As to each vertex, the formula that there is a moving vertex is valuated in its own world and others, by the relevant set of rotation/turn functions, with respect to this model. Valuation leads to a modal-logical formula at each world. By collecting these formulae and putting them in order at each world, we achieve a structure showing how causation propagates from one joint to another. Seeing that many action verbs co-occur with a prepositional phrase expressing the instruments implicit in them, we suggest that the entry for the local path describing the movement specified by BY-clause (instrumental clause) modifying the event in the conceptual structure for action verbs is our propagation structure. (299 words)
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