Semantic parsing and reasoning in LFG

The case of gradable adjectives

Abstract

In this paper, we present an extension to XLE+Glue that puts the mapping from form to meaning under scrutiny by incorporating a reasoning component based on the Vampire theorem prover. We illustrate various aspects of this system by means of an analysis of gradable adjectives, particularly their positive and comparative uses. Crucially, we show how our system deals with compositional and non-compositional semantic information. As part of this effort, we also present a newly developed XLE+Glue grammar that combines co-descriptive semantics with an additional layer of description-by-analysis. We propose that this approach allows us to better handle certain kinds of context sensitivity and align compositional and non-compositional aspects of meaning. Furthermore, we show that such a layered approach can be extended to the reasoning process.