Meaning Structure

Definition: meaning structure — the various methods by which human languages convey meaning [JM].

Included in these methods are:

• conventional form-meaning associations (prefixes, suffixes, nominalizations, etc.)
• word order regularities (specifiers precede words — adjectives precede nouns, e.g.)
• tense systems
• conjunctions
• quantifiers
• fundamental predicate-argument structure

Predicate-argument structure

"It appears ... that all human languages have a form of predicate-argument structure ... [permitting] the creation of a single composite meaning representation [assembled] from the meanings of the various parts of input." [JM].

Consider the sample sentences:
14.12 I want Italian food.
14.13 I want to spend less than five dollars.
14.14 I want it to be close by here.

Each fits into one of the following syntactic argument frames:

NP want NP
NP want Inf-VP
NP want NP Inf-VP

Considering 14.12 and its matching frame, [JM] note:

• two arguments to the predicate
• both arguments are NPs
• the first argument is pre-verbal and plays the role of the subject
• the second argument is post-verbal and plays the role of the direct object

In all three examples, the pre-verbal plays the role of the entity doing the wanting, and the post-verbal conceptualizes the thing that is wanted. By labeling accordingly, the surface arguments of a predicate structure can be mapped to discrete roles in the underlying semantics. This leads to the notion of verb subcategorization frames. These frames can be used in the study of the roles specific verbs play in a sentence with regard to thematic role (or case role aka thematic/case relation) analysis.

"The notion of semantic restrictions arises directly from these semantic roles." [JM].

Exhibitory of the kinds of predicates that might be called upon to map out the various parts of speech, [JM] present:

14.15 an Italian restaurant under fifteen dollars

from the BERP (Berkeley Restaurant Project) corpus.

This yields: Under(ItalianRestaurant, $15)
characterizing prepositions as "two-argument predicates where the first argument is an object that is being placed in some relation to the second argument."

And for nouns [JM] present
14.16 Make a reservation for this evening for a table for two persons at 8.

Here they create a structure based on the noun reservation rather than the verb make:
Reservation(Hearer,Today,8PM,2)

Their conclusion is that any representation that is capable of denoting these various mappings must support the following information carrying abilities:

• variable arity predicate-argument structures
• the semantic labeling [tying] of arguments to predicates
• the statement of semantic constraints on the fillers of argument roles