Electrophysiological Evidence for Sentence Comprehension - Wings
Electrophysiological Evidence for Sentence Comprehension - Wings
Electrophysiological Evidence for Sentence Comprehension - Wings
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projection onto some set of semantic properties different from macroroles? In difference<br />
to the constituent projection where syntax-to-semantics linking is relatively easy to<br />
express as an algorithm, this ‘operators-to-semantics’ linking is more difficult to define.<br />
On the one hand there are properties such as tense, aspect, illocutionary <strong>for</strong>ce, negation or<br />
modality. On the other hand, is there a set of temporal relations and logical operators of<br />
negation quantifiers, necessity and possibility, to mention at least some of the elements?<br />
Finally, is there a subset that can be applied to all languages and what elements would it<br />
include? If RRG is to be followed, only illocutionary <strong>for</strong>ce is an universal operator. The<br />
answer to other questions can be only speculative: if syntax-to-semantics mapping<br />
consists of linking the constituents to the arguments of the logical <strong>for</strong>m of a verb defined,<br />
basically, as its arguments, this separate linking could, perhaps, be defined in terms of a<br />
logical structures as defined in various systems of philosophical logic: <strong>for</strong> example,<br />
temporal and spatial logic that captures laws governing temporal or spatial relations<br />
between propositions (e.g. UNTIL φψ meaning ‘at some point later than now φ holds,<br />
while at all intermediate points ψ holds’ (van Benthem, 2002:400)), modal logic that<br />
captures laws governing the notions of necessity and possibility, or epistemic logic that<br />
investigates logical behavior of knowing or believing. While the elements of temporal<br />
and spatial logic correspond to tense, aspect or directionals as operators in RRG,<br />
evidentials as RRG operators could be mapped into operators of epistemic logic.<br />
To conclude this speculation: when a speaker hears or reads a sentence, its<br />
comprehension does not depend only upon the identifying who is doing what to whom,<br />
but also, when the action occurs, where or with whose knowledge. These in<strong>for</strong>mation<br />
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