Projects in Previous Years

1st Semester 2011/12: Logical Compositionality in Geometric Models of Meaning

Instructors
Reinhard Blutner
If you are interested in this project, please contact Reinhard by email.
ECTS
6
Description
Geometric models of meaning have so far been successfully utilized in the modelling of lexical meaning, i.e., the meaning of basic semantic units consisting of not more than a few words. But one central aspect of meaning has largely escaped the capabilities of these models. This aspect is the process of going from lexical meaning to sentential meaning, that is, the process of composing the meaning of a sentence, or any complex utterance, from the meaning of the constituent words. The aim of the project is to study the process of compositionality with respect to logical expressions. We will survey the currently existing approaches to the problem and attempt to propose new solutions.
References
Possible starting points are the following references:
  • Busemeyer, Jerome R., and Peter D. Bruza (forthcoming). Quantum Cognition and Decision. Oxford University Press.
  • Coecke, Bob, Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh, and Stephen Clark (2011). Mathematical Foundations for a Compositional Distributional Model of Meaning. Linguistic Analysis, 36, 345-384.
  • Warglien, Massimo, and Peter Gärdenfors (2009). Semantics, Conceptual Spaces and the Meeting of Minds. Lund: Lund University.