[HPSG-L] Highly ambiguous sentences with lots of quantifier scoipings and psycholinguistic work on underspeification

Mon Mar 10 14:35:55 UTC 2025

Hi Stefan, Hi all,

Regarding computational processing of scope ambiguities I think you're
thinking of the work of Koller & Thater on Utool:

https://aclanthology.org/P05-3003.pdf

Those impressive numbers involved the ERG, not the Grammar Matrix nor small
grammars derived from it. (Though in principle, Utool should be compatible
with Matrix-derived grammars.)

Emily

On Mon, Mar 10, 2025 at 6:46 AM Stefan Müller <St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de>
wrote:

> Yes, I expected that this is true and that people will not sit there and
> imagine all the 20.000 possible worlds that correspond to the readings.
> But what do I know? I am not a psycholinguist.
>
> And after all our world turned into an impossible world due to
> unpredictable behavior of my fellow humans. By now I expect them to do
> strange things.
>
> Thanks for all the answers! This is enourmously helpful.
>
> I will post a summary.
>
> Best
>
>      Stefan
>
> Am 10.03.25 um 14:35 schrieb Rui Chaves:
> >
> > There’s also the anecdotal fact that people who read a 80-word
> > sentence in a newspaper don’t spend 30 minutes parsing it.
> >
> > 😊
> >
> > --
> > Rui P. Chaves (he/him)
> > Chair and Professor of Linguistics, University at Buffalo, SUNY
> > Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies for the Computational
> > Linguistics Program
> >
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/*rchaves/__;fg!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mPAi5C1HHo3E9FbgFknLV1atAM-iwf0T-92yDt4r8e8_3IBw6V8u0JA2FXttB3auQ2jHnpfjZ6sxcWf8CzIEY6M$
> >
> > *From: *Rui Chaves <rchaves at buffalo.edu>
> > *Date: *Monday, March 10, 2025 at 8:33 AM
> > *To: *Roussanka Loukanova <rloukanova at gmail.com>, Stefan Müller
> > <St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de>
> > *Cc: *hpsg-l at listserv.linguistlist.org <HPSG-L at listserv.linguistlist.org
> >
> > *Subject: *Re: [HPSG-L] Highly ambiguous sentences with lots of
> > quantifier scoipings and psycholinguistic work on underspeification
> >
> > Dear Stefan,
> >
> > There is evidence that comprehenders don’t compute all scopings:
> >
> >
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371*journal.pone.0081461__;Lw!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mPAi5C1HHo3E9FbgFknLV1atAM-iwf0T-92yDt4r8e8_3IBw6V8u0JA2FXttB3auQ2jHnpfjZ6sxcWf88ly5M3E$
> >
> > --
> >
> > Rui P. Chaves (he/him)
> > Chair and Professor of Linguistics
> > Director of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies for the Computational
> > Linguistics BS and MS Programs
> >
> > University at Buffalo, SUNY
> >
> >
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/*rchaves/__;fg!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mPAi5C1HHo3E9FbgFknLV1atAM-iwf0T-92yDt4r8e8_3IBw6V8u0JA2FXttB3auQ2jHnpfjZ6sxcWf8CzIEY6M$
>
> > <
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/*rchaves/__;fg!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mPAi5C1HHo3E9FbgFknLV1atAM-iwf0T-92yDt4r8e8_3IBw6V8u0JA2FXttB3auQ2jHnpfjZ6sxcWf8CzIEY6M$
> >
> >
> > *From: *HPSG-L <hpsg-l-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
> > Roussanka Loukanova <rloukanova at gmail.com>
> > *Date: *Monday, March 10, 2025 at 8:25 AM
> > *To: *Stefan Müller <St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de>
> > *Cc: *hpsg-l at listserv.linguistlist.org <HPSG-L at listserv.linguistlist.org
> >
> > *Subject: *Re: [HPSG-L] Highly ambiguous sentences with lots of
> > quantifier scoipings and psycholinguistic work on underspeification
> >
> > Hi Stefan,
> > Hi Everyone,
> >
> > Your questions are extra interesting. I'm very much interested in the
> > answers.
> >
> > And, of course, I'm looking forward to your revised HPSG book!
> >
> > I work on Type Theory of Recursion, including its varieties of Type
> Theory
> > of Acyclic Recursion / Algorithms (TTAR / TTAA). TTAR provides
> > mathematical  and algorithmic foundations of Syntax-Semantics (SynSem) in
> > Computational Grammars (CompGrs).
> >
> > The relational extensions of TTAA to Dependent-Type Theory of Situated
> > Info
> > (DTTSI) directly provides math, i.e., algorithmic foundations, of  MRS
> and
> > its SynSem in HPSG.
> >
> > In all the versions of  TTAR / TTAA and DTTSI, I include
> > underspecification.
> >
> > Best Regards,
> > Roussanka
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 10 Mar 2025 at 12:22, Stefan Müller <St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I remember that people working with the grammar matrix and large scale
> > > implementations reported natural occurring sentence with an enormous
> > > amount of readings. Something in the range of 100.000 scopings. Is this
> > > documented somewhere in print?
> > >
> > > Is there psycholinguistic research showing that humans do not work with
> > > specific readings but leave scopings underspecified (maybe to a certain
> > > extend).
> > >
> > > I am revising my HPSG textbook and switching to MRS in this book now,
> so
> > > I am interested in this kind of information.
> > >
> > > Thanks a lot.
> > >
> > > Best wishes
> > >
> > >      Stefan
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > HPSG-L mailing list
> > > HPSG-L at listserv.linguistlist.org
> > >
> >
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Flistserv.linguistlist.org*2Fcgi-bin*2Fmailman*2Flistinfo*2Fhpsg-l&data=05*7C02*7Crchaves*40buffalo.edu*7Ca8b9b7346347478f06f008dd5fceb14c*7C96464a8af8ed40b199e25f6b50a20250*7C0*7C0*7C638772063545337622*7CUnknown*7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ*3D*3D*7C0*7C*7C*7C&sdata=4CDFd3jV49zrGkDtdZH0kdv5JcYC3egTLAtU5GxsPW4*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUl!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mPAi5C1HHo3E9FbgFknLV1atAM-iwf0T-92yDt4r8e8_3IBw6V8u0JA2FXttB3auQ2jHnpfjZ6sxcWf8mz-8umc$
>
> > <
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hpsg-l__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mPAi5C1HHo3E9FbgFknLV1atAM-iwf0T-92yDt4r8e8_3IBw6V8u0JA2FXttB3auQ2jHnpfjZ6sxcWf8IFxrgOM$
> >
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
> > HPSG-L mailing list
> > HPSG-L at listserv.linguistlist.org
> >
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Flistserv.linguistlist.org*2Fcgi-bin*2Fmailman*2Flistinfo*2Fhpsg-l&data=05*7C02*7Crchaves*40buffalo.edu*7Ca8b9b7346347478f06f008dd5fceb14c*7C96464a8af8ed40b199e25f6b50a20250*7C0*7C0*7C638772063545362731*7CUnknown*7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ*3D*3D*7C0*7C*7C*7C&sdata=3EP*2BK2Ejp07qvqO*2FvOF6rSwOW1HQKXvD3aWeqSnFIaI*3D&reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSU!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mPAi5C1HHo3E9FbgFknLV1atAM-iwf0T-92yDt4r8e8_3IBw6V8u0JA2FXttB3auQ2jHnpfjZ6sxcWf8JveBGbQ$
>
> > <
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hpsg-l__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mPAi5C1HHo3E9FbgFknLV1atAM-iwf0T-92yDt4r8e8_3IBw6V8u0JA2FXttB3auQ2jHnpfjZ6sxcWf8IFxrgOM$
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> HPSG-L mailing list
> HPSG-L at listserv.linguistlist.org
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hpsg-l__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!mPAi5C1HHo3E9FbgFknLV1atAM-iwf0T-92yDt4r8e8_3IBw6V8u0JA2FXttB3auQ2jHnpfjZ6sxcWf8IFxrgOM$
>