[Lexicog] Re: lexical phrase

[maxwell at LDC.UPENN.EDU]

Quoting John Roberts <dr_john_roberts at sil.org>:
>  David,What do you mean when you say, "Generally, prepositional
> phrases ... modify nouns"? The normal function of an adposition with
> regard to nominals is to indicate the semantic role an adjacent NP
> plays in the sentence. It doesn't modify the meaning of the NP as
> such.

This is a classical problem in syntactic parsing, how to determine what 
the function of a PP is.  The typical example is
   I saw the man with the telescope.
where an ambiguity arises from the PP attachment: it can either modify 
the NP "the man", meaning the man I saw had a telescope with him, or it 
can modify the S (I would say it modifies the VP, but that's a 
different issue), meaning that I used a telescope to observe the man.

   Mike Maxwell
   CASL/ U MD

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