From: barker Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:22:33 +0000 (-0400) Subject: (no commit message) X-Git-Url: http://lambda.jimpryor.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lambda.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=1870fb26abc412e120d0a4055072db9ff6ebbd1d;ds=sidebyside --- diff --git a/week2.mdwn b/week2.mdwn index d1d02faf..3ddbe5b9 100644 --- a/week2.mdwn +++ b/week2.mdwn @@ -101,9 +101,8 @@ One can do that with a very spare set of basic combinators. These days the stand There are some well-known linguistic applications of Combinatory Logic, due to Anna Szabolcsi, Mark Steedman, and Pauline Jacobson. -Szabolcsi supposed that the meanings of certain expressions could be -insightfully expressed in the form of combinators. - +They claim that natural language semantics is a combinatory system (that every +natural language denotation is a combinator). For instance, Szabolcsi argues that reflexive pronouns are argument duplicators. @@ -111,7 +110,7 @@ duplicators. ![reflexive](http://lambda.jimpryor.net/szabolcsi-reflexive.jpg) Notice that the semantic value of *himself* is exactly `W`. -The reflexive pronoun in direct object position combines first with the transitive verb (through compositional magic we won't go into here). The result is an intransitive verb phrase that takes a subject argument, duplicates that argument, and feeds the two copies to the transitive verb meaning. +The reflexive pronoun in direct object position combines first with the transitive verb (involving a simple and well-motivated combinator that we won't pause to discuss here). The result is an intransitive verb phrase that takes a subject argument, duplicates that argument, and feeds the two copies to the transitive verb meaning. Note that `W <~~> S(CI)`: