tailieunhanh - Báo cáo khoa học: "Tense, Aspect and the Cognitive Representation of Time"

This paper explores the relationshiDs between a computational meory of temporal representation (as developed by James Alien) and a Iormal linguiStiC theory Of tense (as developed by NorOert Hornstem) and aspect. It aims tO prowde exphcit answers to four lundamental Questions: (1) what ts the computational lustd~cat=on for me or=mmves of a hngu=stIc theory; (2) what ~s the computational explanation of the formal grammatical constraints; (3) what are the processing constraints ~ml3osed on the learnabdity and marKedness of these theoretical construCtS: and (4) what are the constramnts that a hnguist=c theory imposes or. representat¢ons. We show that one. | Tense Aspect and the Cognitive Representation of Time Kenneth Man-kam Yip Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Massachusetts Institute of Technology 545 Technology Square Cambridge MA 02139. abstract This paper explores the relationships between a computational theory of temporal representation as developed by James Allen and a lormal linguistic theory of tense as developed by Norbert Hornstein and aspect. It aims to provide explicit answers to four fundamental questions 1 what IS the computational lustification for tne primitives of a linguistic theory 2 what IS the computational explanation of the formal grammatical constraints 3 wnat are the processing constraints imposed on the learnability and marxedness of these theoretical constructs and 4 what are the constraints that a linguistic theory imposes or. representations. We show that one can effectively exploit the interface between the language faculty and the cognitive faculties by using linguistic constraints to determine restrictions on the cognitive representations and vice versa. Three mam results are obtained 1 We derive an explanation of an observed grammatical constraint on tense - the Linear Order Constraint from the information monotonicity property of the constraint propagation algorithm of Allen s temporal system 2 We formulate a principle of markedness for the basic tense structures based on the computational efficiency of the temporal representations and 3 We snow Alien s interval-based temporal system IS not arbitrary but it can be used to exolair independently motivated linguistic constraints on tense and aspect interpretations. We also claim that the methodology of research developed in this study cross-level investigation of independently motivated formal grammatical theory and computational models is a powerful paradigm with which to attack representational problems in oasic cognitive domains . space time causality etc. 1. Objectives and Main Results One maior effort in modern linguistics IS