Pragmatics

Pragmatics
• What is pragmatics?
• the study of the practical aspects of human action and thought.
• the study of the use of linguistic signs, words and sentences, in actual
situations.
Pragmatics
• ‘Can you pass the salt?’
• Literal Meaning: Are you physically able to do this task?
Literal Response: ‘Yes’
• (Pragmatic Meaning: Will you pass me the salt?
Pragmtic Response: pass the salt to the speaker.)
• ‘What time do you call this?’
• Literal Meaning: What time is it?
Literal Response: A time (e.g. ‘twenty to one.’)
• (Pragmatic Meaning: a different question entirely, e.g. Why are you so
late?
Pragmatic Response: Explain the reason for being so late.)
Pragmatics Vs semantics
• Unlike semantics, which examines meaning that is conventional or
"coded" in a given language,
• pragmatics studies how the transmission of meaning depends not
only on structural and linguistic knowledge (grammar, lexicon, etc.) of
the speaker and listener but also on the context of the
utterance,[2] any pre-existing knowledge about those involved, the
inferred intent of the speaker, and other factors.
Why pragmatics
• Time flies like an arrow
• He saw a man with binoculars

• World knowledge with humans

• Not with machine
Why pragmatics
• We need pragmatics to understand how language is used in a specific
context and to be able to use it appropriately.
• Pragmatic Analysis is part of the process of extracting information
from text.
• It actually comes from the field of linguistics (as a lot of NLP does),
where the context is considered from the text.
• Because a lot of text's meaning does have to do with the context in
which it was said/written.
Discourse
• Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not
to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human
translation (MAHT) or interactive translation) is a sub-field
of computational linguistics that investigates the use of software
to translate text or speech from one language to another.
• On a basic level, MT performs simple substitution of words in one language
for words in another, but that alone usually cannot produce a good
translation of a text because recognition of whole phrases and their closest
counterparts in the target language is needed. Solving this problem
with corpus statistical, and neural techniques is a rapidly growing field that
is leading to better translations, handling differences in linguistic typology,
translation of idioms, and the isolation of anomalies.[1][failed verification]
Discourse
• Group of sentences together form a discourse
• Group of related sentences

• Monkey ate the banana as it was ripe

• Monkey ate the banana as it was hungry
• Monkey ate the banana as it was lunch time

• Can we build a computational model to represent this??

Reference resolution
• Monkey ate the banana as it was ripe
• Monkey ate the banana as it was hungry
• Monkey ate the banana as it was lunch time

• Where is it pointing to??

• Where it is being referenced??
• https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/18beg.pdf
Reference phenomena
• 5 types of referencing expressions
• Indefinite noun phrase
• Definite noun phrase
• Pronoun
• Demonstratives
• One-anaphora
Reference phenomena
• Indefinite noun phrase
• What is a noun phrase
• a word or group of words containing a noun and functioning in a sentence as subject,
object, or prepositional object.

• 2 types
• Definite NP
• Indefinite NP
Reference phenomena
• A definite noun in English is usually preceded by the definite article
"the," removing any ambiguity in terms of who or what is being
referred to.
• For example, the definite noun phrase "the waiter" refers to a
specific person,
• as opposed to the indefinite noun phrase containing the indefinite
article "a" which introduces ambiguity.
• For example, "a waiter" could refer to any waiter and therefore is
nonspecific.
Indefinite noun phrase
• Indefinite reference introduces entities that are new to the hearer
into the discourse context.
• Most common form of indefinite reference is marked with the
determiner a/an

• Specific meaning/non-specific meaning

• Two meanings
Indefinite noun phrase
• I am going to the showroom to buy an Volkswagen car today

• Both readings are possible here

• Speaker may already have a car model in mind (specific)

• Or may just be planning to pick one out (non-specific)
Indefinite noun phrase
• Discourse required here

• The readings can be disambiguated by a subsequent referring

expression..

• If it is indefinite, the reading is nonspecific..

• I hope they have a car I like
Definite Noun Phrase
• Definite NP is used to refer to an entity that is identifiable to the
hearer either becoz it has already been mentioned in the discourse
context.
• It is contained in the hearer’s set of belief about the world or the
uniqueness of the object is implied by the description itself
Definite Noun Phrase
• Example
• Case in which referent is identifiable from discourse context

• I saw a Volkswagen car today. It was white in color and will buy it

• Case in which referent is either identifiable from hearer’s set of

beliefs or inherently unique are shown below
• Mahalaxmi race course is the most popular race course in Mumbai
• The fastest horse was number 500 at the race course
Pronoun
•Pronoun usually refer to entities that were introduced
no further than one or two sentences back in the
ongoing discourse.

•I saw Vento car today. It was white and looking

beautiful
Pronouns
• Pronouns also participate in cataphora in which they are mentioned
before their referents.

• Before he bought it, John checked the car vey carefully

Pronouns
•Pronouns also appear in quantified contexts in which
they are considered to be bound

•Disha bought her dress from the Biba retail store.

Demonstratives
• Demonstrative pronouns like this and that behave somewhat
differently than simple definite pronouns like it
• They can appear either alone or as determiners.
• This car
• That car

• This indicates closeness

• That indicates distance
Demonstratives
•Distance can be metamorphically interpreted in terms
of conceptual relations in the discourse model.

•I bought Vento yesterday. It’s similar to the one I

bought five years ago. That one was really nice but I
like this one even better.
One Anaphora
•One anaphora blends properties of definite and
indefinite references

•I saw no less than 6 Ventos today. Now I want one

•This use of one can be roughly paraphrased by one of

them in which them refers to a plural referent. And
one selects a member from this set
One anaphora
• Thus one may evoke a new entity into the discourse model but it
necessarily dependent on an existing referent for the description of
this new entity.
Inferrables
•Lets look at some referents which complicates the
reference resolution problem.

•First we consider cases in which referring expression

does not refer to an entity that has been explicitly
evoked in the text, but instead one that is inferentially
related to an evoked entity.
•Such referents are called inferrables.
Inferrables
• I almost bought a Vento today, but a door had a dent and the engine
seemed noisy.

• The indefinite noun phrase a door would normally introduce a new

door into the discourse context but in this case the hearer is to infer
something more
• It is door of the car
• Similarly the use of definite noun phrase the engine normally
presumes that an engine has been previously evoked or is otherwise
uniquely identifiable.
• Here no engine has been mentioned explicitly but the hearer infers
that the referent is the engine of the previously mentioned car.
Inferrables
•Inferrables can also specify the results of processes
described by utterances in a discourse

•Mix the flour, butter and water

•Spread the paste over the berries
•Stir the batter until all lumps are gone
•The expressions the batter, the paste can be used to
refer to the result of the actions described in the first
sentence
Discontinuous sets
• In some cases, references using plural referring expressions like they
and them refer to sets of entities that are evoked together.

• John and Mary like their Ventos. They drive them all the time
• John has a Vento and Mary has Swift. They drive them all the time.
Generics
•Making the reference problem even more
complicated is the existence of generic reference.

•I saw no less than 6 Ventos today. They are the

coolest cars.

•Here the most natural reading is not the one in which

they refers to the particular 6 Ventos mentioned in
the first sentence, but instead to the class of Ventos in
general.
Synactic and semantic Constraint on
Coreference
• Will develop algorithms for identifying the referents of referential
expressions.
• One step that needs to be taken in any successful reference
resolution algorithm is to filter the set of possible referents on the
basis of certain relatively hard and fast constraints

• Constraints:
• Number agreement
• Person and case agreement
• Gender agreement
Number agreement
•Referring expressions and their referents must agree
in number for English
•This means distinguishing between singular and plural
references.

•Singular: she, her, he, him, his, It

•Plural: we, us, they, them
•Unspecified: you
Number agreement
•Following examples illustrate constraints on number
agreement.
•John has a new Vento. It is red
•John has three new Ventos. They are red.
•John has a new Vento. They are red
•John has three new Ventos. It is red.
Person and case agreement
•English distinguishes between three forms of person:
•First
•Second
•Third
Person and case agreement
•A categorization of pronouns with respect to person is
shown below.
•The following examples illustrate constraints on
person agreement

•You and I have Ventos. We love them

•John and Mary have Ventos. They love them
Gender Agreement
•Referents must also agree with the gender specified
by the referring expression.
•English third person pronouns distinguish between
male, female and neutral genders
•First two apply to animate entities
Gender agreement
•Following example illustrates constraint on gender
agreement.

•John has a Vento. He is attractive

•John has a Vento. It is attractive.
Syntactic constraints
•Reference relations may also be constrained by the
syntactic relationship between a referential
expression and a possible antecedent noun phrase
when both occur in the same sentence.
Syntactic constraints
• For instance, the pronouns in all of the following sentences are
subject to the constraints indicated in brackets.

• John bought himself a new Vento (himself= John)

• John said that Bill bought himself a new Vento. (himself=Bill)

• Himself, herself, themselves are called reflexive pronouns

Syntactic constraints
• Reflexive pronouns co refers with the subject of the most immediate
clause
• Where as non reflexive cannot co refer with the subject

• John bought him a new Vento (him= John)

• John said that Bill bought him a new Vento. (him=Bill)
Syntactic constraint
•Normally a nonreflexive pronoun like him can co refer with
the subject of the previous sentence as it does in example
below

•John wanted a new car. Bill bought him a new Vento

•John wanted a new car. He brought him a new Vento

•(This example It cannot refer because of its syntactic
relationship with the coreferential pronoun he in the second
clause