[Attempto] Every call C is urgent or C is important. -- minor bug

[Norbert E. Fuchs]

Jean-Marc and Joshua

On 29 Jun 2011, at 14:36, Jean-Marc Vanel wrote:

> This sentence is not well understood :
> 
> Every call C is urgent or C is important.
> 
> Paraphrase
> If there is a call X1 then the call X1 is urgent or something is important.
> 
> It's not just the paraphrase, the DRS is wrong too.
> 
> Note that the same sentence after dropping the variable is well understood :
> Every call  is urgent or  is important.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Jean-Marc Vanel
> Déductions SARL - Consulting, services, training,
> Rule-based programming, Semantic Web
> http://jmvanel.free.fr/ - EulerGUI, a turntable GUI for Semantic Web + rules, XML, UML, eCore, Java bytecode
> +33 (0)6 89 16 29 52 -- +33 (0)1 39 55 58 16
> ( we rarely listen to voice messages, please send a mail instead )

Your example

> Every call C is urgent or C is important.

is parsed as the disjunction of two sentences

{Every call C is urgent} or {C is important}.

and the DRS generated reflects this correctly. The variable C defined within the first sentence cannot be referred to anaphorically. Thus the second occurrence of C defines a new variable. See ACE 6.6 Interpretation Rules, section 8.3 "A noun phrase antecedent other than a proper name is not accessible if it occurs in a universally quantified or if-then-sentence."

Your example

> Every call  is urgent or  is important.

is parsed as one sentence containing the disjunction of two verb phrases.

{Every call {is urgent} or {is important}.}

which again is reflected correctly in the DRS.



On 29 Jun 2011, at 15:15, Joshua TAYLOR wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 8:36 AM, Jean-Marc Vanel
> <jeanmarc.vanel at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
> 
> This post just caught my eye.  The original English "Every call C is
> urgent or C is important" doesn't sound right to me (as English).

Right. As I pointed out above the example tries to make an anaphoric reference to the noun phrase "call C" that is not accessible.

> Notice that you'll get the same DRS from  "Every call C is urgent or C
> is important." and "Every call C is urgent or D is important."

This emphasises that the second occurrence of C is a different variable.

> And
> note that the paraphrase for "D is important." is  "There is something
> X1.  X1 is important." I think it's just a matter that the universally
> quantified C doesn't have scope in the second half of the sentence, "C
> is important."
> 
> However, there are some better sounding English alternatives for (what
> seems to be) the desired result:
> 
> For every call C C is urgent or C is important.
> Every call C is urgent or is important.
> 
> //JT
> 
> 
> -- 
> Joshua Taylor, http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~tayloj/

Best regards.

   --- nef