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Hc1 2007--2008: Assessed Assignment 2
Sentence Structure, meaning and Ambiguity

Issued: Thursday, 14 February.
Deadline: 4pm, Thursday 28 February.

Do both of the following tasks.

1.

For the following examples:

(a)

Etta chased Pip.

(b)

Etta chased a bird. The bird flew.

(c)

Every dog chased a cat.

1. Draw the syntactic tree associated with each sentence, based on the syntactic rules from Chapter 9 (also in Figure B.1) of your course notes.
2. For each of the three discourses, show, by a sequence of DRSs, how semantic rules may be applied to compute the corresponding meanings. Make explicit which rule is being applied at each step.
3. Construct one model with respect to which all of the examples are true, and
4. one in which they are all false.

Be explicit about any assumptions you have to make.

2.

Consider the following passage:

The village lies in a valley between two high peaks. Each track leading from the village is lined by tall bushes and trees, and passes a shrine to the local deity. A burn issues from a gorge just to the north, and flows fast in the spring beneath the stone bridge.

Chapter 11 of the course notes describes 5 major types of ambiguity. List 2 instances of each type of ambiguity (i.e. list a total of 10 examples). Briefly describe how each example is ambiguous.

This assessed exercise should be submitted to the Informatics Teaching Office (ITO) in Appleton Tower Level 5. You must submit one copy of the assignment, and make sure you staple the pages together. Please make sure that the assignment is clearly marked with your name, matric number, your course, tutorial group, and name of assignment. Please note the policy on late assignments.

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