skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Attention:

The NSF Public Access Repository (PAR) system and access will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET on Friday, July 11 until 2:00 AM ET on Saturday, July 12 due to maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.


Title: (Re)construing Meaning in NLP
Human speakers have an extensive toolkit of ways to express themselves. In this paper, we engage with an idea largely absent from discussions of meaning in natural language understanding—namely, that the way something is expressed reflects different ways of conceptualizing or construing the information being conveyed. We first define this phenomenon more precisely, drawing on considerable prior work in theoretical cognitive semantics and psycholinguistics. We then survey some dimensions of construed meaning and show how insights from construal could inform theoretical and practical work in NLP.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1812778
PAR ID:
10190663
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics
Page Range / eLocation ID:
5170 to 5184
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, information system researchers have begun to explore ways in which information technology artifacts have meaning within the context of this seismic event. Within this manuscript, we develop a new concept, namely: mindful adaptation of technology (MAT), and subsequently derive a research model based on event systems theory, coping theory, and mindfulness research. We theoretically position this multi-faceted construct of MAT within existing models and demonstrate its novelty and utility for understanding technological adaptation in response to extreme research contexts. We conclude with theoretical implications and direction for future research. 
    more » « less
  2. In many advanced mathematics courses, comprehending theorems and proofs is an essential activity for both students and mathematicians. Such activity requires readers to draw on relevant meanings for the concepts involved; however, the ways that concept meaning may shape comprehension activity is currently undertheorized. In this paper, we share a study of student activity as they work to comprehend the First Isomorphism Theorem and its proof. We analyze, using an onto-semiotic lens, the ways that students’ meanings for quotient group both support and constrain their comprehension activity. Furthermore, we suggest that the relationship between understanding concepts and proof comprehension can be reflexive: understanding of concepts not only influences comprehension activity, but engaging with theorems and proofs can serve to support students in generating more sophisticated understanding of the concepts involved. 
    more » « less
  3. Chinn, C. (Ed.)
    As new technologies proliferate our world, many well-meaning efforts seek to expand access to and broaden participation in STEM education and careers, yet many of these efforts disregard the fact that science, technology, and design are cultural processes. Building on a growing body of work, we examine how families experience and design together at the intersection of culture and technology. Drawing on Indigenous science and culturally sustaining/revitalizing perspectives, we investigate the ways in which families engage with culture and technology during a plant walk led by Tribal Elders that included a Tribally- designed virtual reality (re)interpretation of the experience. Insights from our findings highlight ways in which one Tribal Nation balanced culture and technology in ways that reclaimed their uses to maintain technological sovereignty and self-determination as designers. 
    more » « less
  4. In this paper, we propose an extension to Abstract Meaning Representations (AMRs) to encode scope information of quantifiers and negation, in a way that overcomes the semantic gaps of the schema while maintaining its cognitive simplicity. Specifically, we address three phenomena not previously part of the AMR specification: quantification, negation (generally), and modality. The resulting representation, which we call “Uniform Meaning Representation” (UMR), adopts the predicative core of AMR and embeds it under a “scope” graph when appropriate. UMR representations differ from other treatments of quantification and modal scope phenomena in two ways: (a) they are more transparent; and (b) they specify default scope when possible. 
    more » « less
  5. Many individuals practicing field-based research are subjected to sexual harassment and assault. This fact holds true for people engaged in archaeological field research and may be true for students who are just learning field methods while enrolled in an archaeological field school. We review some of our current research on the means of reducing and preventing sexual harassment and assault at archaeological field schools, as well as ways to create safer, more inclusive learning spaces. Additionally, we suggest that for the discipline to advance field school teaching and learning, we, as field directors, must situate ourselves as active and advocacy anthropologists: an approach that puts our students as a central focus when developing field-based pedagogy. As the authors of this work, we review our identities and positionality in conducting this research and in making meaning from the data we have collected. 
    more » « less