[Online talk] - Linguists who use probabilistic models love them: An introduction to Functional Distributional Semantics

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• Dr Guy Emerson (Dept. of Computer Sciences and Technology, University of Cambridge)
• Thursday 07 May 2020, 17:00-18:00
• Online.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Julia Heine.

Please sign up via the link in order to receive an attendance link on Thursday before the talk: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_50YGCrYnFdptyU5

My research has a foot in two worlds: the logical world of formal semantics, and the data-driven world of distributional semantics. The aim of formal semantics is to develop mathematical models of meaning, with a particular focus on semantic composition and logical inference. The aim of distributional semantics is to develop computational models of meaning, using algorithms that can be run on a corpus of text. In this talk, I will present Functional Distributional Semantics, a framework which embeds a formal semantic model inside a probabilistic computational model, with benefits in both directions. From the computational perspective, I will show how formal semantic structure enables the model to learn information not captured by mainstream distributional semantic models (vector space models). From the formal perspective, I will show how a probabilistic approach can shed light on phenomena such as vagueness, generic sentences, and donkey anaphora.

This talk is part of the Cambridge University Linguistic Society (LingSoc) series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Cambridge Forum of Science and Humanities
• Cambridge Language Sciences
• Cambridge University Linguistic Society (LingSoc)
• Cambridge talks
• Chris Davis' list
• Guy Emerson's list
• Language Sciences for Graduate Students
• Online

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