Universal Dependencies to Logical Forms with Negation Scope

TL;DR

This paper presents an extension of the UDepLambda framework to produce logical forms with marked negation scope from Universal Dependencies, enabling better semantic representations of negation and quantification.

Contribution

The paper introduces UDepLambda$ not$, a novel method that converts dependency graphs into logical forms with scope information, handling negation and universal quantification.

Findings

Initial English conversion shows promising scope representation.

Handles complex phenomena like negation and universal quantification.

Framework enhances semantic parsing capabilities.

Abstract

Many language technology applications would benefit from the ability to represent negation and its scope on top of widely-used linguistic resources. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of obtaining a first-order logic representation with negation scope marked using Universal Dependencies. To do so, we enhance UDepLambda, a framework that converts dependency graphs to logical forms. The resulting UDepLambda$\lnot$ is able to handle phenomena related to scope by means of an higher-order type theory, relevant not only to negation but also to universal quantification and other complex semantic phenomena. The initial conversion we did for English is promising, in that one can represent the scope of negation also in the presence of more complex phenomena such as universal quantifiers.