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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Linguistics Studies
Pragmatics help!
Hey everyone, I'm taking a pragmatics course and we're now talking about discourse representation theory (Hans Kamp). I got a homework assignment about this and I got stuck when trying to answer the last questions. Could anyone help me?
1. Construct a DRS for the following discourse (already answered):
2. Discuss to what extent the presuppositional nature of Pedro is accounted for in your representation.
My answer so far:
The presuppositional nature of the name is accounted for in a way, being in the largest box on the highest level. This is where elements that are given are placed. However, the fact that accommodation may be required is not accounted for. The interpreter may never have heard of Pedro and therefore have to simply accept that there is a person, Pedro. Thus, although the name is presented as a given in the DR, this may not actually be the case. This is something that cannot be represented using this method.
3. Consider the following continuation:
If Pedro likes a woman who owns a donkey he feeds it. He spoils it.
What does DRT say about the acceptability of this continuation (concerning the way "it" refers back to a "donkey")? Compare this with your own personal intuitions about the acceptability of this discourse and discuss possible consequences for the way discourse can be mapped to complex DRSs.
My (lame) answer:
I think that according to DRT, this would be an acceptable continuation. There is no reason why one could not refer back to a single element multiple times. One would simply have to add "x spoils z". This clashes somewhat with my own intuitions. Although I comprehend the meaning of the sentence, I think it sounds very strange to add "He spoils it" as if it were a fact, when the existence of the woman nor that of the donkey is certain. This strangeness does not occur in the representation, since the phrase would be in the second box, of which the contents are only true if those in the first box are true.
I know my answers don't make sense at all, but I really don't know what my teacher is aiming at. Can anybody help me?
Thank you very much!
1. Construct a DRS for the following discourse (already answered):
2. Discuss to what extent the presuppositional nature of Pedro is accounted for in your representation.
My answer so far:
The presuppositional nature of the name is accounted for in a way, being in the largest box on the highest level. This is where elements that are given are placed. However, the fact that accommodation may be required is not accounted for. The interpreter may never have heard of Pedro and therefore have to simply accept that there is a person, Pedro. Thus, although the name is presented as a given in the DR, this may not actually be the case. This is something that cannot be represented using this method.
3. Consider the following continuation:
If Pedro likes a woman who owns a donkey he feeds it. He spoils it.
What does DRT say about the acceptability of this continuation (concerning the way "it" refers back to a "donkey")? Compare this with your own personal intuitions about the acceptability of this discourse and discuss possible consequences for the way discourse can be mapped to complex DRSs.
My (lame) answer:
I think that according to DRT, this would be an acceptable continuation. There is no reason why one could not refer back to a single element multiple times. One would simply have to add "x spoils z". This clashes somewhat with my own intuitions. Although I comprehend the meaning of the sentence, I think it sounds very strange to add "He spoils it" as if it were a fact, when the existence of the woman nor that of the donkey is certain. This strangeness does not occur in the representation, since the phrase would be in the second box, of which the contents are only true if those in the first box are true.
I know my answers don't make sense at all, but I really don't know what my teacher is aiming at. Can anybody help me?
Thank you very much!
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