5.3 Speaker’s view of Reference

In a natural language, whether an expression refers to a single individual, a small group or a whole set is often not clear. For instance in English the expression “the lion” is not sufficiently explicit for us to know whether the speaker means “one particular lion” or “all lions”. In UNL, this must be made clearly, and the following Attributes are used to make explicit what the speaker’s view of reference seems to be.

These Attributes are usually attached to UWs that denote things.

@generic

Generic concept
For example, “the dog” and “a dog” in the following

Example
“The dog is a faithful animal.”
“A dog is faithful”

@def

Specific concept (Already referred)
Normally, such an UW has been already mentioned before.

Example
“The house on the corner is for sale”

@indef

Non-specific class
In English, in many cases the indefinite article “a” or “an” expresses this meaning. In Japanese aru can express this meaning and it is normally omitted.

Example
“There is a book on the desk.” 机の上に本が(1 冊)ある
“A student came to see me.” (ある)学生が会いに来た

@not

Complement set
@not is always attached to the UW which is negated.

Example 1 : Negation of a Predicate Verb
“He didn’t come.”

agt ( come.@entry.@past.@not, he )

Explanation
@not is attached to the UW of the Predicate Verb.

Example 2 : Negation of a Predicate Noun
“He is not a gentleman.”

aoj ( gentleman.@entry.@not, he )

Explanation
@not is attached to the UW of the Predicate Noun

Example 3 : Negation of a Predicate Adjective
“He is not English.”

aoj ( english.@entry.@not, he )

Explanation
@not is attached to the UW of the Predicate Adjective.

About “in/m-“, “un-“, “non-“

For instance, word “unhappy” can be expressed in two ways, using UW “unhappy” or the combination of UW “happy” and “@not” as “happy.@not”  

About “without”  

Please refer “6.5 with and without” for the details, the following shows some examples.

“A rose without a thorn”
aoj ( without(icl>have), rose )
obj ( without(icl>have), thorn )

“He did it without difficulty
man ( do.@past.@entry, without(icl>how) )
obj ( without(icl>how), difficulty )

“It's impossible to live without food”
man ( impossible.@entry, without(icl>how) )
obj ( without(icl>how), food )

@order

Ordinal number
@order is attached to a numeral UW to express an Ordinal Number.

Example
“We are on the 2nd basement floor.”

obj ( exist.@entry, we )
plc ( exist.@entry, :01.@def )
mod:01 ( floor.@entry, basement )
mod ( :01.@def, 2.@ordinal )

Explanation
The UW expression of “2nd” is “2.@ordinal”, a Temporary UW. For the details of Temporary UW, please refer to “2.5 Temporary UW”.

last updated 2000/09/21