[论文解读] The "Fodor"-FODOR fallacy bites back

Yorick Wilks|ArXiv.org|Feb 25, 1999

Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation参考文献 7被引用 5

一句话总结

本文挑战了福多和莱波雷对普斯捷耶夫斯基生成词典学说的批评，认为他们对组合语义规则的否定是基于一种有缺陷且过时的词汇意义观。威尔克斯主张，意义源于文化表征系统内部的结构关系，而非词语与世界之间的直接联系，并为这类规则在计算语义学中的实际有效性进行辩护。

ABSTRACT

The paper argues that Fodor and Lepore are misguided in their attack on Pustejovsky's Generative Lexicon, largely because their argument rests on a traditional, but implausible and discredited, view of the lexicon on which it is effectively empty of content, a view that stands in the long line of explaining word meaning (a) by ostension and then (b) explaining it by means of a vacuous symbol in a lexicon, often the word itself after typographic transmogrification. (a) and (b) both share the wrong belief that to a word must correspond a simple entity that is its meaning. I then turn to the semantic rules that Pustejovsky uses and argue first that, although they have novel features, they are in a well-established Artificial Intelligence tradition of explaining meaning by reference to structures that mention other structures assigned to words that may occur in close proximity to the first. It is argued that Fodor and Lepore's view that there cannot be such rules is without foundation, and indeed systems using such rules have proved their practical worth in computational systems. Their justification descends from line of argument, whose high points were probably Wittgenstein and Quine that meaning is not to be understood by simple links to the world, ostensive or otherwise, but by the relationship of whole cultural representational structures to each other and to the world as a whole.

研究动机与目标

• 反驳福多和莱波雷认为普斯捷耶夫斯基的生成词典学说在语义上不连贯的观点。
• 驳斥词语意义必须对应于简单、孤立实体的假设。
• 为参考邻近词语及其结构的语义规则的正当性进行辩护。
• 主张意义应通过文化表征中的关系结构来理解，而非通过直接指示。
• 证明尽管福多和莱波雷提出异议，这类规则在计算系统中仍具有实际效用。

提出的方法

• 分析福多和莱波雷的论点，指出其根植于一种已被证伪的词典观，即词典是空洞性符号的储藏所。
• 将词汇意义重新定义为词语及其语境配置之间结构关系的产物。
• 借鉴人工智能传统中通过相互依赖的结构来建模意义，而非孤立符号的路径。
• 引用维特根斯坦和奎因的观点，支持意义是关系性和整体性的，而非原子性的观点。
• 主张采用此类规则的系统在计算应用中已被证明有效。
• 将普斯捷耶夫斯基框架中的语义规则重构为人工智能中一个有坚实基础且功能健全的传统的一部分。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 为何福多和莱波雷对生成词典学说的批评基于对词汇语义学的错误理解？
• RQ2 参考邻近词语及其结构的语义规则在逻辑和实践上是否都有效？
• RQ3 文化和表征结构在决定词语意义方面起什么作用？
• RQ4 意义的整体性、关系性观点如何挑战传统的词语-世界对应模型？
• RQ5 有哪些证据支持情境敏感语义规则在计算系统中的实际有效性？

主要发现

• 福多和莱波雷的论点建立在一种已被证伪的、简化的词典模型之上，即词典是空洞性符号的容器。
• 本文表明，意义并非源自直接指示或孤立的词项，而是源自结构关系。
• 参考邻近词语及其配置的语义规则在逻辑上是自洽的，并且在计算系统中具有实际有效性。
• 意义源于整个文化表征系统而非单个词语的观点，得到了维特根斯坦和奎因等哲学传统的支持。
• 采用此类关系性语义规则的系统已在现实世界的计算应用中证明其价值。
• 因此，福多和莱波雷对普斯捷耶夫斯基生成词典学说的批评是站不住脚的，且未能充分考虑语言意义的复杂性。