Ken Lai


2019

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Modeling Quantification and Scope in Abstract Meaning Representations
James Pustejovsky | Ken Lai | Nianwen Xue
Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Designing Meaning Representations

In this paper, we propose an extension to Abstract Meaning Representations (AMRs) to encode scope information of quantifiers and negation, in a way that overcomes the semantic gaps of the schema while maintaining its cognitive simplicity. Specifically, we address three phenomena not previously part of the AMR specification: quantification, negation (generally), and modality. The resulting representation, which we call “Uniform Meaning Representation” (UMR), adopts the predicative core of AMR and embeds it under a “scope” graph when appropriate. UMR representations differ from other treatments of quantification and modal scope phenomena in two ways: (a) they are more transparent; and (b) they specify default scope when possible.‘