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the RM saga
> ==KEN: I'm not sure I get the last point. Terry, are you suggesting
> ==KEN: that we do away with subtleties like 'conj_pp', etc.? I'd be
> ==KEN: loath (or is that 'loathed'? ;-) to do it. As an example, I
> ==KEN: call 'You can print on the laser printer OR on the plotter' as
> ==KEN: my first witness. The disjunction would be lost.
>
> No, just that in the 'the printer by ...' case, the PPs are on analysis
> not conj-ed in the and/or manner you illustrate. Fact is, reattachment
> here is pushing the envelope of DIPETT's grammar--the user wants to create
> a (correct) structure that DIPETT will not produce on its own, always
> preferring to conj its PPs. What to do? I ask.
>
***SYL: wait a second! Correctness is defined by DIPETT's grammar. It might
***SYL: be the case that for a specific string, DIPETT won't manage to
***SYL: find the right structure. However, it must be the case that whatever
***SYL: structure will be output by the RM, it must be a legal DIPETT parse
***SYL: tree that could have been produced by the parser if it had managed
***SYL: to parse "perfectly".
> The difference has a direct impact on how reattachment is implemented
> and how someone would use it. Hierarchical, the user should nest each
> PP below its superordinate, and this is what the screen might show at
> the end of the process:
>
> on(printer)
> by(desk)
> in(office)
> at(hall end)
>
> Treated at a purely verb phenomenon, interaction might produce:
>
> on(printer)
> by(desk)
> in(office)
> at(hall end)
>
> To complicate matters in a clarifying way, let's add the PP 'at 9 a.m.'
> to the sentence. In both instances this marker of another Case would
> appear on the top level:
>
> at(9 a.m.)
> on(printer)
> ...
>
> Stepping back a bit, I wonder if it is useful to reintroduce the verb
> at this point; the example came out of the sentence "I printed the file
> on the printer by the desk in the office at the hall end". Is the LOC
> that these PPs together specify that of the printing action, or that
> of the printer?
>
***SYL: let's not get into the quicksands of specific examples! The user
***SYL: will decide if this or that PP should be attached to the verb or
***SYL: the noun -- it's his business! The RM's business is to provide
***SYL: the reattachment fonctionality. And the latter must be able to
***SYL: deal with DIPETT parse trees on input and produce a legal DIPETT
***SYL: parse tree on output.
Sylvain (Aren't we going overboard with the current exchange!?)
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