Natural language plurals in logic programming queries
Abstract
This paper presents a representation for natural language plurals
in knowledge base queries, implementing collective, distributive, cumulative,
and multiply distributive senses of the plural by means of
higher predicates.
The underlying semantics is based on Franconi’s theory of collections.
The collective reading of a plural applies the predicate to
the whole collection; the distributive reading applies the predicate
to all of the elements; and the cumulative reading says that each element
either satisfies the predicate, or belongs to some collection that
does so. Implicit in the cumulative reading is the notion of element–
property, the property of belonging to some collection that satisfies
a given predicate.
Another reading of the plural, here termed the multiply distributive,
requires a straightforward extension of the system to allow
simultaneous distribution over more than one variable at once,
with none of the distributions having scope over any other. Simultaneous
distribution is implemented as a metalogical predicate that
transforms queries before executing them.