Towards a Procedural Understanding of Semantics. AIM-292

purl.stanford.edu/pg562qb0026

Title:

Towards a Procedural Understanding of Semantics. AIM-292

Author:

Winograd, Terry

Author (no Collectors):

Winograd, Terry

Collector:

Winograd, Terry

Description:

The term "procedural semantics" has been used in a variety of ways, not

all compatible, and not all comprehensible. In this paper, I have chosen

to apply the term to a broad paradigm for studying semantics (and in fact,

all of linguistics). This paradigm has developed in a context of writing

computer programs which use natural language, but it is not a theory of

computer programs or programming techniques. It is "procedural" because

it looks at the underlying structure of language as fundamentally shaped

by the nature of processes for language production and comprehension. It

is based on the belief that there is a level of explanation at which there

are significant similarities between the psychological processes of human

language use and the computational processes in computer programs we can

construct and study. Its goal is to develop a body of theory at this

level. This approach necessitates abandoning or modifying several

currently accepted doctrines, including the way in which distinctions have

been drawn between "semantics" and "pragmatics" and between "performance"

and "competence".

The paper has three major sections. It first lays out the paradigm

assumptions which guide the enterprise, and elaborates a model of

cognitive processing and language use. It then illustrates how some

specific semantic problems might be approached from a procedural

perspective, and contrasts the procedural approach with formal structural

and truth conditional approaches. Finally, it discusses the goals of

linguistic theory and the nature of the linguistic explanation.

Much of waht is presented here is a speculation about the nature of a

pradigm yet to be developed. This paper is an attempt to be evocative

rather than definitive; to convey intuitions rather than to formulate

crucial arguments which justify this approach over others. It will be

successful if it suggests some ways of looking at language which lead to

further understanding.

Topic:

Artificial intelligence

Subject:

Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Memo (Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 text file

Publication Info:

Stanford (Calif.) and cau

Date:

October 1976

Place created:

Stanford (Calif.)

Imprint:

Stanford (Calif.), October 1976

Genre:

memorandums

Identifier:

AIM-292

Repository:

Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives

Collection:

Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory records, 1963-2009

Manuscript number:

SC1041