Language and Logic Courses
Introductory Course
Semantic Modeling with Frames,
Rainer Osswald (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany) and Wiebke Petersen (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany)
The course provides an introduction to the frame-based modeling of natural language semantics. Its main goal is to teach students the formal foundations of frames and how to apply them to the modeling of various semantic phenomena. The course starts with an overview of the history of frames followed by a brief discussion of the pros and cons of attribute-based structures such as frames for the representation of semantic and conceptual knowledge. Next we give a formal definition of frames as relational structures, and we show how such structures can be specified by means of an appropriate logical language. We then illustrate how frames can be applied to the modeling of various semantic phenomena and domains. Special emphasis is put on the representation of events and changes. Moreover, we will address issues of frame composition and the syntax-semantics interface. The course closes with an outlook to more advanced topics.