Reference to locations

Abstract

We propose a semantics for locative expressions such as near Jones or west of Denver, an important subsystem for NLP applications. Locative expressions denote regions of space, and serve as arguments to predicates, locating objects and events spatially. Since simple locatives occupy argument positions, they do NOT participate in scope ambiguities---pace one common view, which sees locatives as logical operators. Our proposal justifies common representational practice in computational linguistics, accounting for how locative expressions function anaphorically, and explaining a wide range of inference involving locatives. We further demonstrate how the argument analysis may accommodate multiple locative arguments in a single predicate. The analysis is implemented for use in a database query application.