[developers] on-line demo / simple sentence

Guy Emerson gete2 at cam.ac.uk
Mon Apr 9 18:27:50 CEST 2018


"The new building is done"

The ellipsis would have to be something like:

"The new building is done being built"

But this sounds awkward to me.  Maybe "done" and "finished" pattern with
adjectives that can't take a complement:

"The new building is ready/complete"


2018-04-09 14:19 GMT+01:00 Ann Copestake <aac10 at cl.cam.ac.uk>:

> my intuition is that there's no ellipsis - I don't know how to test that,
> though
>
> On 09/04/18 14:02, Emily M. Bender wrote:
>
> I think it's more than just saying that it's optional though --- I think
> the meaning Paul was looking for there involves ellipsis, which probably
> isn't get enabled for "done", "finished", and whatever else goes into that
> class.
>
> Emily
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 7, 2018 at 12:34 AM, Ann Copestake <aac10 at cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>> is it just that `done' as an adjective is in the ERG as requiring a
>> complement and should be allowed to appear without one?  as in "the chicken
>> is done" etc  So a matter of a modification to a lexical entry.  (I admit I
>> am emailing without checking ...)
>>
>> All best,
>>
>> Ann
>>
>> On 06/04/2018 23:21, paul at haleyai.com wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Olga and Woodley.
>>
>>
>>
>> I understood the passive but had not considered “X did him”!   The
>> others, to the best of my knowledge, leave X as the subject (not ARG2 or
>> ARG3), no??
>>
>>
>>
>> You are correct regarding what I expected Woodley and it may not be in
>> the ERG.  The top parse for “he is done cooking” has him as the subject
>> (with some interesting variations).
>>
>>
>>
>> I understood the possibility that some unspecified agent was doing
>> something to him (as in one interpretation of “he is done cooking”) and
>> would have been impressed to see some “unknown” in the MRS to that effect.
>>
>>
>>
>> At least I can make sense of this interpretation now, even though I was
>> hoping for something else.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks again,
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Woodley Packard <sweaglesw at sweaglesw.org>
>> <sweaglesw at sweaglesw.org>
>> *Sent:* Friday, April 6, 2018 6:04 PM
>> *To:* paul at haleyai.com
>> *Cc:* developers <developers at delph-in.net> <developers at delph-in.net>
>> *Subject:* Re: [developers] on-line demo / simple sentence
>>
>>
>>
>> As Olga pointed out, these are passive readings.  They correspond to
>> something like:
>>
>>
>>
>> X did a good job.
>>
>> X did him.
>>
>> He is done( by X).
>>
>>
>>
>> X did his neighbor a favor.
>>
>> X did his homework a favor.
>>
>> ? X did his homework him.
>>
>> ?? He is done his homework( by X).
>>
>>
>>
>> I suspect the reading you are looking for instead involves a sense of
>> "done" conveying completion of an unspecified event, rather than a passive
>> variant of "do".  I’m not sure that sense is implemented in the ERG,
>> although I can’t speak for Dan for sure on that.  I see parses with that
>> sense when the event in question is an explicit complement of the adjective
>> "done", e.g. for:
>>
>>
>>
>> He is done eating.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> -Woodley
>>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 6, 2018, at 2:36 PM, <paul at haleyai.com> <paul at haleyai.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>>
>>
>> I’m afraid I have a stupid question, but am a bit surprised at the
>> following results (the MRS, in particular, having “he” as ARG2 or ARG3).
>>
>>
>>
>> Does this look right to those of you who know more than I?  Can you help
>> me understand the subject of the “do” predication here, if so?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>>
>> <image002.png>
>>
>>
>>
>> <image001.png>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> <image003.png>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient> Virus-free.
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>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Emily M. Bender
> Professor, Department of Linguistics
> Check out CLMS on facebook! http://www.facebook.com/uwclma
>
>
>
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