[developers] SEM-I question: properties on 'i' variables

[Michael Wayne Goodman]

Hi all,

What does it mean when variable properties are specified on 'i'? The 
following example is taken from http://moin.delph-in.net/SemiRfc, which 
comes from the ERG:

     _a+little_q : ARG0 i { NUM sg }, RSTR h, BODY h.

In the "variables" section of the ERG's SEM-I, no properties are defined 
on 'i', and 'NUM' is only on 'x':

     u.
     i < u.
     p < u.
     h < p.
     e < i : PERF bool, PROGR bool, MOOD bool, TENSE tense, SF sf.
     x < i & p : DIV bool, IND bool, GEND gender, PERS person, NUM 
number, PT pt.

So why is 'i' the value of 'ARG0' on the predicate synopsis above? Why 
not 'x'?

When I looked through through all the .smi files of the ERG (trunk), 'i' 
was the only underspecified variable type that took properties, and 
every instance specified 'x' properties such as NUM or IND (not 'e' 
properties like TENSE or SF). Perhaps something in the grammar could be 
more tightly constrained so the SEM-I generation code doesn't enumerate 
apparent redundancies such as the following?

     def_explicit_q : ARG0 x { NUM sg }, RSTR h, BODY h.
     def_implicit_q : ARG0 i { NUM sg }, RSTR h, BODY h.

Or am I mistaken in thinking these are erroneous?

-mwg