the box" as a single phrase indicating a location ... Thus there is a continuing
interplay between the different sorts of analysis, with the results of one
affecting the others.^20It is extremely interesting that in natural language, syntax and seman-
tics are so deeply intertwined. Last Chapter, in discussing the elusive
concept of "form", we had broken the notion into two categories: syntactic
form, which is detectable by a predictably terminating decision procedure,
and semantic form, which is not. But here, Winograd is telling us that-at
least when the usual senses of "syntax" and "semantics" are taken-they
merge right into each other, in natural language. The external form of a
sentence-that is, its composition in terms of elementary signs--does not
divide up so neatly into syntactic and semantic aspects. This is a very
significant point for linguistics.
Here are some final comments on SHRDLU by Winograd.Let us look at what the system would do with a simple description like "a red
cube which supports a pyramid". The description will use concepts like
BLOCK, RED, PYRAMID, and EQUIDIMENSIONAL-all parts of the sys-FIGURE 118. Procedural representation of "a red cube which supports a pyramid."
[Adapted from Roger Schank and Kenneth Colby, Computer Models of Thought and Language
(San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1973), p. 172.]
No moreNoNoNo moreNo