Bayesian Natural Language Semantics and Pragmatics.pdf

Bayesian NLI gives three departures from standard assumptions. First, it can be seen as a defence of linguistic semantics as a production system that maps meanings into forms as was assumed in generative semantics, but also in systemic grammar, functional grammar and optimality theoretic syntax. This brings with it a more relaxed view of the relation between syntactic and semantic structures; the mapping from meanings to forms should be efficient (linear) and the prior strong enough to find the inversion from the cues in the utterance.