Outline

• The Problem
• Referential Semantics
• Annotation
• Interpretation
• Use Cases
• Conclusions

The Problem

• How many times is Jesus mentioned in John 1:1-18 (prologue)?
  • once
• How many times is Mary (the mother of Jesus) mentioned in John 2:1-12 (the wedding at Cana)?
  • never
• How many times is Jesus mentioned in Mark 6:30-44 (the feeding of the five thousand)?
  • once
• Where in the Gospels is it said that "Jesus had compassion" on someone?
  • never

The Problem Explicated (1)

How many times is Jesus mentioned in John 1:1-18 (prologue)?

• 32 references, but only one occurrence of "Jesus"

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

The Problem Explicated (2)

How many times is Mary (the mother of Jesus) mentioned in John 2:1-12 (the wedding at Cana)?

• Never by name: instead,
  • "the mother of Jesus", "his mother"
  • "her"
  • "Woman" (direct address)
• (6 mentions altogether)

The Problem Explicated (3)

How many times is Jesus mentioned in Mark 6:30-44 (the feeding of the five thousand)?

• Once by name: "the apostles returned to Jesus and ..."
• Twelve times by pronoun:

  "told him"	"he went ashore"	"he had compassion on them"
  "he began to teach"	"his disciples came to him"	"he answered them"
  "they said to him"	"he said to them"	"he commanded them"
  "he looked up to heaven"	"he divided the two fish"

The Problem Explicated (4)

Where in the Gospels is it said that Jesus "had compassion" on someone?

The Deeper Problem

• Word search only matches specific lemmas
• Proximity search doesn't count the right things
• Syntactic search doesn't identify who/what/where
• The Bible Knowledgebase only includes one kind of linguistic reference: names
  the easiest case: largely context independent and uniquely self-identifying
• Other kinds of referring expressions
  • require context to determine the referent
  • go beyond the word level to larger syntactic constituents
• Without more complete semantic information about reference, this level of information is invisible

Linguistic Analysis and Biblical Interpretation

Linguistic Analysis and Biblical Interpretation (2)

The Missing Piece: Referential Semantics

• Indicate the referents for all types of referring expressions (not just names)
• Allow search by entity, regardless of mention type
• Show different descriptions for the same entity: in John's Prologue,
  • the Word
  • the [true] light
  • the only Son from the Father
  • the only God, who is at the Father's side
• Integrate genuine semantic search with lemmas, morphology, and syntax

NT Referents

• Annotate all the concrete referents in the New Testament
  • tied to the Greek text
  • with consistent identity
  • adding other attributes where possible
• Incorporate specific instances in the Bible Knowledgebase (type, label, description, etc.)
• Identify non-specific expressions:
  • Generics
  • Underspecified groups

Annotating Referents

• Same types of entities already included in the BK: people, places, things
• Anaphors:
  • personal pronouns (he, him)
  • possessive pronouns (his)
  • relatives (the one who ...)
• Verbs and participles with morphology that identifies the subject
• Descriptions

Annotating Referents (2)

• Apply human intelligence to resolve
  • Context:
    • Pronouns are typical in narrative after the scene is set
    • Anaphors may have several candidate referents
  • World knowledge:
    • Only certain classes of entities can speak or act in particular ways
  • Interpretation:
    • Don't go beyond the plain sense of the text
  • Only feasible with manual annotation
• Annotate larger spans where not semantically predictable
  • $fruit + "of the" + $vine ≠ $wine

Annotation Tool

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” (Jn 2.3)

Incorporating Entities into the BK

• Concrete instances of people and places are added to the Bible Knowledgebase:
  • Syro-Phoenician woman
  • Centurion
• Same kinds of attributes:
  • Family relationships
  • Links to dictionary content or Wikipedia
  • Group membership, ethnicity, social role
• Given a human-readable label, these can be presented in the same way as named individuals

Non-Specific Expressions

• Generics: "no one lights a lamp"
• Addressees: "Strive to enter by the narrow gate"
  • Includes OT quotes: "Prepare the way of the Lord"
• Contextually-defined groups: "the crowd", "the Pharisees"
• Abstract concepts: "parable", "riches", "faith", "kingdom of heaven"

Semantic Interpretation Rules

• Base annotation is on words
• Goal: attach semantics to the broadest span of words that has the same referent
• Strategy: bottom-up semantic composition based on the syntax
  • Interpret locally and pass information up the tree
  • Current implementation stops at the clause

Semantic Interpretation Example

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” (Jn 2.3)

Use Cases

• Search or browse for references to particular entities
  • Identify the largest constituent: "the only Son from the Father", not just "Son"
  • Display varying descriptions for an entity
• Search for classes of referents ("crowd" regardless of which one)
• Search by group relationship
  • People who are part of a crowd
  • Individuals who are Pharisees
• Search clauses that combine entity references and verbs or actions
  • Preceding example: clauses including Jesus and a verb of communication
• Integrate semantic search with lemmas, morphology, and syntax

Example Clausal Semantics

#GodTheFather "give" ...

Example Clausal Semantics (2)

#Jesus "give" ...

Status

• Draft annotation on Greek text is complete
• Simple semantic representation language for constants and collections
• Coordination of semantic references with Cascadia Syntax Graphs of the New Testament (Wu and Tan)
• Initial system for rule-based semantic interpretation

Conclusions

• Annotation of linguistic reference to concrete entities throughout the New Testament
  • Names, pronouns, implicit subject mentions, and descriptions
  • Consistent identity
• Semantic representation of those entities, linked to the text
  • Named, unnamed, specific and non-specific referents
  • Manual annotation extended with automated interpretation
  • Phrasal semantics attached to the largest syntactic constituent
• Coming soon: user interface to support semantic search based on linguistic reference
• 3 PM talk: more on semantic annotation at Logos