LOGICAL FORMS

• Logical form: a metalanguage in which we can concretely and succinctly express all linguistically possible meanings of an utterance.
  
  
• Typically used as a representation to which we can apply discourse and world knowledge to select the single-best (or N-best) alternatives.
  
  
• An attempt to bring formal logic to bear on the language understanding problem (predicate logic).
  
  
• Example:
  
  
  • If Romeo is happy, Juliet is happy: Happy(Romeo) -> Happy(Juliet)
    
    
  • "The doctor examined the patient's knees"