Embodied Construction Grammar in Simulation-Based Language Understanding

We present Embodied Construction Grammar, a formalism for linguistic analysis designed specifically for integration into a simulation-based model of language understanding. As in other construction grammars, linguistic constructions serve to map between phonological forms and conceptual representations. In the model we describe, however, conceptual representations are also constrained to be grounded in the body's perceptual and motor systems, and more precisely to parameterize mental simulations using those systems. Understanding an utterance thus involves at least two distinct processes: "analysis" to determine which constructions the utterance instantiates, and "simulation" according to the parameters specified by those constructions. In this report, we outline a construction formalism that is both representationally adequate for these purposes and specified precisely enough for use in a computational architecture.

ICSI Technical Report TR-02-004

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