Using the Formal Representations of “Elementary Events” to Set Up Computational Models of Full “Narratives”
Résumé
In this chapter, we describe the conceptual tools that, in an NKRL context (NKRL = Narrative Knowledge Representation Language), allow us to obtain a (computer-usable) description of full “narratives” as logically structured associations of the constituting (and duly formalized) “elementary events.” Dealing with this problem means, in practice, being able to formalize those “connectivity phenomena”—denoted, at “surface level,” by logico-semantic coherence links like causality, goal, co-ordination, subordination, indirect speech, etc.—that assure the conceptual unity of a whole narrative. The second-order, unification based solutions adopted by NKRL in this context, “completive construction” and “binding occurrences,” allow us to take into account the connectivity phenomena by “reifying” the formal representations used to model the constitutive elementary events. These solutions, which are of interest from a general digital humanities point of view, are explained in some depth making use of several illustrating examples.