'as'

[nschneid]

I've been investigating ways in which 'as' is used with a noun phrase, and am wondering if there could be a cleaner way to represent them in AMR.

Some results from a release search for "as a":

a majority: core role of an overt verb predicate

• characterize someone like me as a "lib" — characterize-01 :ARG2

• Even you see rail to Dulles as a positive because Dulles is a job center that promotes bi-directional demand on the rail . — see-01 :ARG2

• it's one thing to proclaim yourself as a fan of Harry Potter, and another thing entirely to parade around as poster for it: proclaim-01 :ARG1 [fan :domain you]

have-org-role-91 (already documented at http://www.isi.edu/~ulf/amr/lib/amr-dict.html#as)

• Pierre Vinken , 61 years old , will join the board as a nonexecutive director Nov. 29 .

:prep-as

• As for lumping all Islamic countries together as a no go area - what complete nonsense!

• As a "union," it's farcical.

:mod

• Personally, as a citizen, it makes me feel good to know that my government is there to help people in need. — i :mod citizen

• But as a Christian, I believe what God's Word tells me.

resemble-01

• So what may appear as a rich mineral bonanza, will be shot down for now and the forseable future, because the cost of extraction, is larger that any profit margin.

:compared-to

• boy is he dumb as a box of rocks.

:ARGx-of

• As a retiree she has medical benefits

  she :ARG0-of retire-01

  (= She, who is a retiree, has medical benefits): misses the causal relationship between being a retiree and having benefits

• The actively aggressive advocates of warfare as a solution to life's problems.

  (p / person 
    :ARG0-of (a / advocate-01 
          :ARG1 (w / warfare 
                :ARG0-of (s / solve-01 
                      :ARG1 (p2 / problem 
                            :poss (l / life))))) 
    :mod (a2 / aggressive) 
    :manner (a3 / active))

  (= warfare THAT solves life's problems)

  [Why does advocate-01 not have a core role for attribute: "person who advocates war as a solution"?]

• But why are we as a so called free society really jumping on board this super PC behavior?

  (c / contrast-01 
    :ARG2 (j / jump-07 
          :ARG0 (w / we 
                :ARG1-of (c2 / call-01 
                      :ARG2 (s / society 
                            :ARG1-of (f / free-04))))

  Misses the contradiction between being a free society and the PC behavior. Another problem here: "so-called" is a hedge or metalinguistic distancing marker, not a synonym for "called".

• After Reagan crushed high wages in America (which was done as a gift to big business) — crush-01 :ARG1-of gift-01

[timjogorman]

I wanted to second this; we've seen a lot of issues with "as" where there doesn't seem to be a very good solution.

One class of particularly tricky cases, I think, are these instances of "as" that roughly involve "treating X as Y for the purpose of Z":

• I could definitely support that as a non proliferation treaty.
• As for lumping all Islamic countries together as a no go area - what complete nonsense!
• The actively aggressive advocates of warfare as a solution to life's problems.
• We know that the people who dismissed Clarke as having his "hair on fire" were wrong.
• You're quoting a left wing propaganda site as a legitimate source?
• Abdul Rahim Mallouh , Deputy Secretary General of the Popular Front for Liberating Palestine , headed the 255 captives ' list , who were released yesterday by Israel as a goodwill gesture .

I'd suggest that many of these could be solved if we had a frame (either agreeing to map to "treat-01" or adding a new one):

You're quoting a left wing propaganda site as a legitimate source?

(q / quote-01 :mode interrogative
      :ARG0 (y / you)
      :ARG2 (s / site
            :mod (p / propaganda
                  :mod (l3 / left-wing)))
      :manner (t / treat-01
            :ARG1 p
            :ARG2 (s2 / source
                  :ARG1-of (l2 / legitimate-02))))

I could definitely support that as a non proliferation treaty.
(p / possible-01
      :ARG1 (s / support-01
            :ARG0 (i / i)
            :ARG1 (t2 / that)
            :manner (d / definite)
            :condition (t3 / treat-01
                  :ARG1 t2
                  :ARG2 (t / treaty
                        :purpose (p2 / proliferate-01 :polarity -)))))

[nschneid]

I think many of these usages involve reframing. Looking at @timjogorman's examples:

• We know that the people who dismissed Clarke as having his "hair on fire" were wrong.
  • explicit speech act: "dismiss" with the rationale that Clarke has his hair on fire
• The actively aggressive advocates of warfare as a solution to life's problems.
  • explicit speech act: "advocate" that warfare is a solution
• As for lumping all Islamic countries together as a no go area - what complete nonsense!
  • "lumping together as" = assigning a single label to disparate elements
• You're quoting a left wing propaganda site as a legitimate source?
  • ambiguous: this could mean 'you gave the site as an example of a legitimate source' (claimed it was legitimate), or 'you quoted from the site AS IF it was a legitimate source' (implied it was legitimate)
• Abdul Rahim Mallouh , Deputy Secretary General of the Popular Front for Liberating Palestine , headed the 255 captives ' list , who were released yesterday by Israel as a goodwill gesture .
  • the release (act) should be interpreted as a gesture. This interpretation was the purpose of the release (release-01 :purpose gesture-01)?
• I could definitely support that as a non proliferation treaty.
  • Without context, I don't understand what this means. ('Of the possible nonproliferation treaties, I could support that one'?)

[nschneid]

Claire: categorize-01?

Ulf: As a politician, Trump is X, but as an entertainer, Trump is Y. Referring to an aspect of something.

X is evaluated as Y with respect to Z.

Kira: have-relevance-91? "If you're hungry, there's food in the fridge." cf. #177

(p / politician :domain (t / Trump)
  :ARG1-of (h / have-relevance-91 :ARG2 (x / X :domain t)))

• Problem: "Trump is X" and "Trump is Y" are not absolute statements. They need to be refined.

The "As a 'union'" example:

(t / treat-01 :ARG1 (i / it) :ARG2 (u / union)
  :ARG1-of (h / have-relevance-91 :ARG2 ...))

Tim: "As a retiree, she has medical benefits": Causal—because she's a retiree, she has medical benefits. Could be cause-01.

[nschneid]

As a teacher, I always wear dress shirts. ≠ I am a teacher who always wears dress shirts.

I put this aside as my lunch.