Coding choices in argument structure

2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Donohue
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Austronesian Language ◽  
Applicative Constructions ◽  
Coding Strategy ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Large Corpus

The syntactic properties of applicatives have received a large amount of attention. Despite this there have been almost no attempts to explain the reasons behind the choice of an applicative coding of an argument when there is an grammatical oblique coding strategy available. This study focuses on dynamic applicative constructions in Tukang Besi, an Austronesian language of central Indonesia, and examines a large corpus for reasons why applicative coding is chosen over oblique coding. Factors such as semantic role information and animacy are as important as textual prominence in the coding decision.

scholarly journals From classifiers to applicatives in Mojeño Trinitario: A new source for applicative markers

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-466
Author(s):  
Françoise Rose
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Present State ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Applicative Constructions ◽  
Typical Path ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Large Corpus

Abstract Well attested diachronic sources for applicative markers are adpositions and verbs. Nominal sources are regarded as dubious, although nouns have been argued to have developed into applicatives in some languages (such as Murrinhpatha, in Nordlinger (this issue). In this paper, I argue for a previously unreported source for applicatives, by presenting the possible applicative function of the classifiers of Mojeño Trinitario (Arawak, Bolivia), based on a large corpus of texts collected in the field. While classifiers within verbs derive prototypical applicative constructions, they show unusual properties as applicatives, namely in their semantics. The applicative markers are selected according to the physical properties of the referent of the applied object, rather than its semantic role within the sentence. And although most of the classifiers show no similarity to free nominal lexemes in the present state of the language, the classifiers found in Mojeño Trinitario verbs are very likely derived historically from nominal incorporation, a typical path of development. Mojeño Trinitario data offer new evidence for the possibility of elements derived from nouns to be reanalyzed as morphological applicative markers.

scholarly journals Syntax Role for Neural Semantic Role Labeling

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-48
Author(s):  
Zuchao Li ◽  
Hai Zhao ◽  
Shexia He ◽  
Jiaxun Cai
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Language Models ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Semantic Role Labeling ◽  
Empirical Survey ◽  
Learning Framework ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Predicate Argument Structure

Abstract Semantic role labeling (SRL) is dedicated to recognizing the semantic predicate-argument structure of a sentence. Previous studies in terms of traditional models have shown syntactic information can make remarkable contributions to SRL performance; however, the necessity of syntactic information was challenged by a few recent neural SRL studies that demonstrate impressive performance without syntactic backbones and suggest that syntax information becomes much less important for neural semantic role labeling, especially when paired with recent deep neural network and large-scale pre-trained language models. Despite this notion, the neural SRL field still lacks a systematic and full investigation on the relevance of syntactic information in SRL, for both dependency and both monolingual and multilingual settings. This paper intends to quantify the importance of syntactic information for neural SRL in the deep learning framework. We introduce three typical SRL frameworks (baselines), sequence-based, tree-based, and graph-based, which are accompanied by two categories of exploiting syntactic information: syntax pruningbased and syntax feature-based. Experiments are conducted on the CoNLL-2005, 2009, and 2012 benchmarks for all languages available, and results show that neural SRL models can still benefit from syntactic information under certain conditions. Furthermore, we show the quantitative significance of syntax to neural SRL models together with a thorough empirical survey using existing models.

Is there anything there when there is not there? Null expletives and second language data

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Oshita
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Psychological Reality ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Linguistic Characterization ◽  
Large Corpus ◽  
Made In

This article explores the issue of the psychological reality of null expletives, i.e., the silent counterparts of the so-called dummy subjects such as English it and there. Following Jackendoff’s (1997; 2002) notion of `defective’ lexical item, I define null expletives as extremely `defective’ words with syntactic properties but no semantic or phonological content. By comparing native speakers of pro-drop languages and those of topic-drop languages in terms of their grammatical judgement of and productive use of English, I argue that null expletives are very likely psychologically real to speakers of pro-drop languages but not to those of topic-drop languages. This conclusion is based on observations made in previous second language (L2) studies and the analysis of data obtained from a large corpus of nonnative English. The question of the unaccusative-unergative distinction in L2 grammar and the linguistic characterization of so-called free subject-verb inversion in pro-drop languages are also discussed in relation to the issue of the psychological reality of null expletives.

scholarly journals Lithuanian reflexive-based impersonals with accusative objects

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 358-380
Author(s):  
Birutė Spraunienė ◽  
Vaiva Žeimantienė
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Aspectual Meaning

This paper surveys Lithuanian impersonal constructions with predicative present passive participles containing non-promoted accusative objects. It is shown that the construction, hitherto considered very rare, is well-attested and productive with one verb class, namely, transitive reflexives. In terms of semantics, transitive reflexives in Lithuanian may be classified as autobenefactives. Autobenefactive reflexives do not exhibit a change in argument structure with respect to their non-reflexive counterparts. In the case of autobenefactives, the morpheme -si- attached to the verb adds the meaning that the subject, which mostly has the semantic role of an agent, benefits from the event expressed by the predicate. On the basis of corpus data, we have analysed how widespread impersonal constructions with accusative objects are within the domain of transitive reflexives and which pattern—the accusative or the nominative—is dominant when both are attested. Lastly, we briefly discuss the temporal-aspectual meaning of reflexive-based impersonals as well as the referential properties of implied agents

On the Argument Structure of Certain Haitian Predicates - Rete, To Remain', Posib 'Possible'

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Lumsden
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Systematic Description ◽  
Theta Role ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Subject Raising

The paper presents a systematic description of rete and posib, including some patterns which have not been discussed before in the literature. The account confirms that these predicates do not provide examples of subject-to-subject raising constructions. A lexical subject with rete or posib is always assigned a theta-role by that predicate. The analysis provides a unified lexical representation of each predicate without resort to double lexical entries to represent different syntactic patterns which are phonolog-ically and semantically identical. The syntactic properties of these predicates are essentially parallel, with the basic exception of the distinction that rete is a Case assigner, but posib is not. Additionally, it is argued that rete requires an overt specification of the location or time of the event which it describes, but posib has no such requirement.

Rules and construction effects in learning the argument structure of verbs

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 797-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHERINE DEMUTH ◽  
'MALILLO MACHOBANE ◽  
FRANCINA MOLOI
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Rule Learning ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Learning Problem ◽  
Order Restrictions ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Applicative Constructions

Theorists of language acquisition have long debated the means by which children learn the argument structure of verbs (e.g. Bowerman, 1974, 1990; Pinker, 1984, 1989; Tomasello, 1992). Central to this controversy has been the possible role of verb semantics, especially in learning which verbs undergo dative-shift alternation in languages like English. The learning problem is somewhat simplified in Bantu double object constructions, where all applicative verbs show the same order of postverbal objects. However, Bantu languages differ as to what that order is, some placing the benefactive argument first, and others placing the animate argument first. Learning the language-specific word-order restrictions on Bantu double object applicative constructions is therefore more akin to setting a parameter (cf. Hyams, 1986). This study examined 100 three- to eight-year-old children's knowledge of word order restrictions in Sesotho double object applicatives. Performance on forced choice elicited production tasks found that four-year-olds showed evidence of rule learning, although eight-year-olds had not yet attained adult levels of performance. Further investigation found lexical construction effects for three-year-olds. These findings suggest that learning the argument structure of verbs, even when lexical semantics is not involved, may be more sensitive to lexical construction effects than previously thought.

scholarly journals Labeling Chinese Predicates with Semantic Roles

2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nianwen Xue
Keyword(s):  
Gold Standard ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
High Performance ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Semantic Role Labeling ◽  
Pos Tagging ◽  
Fully Automatic ◽  
Syntactic Annotation ◽  
Predicate Argument Structure

In this article we report work on Chinese semantic role labeling, taking advantage of two recently completed corpora, the Chinese PropBank, a semantically annotated corpus of Chinese verbs, and the Chinese Nombank, a companion corpus that annotates the predicate-argument structure of nominalized predicates. Because the semantic role labels are assigned to the constituents in a parse tree, we first report experiments in which semantic role labels are automatically assigned to hand-crafted parses in the Chinese Treebank. This gives us a measure of the extent to which semantic role labels can be bootstrapped from the syntactic annotation provided in the treebank. We then report experiments using automatic parses with decreasing levels of human annotation in the input to the syntactic parser: parses that use gold-standard segmentation and POS-tagging, parses that use only gold-standard segmentation, and fully automatic parses. These experiments gauge how successful semantic role labeling for Chinese can be in more realistic situations. Our results show that when hand-crafted parses are used, semantic role labeling accuracy for Chinese is comparable to what has been reported for the state-of-the-art English semantic role labeling systems trained and tested on the English PropBank, even though the Chinese PropBank is significantly smaller in size. When an automatic parser is used, however, the accuracy of our system is significantly lower than the English state of the art. This indicates that an improvement in Chinese parsing is critical to high-performance semantic role labeling for Chinese.

Do grammatical relations reflect information status? Reassessing Preferred Argument Structure theory against discourse data from Tondano

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy C. Brickell ◽  
Stefan Schnell
Keyword(s):  
Information Flow ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Structure Theory ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Austronesian Language ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
Corpus Data

AbstractWe test Preferred Argument Structure theory against corpus data from Tondano, an Austronesian language with symmetrical voice. Investigating the use of full noun phrases in individual argument positions, we find no significant clustering of both S and P as opposed to A, hence no discourse ergativity. Moreover, neither pivotal nor non-pivotal grammatical relations appear to specialise in the accommodation of full noun phrases. Thus, grammatical relations do not serve as architecture for regulating information flow in discourse. Only constituent order reflects information flow, so that full noun phrases tend to occur in clause-final position. More generally, correlations of humanness and topicality predict most straightforwardly attested patterns of argument realisation.

Nominalizing verbal passive

2020 ◽  
pp. 111-138
Author(s):  
Hagit Borer
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Internal Argument ◽  
Extended Projection ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Syntactic Properties

In her chapter ‘Nominalizing verbal passives: PROs and cons’, Borer argues that nominalization, and by extension many other morphological processes, must be syntactic. Borer focuses on so-called short argument structure nominals (SASNs), i.e. ASNs which are missing an overt logical (external) subject, and which do not obligatorily take a by-phrase. Borer provides evidence that SASNs embed a passive structure, with the latter showing most of the syntactic properties of clausal verbal passive, including the promotion of the internal argument. Nominalization is thus an operation which can combine a passivized verbal extended projection with a higher nominal head. Long ASNs, in turn, are nominalizations which bring together a nominalizer with an active Verbal Extended Projection, ExP[V], complete with all its arguments, including the external. ASNs (de-verbal/de-adjectival), according to Borer, therefore must contain a verbal/adjectival ExP, and the argument array in ASNs is that which is associated with the embedded ExP[V] and ExP[A] respectively, and not with the noun. This in turn means that the operation Nominalization, which brings together a verbal/adjectival stem with a nominalizing affix, must be allowed to apply to the output of syntactic operations which involve complex syntactic phrases, including passive and movement.

Adding semantic roles to the Chinese Treebank

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
NIANWEN XUE ◽  
MARTHA PALMER
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Parse Tree ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Lexical Database ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Structure Annotation ◽  
Predicate Argument Structure ◽  
Event Result

AbstractWe report work on adding semantic role labels to the Chinese Treebank, a corpus already annotated with phrase structures. The work involves locating all verbs and their nominalizations in the corpus, and semi-automatically adding semantic role labels to their arguments, which are constituents in a parse tree. Although the same procedure is followed, different issues arise in the annotation of verbs and nominalized predicates. For verbs, identifying their arguments is generally straightforward given their syntactic structure in the Chinese Treebank as they tend to occupy well-defined syntactic positions. Our discussion focuses on the syntactic variations in the realization of the arguments as well as our approach to annotating dislocated and discontinuous arguments. In comparison, identifying the arguments for nominalized predicates is more challenging and we discuss criteria and procedures for distinguishing arguments from non-arguments. In particular we focus on the role of support verbs as well as the relevance of event/result distinctions in the annotation of the predicate-argument structure of nominalized predicates. We also present our approach to taking advantage of the syntactic structure in the Chinese Treebank to bootstrap the predicate-argument structure annotation of verbs. Finally, we discuss the creation of a lexical database of frame files and its role in guiding predicate-argument annotation. Procedures for ensuring annotation consistency and inter-annotator agreement evaluation results are also presented.

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