Chapter 13 Verb classes

Abstract Background Recent advances in representation learning have enabled large strides in natural language understanding; However, verbal reasoning remains a challenge for state-of-the-art systems. External sources of structured, expert-curated verb-related knowledge have been shown to boost model performance in different Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks where accurate handling of verb meaning and behaviour is critical. The costliness and time required for manual lexicon construction has been a major obstacle to porting the benefits of such resources to NLP in specialised domains, such as biomedicine. To address this issue, we combine a neural classification method with expert annotation to create BioVerbNet. This new resource comprises 693 verbs assigned to 22 top-level and 117 fine-grained semantic-syntactic verb classes. We make this resource available complete with semantic roles and VerbNet-style syntactic frames. Results We demonstrate the utility of the new resource in boosting model performance in document- and sentence-level classification in biomedicine. We apply an established retrofitting method to harness the verb class membership knowledge from BioVerbNet and transform a pretrained word embedding space by pulling together verbs belonging to the same semantic-syntactic class. The BioVerbNet knowledge-aware embeddings surpass the non-specialised baseline by a significant margin on both tasks. Conclusion This work introduces the first large, annotated semantic-syntactic classification of biomedical verbs, providing a detailed account of the annotation process, the key differences in verb behaviour between the general and biomedical domain, and the design choices made to accurately capture the meaning and properties of verbs used in biomedical texts. The demonstrated benefits of leveraging BioVerbNet in text classification suggest the resource could help systems better tackle challenging NLP tasks in biomedicine.

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Transitivity in similarity judgments on German verbs

The Mental Lexicon ◽

10.1075/ml.11.1.04ric ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 76-93

Author(s):

Michael Richter ◽

Roeland van Hout

Keyword(s):

Semantic Similarity ◽

Verb Classes ◽

Similarity Relations ◽

Similarity Judgments ◽

Similarity Relationships

This paper investigates set-theoretical transitive and intransitive similarity relationships in triplets of verbs that can be deduced from raters’ similarity judgments on the pairs of verbs involved. We collected similarity judgments on pairs made up of 35 German verbs and found that the concept of transitivity adds to the information obtained from collecting pair-wise semantic similarity judgments. The concept of transitive similarity enables more complex relations to be revealed in triplets of verbs. To evaluate the outcomes that we obtained by analyzing transitive similarities we used two previously developed verb classifications of the same set of 35 verbs based on the analysis of large corpora (Richter & van Hout, 2016). We applied a modified form of weak stochastic transitivity (Block & Marschak, 1960; Luce & Suppes, 1965; Tversky, 1969) and found that (1), in contrast to Rips’ claim (2011), similarity relations in raters’ judgments systematically turn out to be transitive, and (2) transitivity discloses lexical and aspectual properties of verbs relevant in distinguishing verb classes.

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Nakh-Dagestanian Languages

The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190690694.013.4 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 85-145

Author(s):

Dmitry Ganenkov ◽

Timur Maisak

Keyword(s):

General Information ◽

Indigenous Language ◽

The Caucasus ◽

Verbal Nouns ◽

Number Agreement ◽

Verb Classes ◽

The Family ◽

History Of ◽

Sociolinguistic Status

The chapter is a survey of the Nakh-Daghestanian family (also known as East Caucasian), one of the indigenous language families spoken in the Caucasus. The family comprises more than 30 languages, some of which are spoken by only a few hundred people and remain unwritten and/or underdescribed. The chapter provides general information about the sociolinguistic status of Nakh-Daghestanian languages and the history of their research as well as their phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. The languages of the family have rich consonant systems and are morphologically ergative, head-final, with rich case systems, complex verbal paradigms, and pervasive gender-number agreement. Alongside the major transitive and intransitive lexical verb classes, verbs of perception and cognition with the dative experiencer subject usually comprise one or more minor valency classes with non-canonically marked subjects. Among valency-increasing derivations, the causative is the most prominent. The most typical subordination strategies are non-finite, making use of participles, converbs, infinitives and verbal nouns.

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Semantic Verb Classes and Regularity of Voice Paradigms in Tagalog

Oceanic Linguistics ◽

10.1353/ol.2016.0022 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 55 (2) ◽

pp. 480-499

Author(s):

Sergei B. Klimenko ◽

Divine Angeli P. Endriga

Keyword(s):

Verb Classes ◽

Semantic Verb Classes

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Categorization and Conceptualization of Space in Descriptive Text

Nauchnyy dialog ◽

10.24224/2227-1295-2020-4-27-39 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 27-39

Author(s):

Y. N. Varfolomeeva

Keyword(s):

Frame Analysis ◽

Sensory Systems ◽

Spatial Relationships ◽

Scientific Paradigm ◽

Verb Classes ◽

Lexical Semantic ◽

The Subject ◽

Psychological Knowledge ◽

Spatial Semantics

The relevance of the article is due to the importance of studying spatial semantics in the new scientific paradigm. The possibility of studying genre varieties of description (description-landscape, description-interior, description-portrait, description of the subject) using frame analysis is indicated in the article. Considerable attention is paid to the classification of spatial verb description predicates. It is noted that the unflagging interest in verbal units in modern linguistics, with unsteady classification grounds, different numbers of distinguished verb classes and terminological differences in describing the object, indicates the need to compile a classification of verb predicates based on the principles of linguocognitology. The study of the semantics of verb predicates of descriptive text, the identification of integrating and differential seme, contributing to the isolation of various lexical-semantic groups of verb predicates and building the patterns implemented in the description of spatial relationships appears to be significant. The attention is focused on the need to integrate linguistic, physiological and psychological knowledge in the study of the predicative component of a descriptive text. Such integration is embodied in the idea of spatial discrimination through all sensory systems and the division of spatial predicates into units of visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, taste and undifferentiated perception. It is established that in the case of using predicates of intermodal semantics, spatial significance is realized in terms of “proximity” / “remoteness” of the source objects of the corresponding sensations.

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Scalar Verb Classes

10.36253/978-88-6655-055-6 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Anne Tamm

Keyword(s):

Thematic Roles ◽

Verb Classes ◽

Linguistic Form ◽

Case Marking ◽

Transitive Verbs

This monograph discusses scalar verb classes. It tests theories of linguistic form and meaning, arguments and thematic roles, using Estonian data. The analyses help to understand the aspectual structure of Estonian. In Estonian, transitive verbs fall into aspectual classes based on the type of case-marking of objects and adjuncts. The book relates the morphosyntactic frames of verbs to properties typically associated with adjectives and nouns: scalarity and boundedness. Verbs are divided according to how their aspect is composed. Some verbs lexicalize a scale, which can be bounded either lexically or compositionally. Aspectual composition involves the unification of features. Compositionally derived structures differ according to which of the aspectually relevant dimensions are bounded.

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Reality status in Kampan languages and its partial loss in Ucayali-Pajonal Ashéninka

LIAMES Línguas Indígenas Americanas ◽

10.20396/liames.v19i1.8653570 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. e019007

Author(s):

Toni Pedrós

Keyword(s):

The Other ◽

Binary Opposition ◽

Grammatical Category ◽

Partial Loss ◽

Verb Classes ◽

Grammatical Change

The Kampan languages have the grammatical feature called reality status, which consists of obligatory verbal affixes that express a binary opposition between realized and unrealized events. Although the validity of this grammatical category has been questioned for its lack of consistency cross-linguistically, the pan-Kampan system has been presented as an example of a canonical reality status opposition. This article examines and compares the almost identical reality status systems of all Kampan languages, and then, based on dedicated fieldwork, goes on to describe the change that Ucayali-Pajonal Ashéninka has undergone. This change consists in the loss of the reality status system in most I-class verbs, the largest by far of the two verb classes typical of Kampan languages, and makes Ucayali-Pajonal Ashéninka divergent in this aspect from the other Kampan languages. This loss shows a grammatical change taking place and therefore poses some questions about the evolution of such a grammatical feature, which are analyzed in the conclusions.

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Generation of Complex Verbal Morphology in First and Second Language Acquisition: Evidence from Russian

Nordlyd ◽

10.7557/12.54 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 31 (6) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kira Gor ◽

Tatiana Chernigovskaya

Keyword(s):

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Mental Lexicon ◽

Morphological Processing ◽

State University ◽

Verbal Morphology ◽

University Of Maryland ◽

Verb Classes ◽

Verb Processing ◽

The University ◽

Work Done

This study explores the structure of the mental lexicon and the processing of Russian verbal morphology by two groups of speakers, adult American learners of Russian and Russian children aged 4-6, and reports the results of two matching experiments conducted at the University of Maryland, USA and St. Petersburg State University, Russia. The theoretical framework for this study comes from research on the structure of the mental lexicon and modularity in morphological processing. So far, there are very few studies investigating the processing of complex verbal morphology, with most of the work done on Icelandic, Norwegian, Italian, and Russian. The current views are shaped predominantly by research on English regular and irregular past-tense inflection, which has been conducted within two competing approaches. This study investigates the processing of verbal morphology in Russian, a language with numerous verb classes differing in size and the number and complexity of conjugation rules. It assumes that instead of a sharp opposition of regular and irregular verb processing, a gradual parameter of regularity may be more appropriate for Russian. Therefore, the issue of symbolic rule application versus associative patterning can take on a new meaning for Russian, possibly, with the distinction between default and non-default processing replacing the regular-irregular distinction.

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Czasowniki mentalne i czasowniki emocji w opisie semantyczno-syntaktycznym

Studia z Filologii Polskiej i Słowiańskiej ◽

10.11649/sfps.2017.007 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 52 ◽

pp. 139-163

Author(s):

Małgorzata Korytkowska

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Main Issue ◽

Semantic Features ◽

Verb Classes ◽

Predicate Argument Structure ◽

Basic Semantic

Mental and emotional verbs in semantic and syntactic descriptionThe main issue of this article concerns relations between the semantic plane of the sentence, which is presented by means of notions of predicate argument structure, and the plane of formal realisation of this structure. The existing attitudes to the studied verb classes are presented. Then rules governing the model of description used are specified (the article has been written within an elaborate scientific grant concerning Bulgarian, Polish and Russian). Obligatory semantic features of both classes are pointed out, followed by an elaboration on the scope of analysis of semantic and syntactic phenomena. This scope is determined by basic semantic sentence categories on which comparative, including contrastive, research is based. Drawing on examples of particular units studied, I then discuss the effectiveness of the analysis which enables comparing differences between sets of sentence structures allowable for each class studied. Those differences stem from semantic differences typical of those classes. Czasowniki mentalne i czasowniki emocji w opisie semantyczno-syntaktycznymTematyka artykułu dotyczy relacji między płaszczyzną semantyczną zdania, ujętą w terminach struktury predykatowo-argumentowej, a płaszczyzną realizacji formalnej tej struktury. Zarysowane zostały dotychczasowe podejścia do opisu badanych klas czasowników oraz sprecyzowano ustalenia dotyczące zastosowanego w artykule modelu opisu (artykuł powstał w związku z realizacją obszernego grantu dotyczącego języka bułgarskiego, polskiego i rosyjskiego). Wskazano obligatoryjne dla obu klas cechy semantyczne oraz scharakteryzowano zakres analizy zjawisk semantyczno-składniowych. Zakres ten wyznaczają podstawowe semantyczne kategorie zdaniowe, których badanie stanowi podstawę dla porównań, także porównań konfrontatywnych. Zaprezentowane zostały przykłady opracowania wybranych jednostek oraz wskazana skuteczność analizy, która pozwala ukazać różnice między zbiorami dopuszczalnych dla każdej z badanych klas struktur zdaniowych. Różnice te wynikają z charakteryzujących te klasy różnic semantycznych.

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