Splitting light verbs in the resultative construction

This thesis examines the resultative construction in Mandarin Chinese, and extends to different resultative patterns in Shanghai dialect and Innu-aimûn. The objective of the study is to investigate the derivational process of various resultative patterns with the labeling theory. I will attempt to provide a symmetric analysis of the resultative construction in general. Hopefully, this study will shed some light on the interface study between the syntactic derivation and the event semantic analysis in the resultative construction. In Mandarin Chinese, a v-splitting structure is proposed in compounding resultatives and DE-resultatives, in which multiple adjacent light verbs are hypothesized along with feature inheritance. The v-splitting structure is also applied to a pattern containing a preverbal resultative adverb in Mandarin Chinese, which is termed as adverb-resultatives. I propose that these patterns fall into the resultative construction in a broad sense. The splitting approach is better than a base-generated structure with two v heads. One advantage is that it allows us to formulate the analysis in which the root raises to v* without violating the head movement constraint. It also works better to explain the specificity effect, when it is based on a splitting structure and labeling requirement. Extending the study to the cross-linguistic scope, resultatives in Shanghai dialect and Innuaimûn are briefly explored. On the one hand, a mono-layer light verb is proposed in Shanghai dialect, in which the resultative predicate does not undergo head movement to the light verb, ending up with the serial verb pattern. The contrast between Shanghai and Mandarin resultatives indicates the diachronical development of light verbs in Chinese: from a unified mono-layer to a v-splitting structure. On the other hand, in Innu-aimûn, the resultative predicate is realized in the preverbal position within the complex verb structure. Multiple head movement is analogically explored in Innu-aimûn. Through the comparative study, the parameter of head movement is emphasized in various resultative patterns. Different strategies to the symmetry-breaking are proposed across languages. In English, the label matching is used in the VP agreement system. However, this is not unanimously applied to other languages. In Innu-aimûn, result-raising in the resultative construction is the only possibility to break the symmetry of an uninterpretable configuration. In Chinese, two ways are proposed on the symmetrybreaking: the feature-matching as the core mechanism in the VP agreement system, and result-raising as a supplementary operation

Automatic Classification of Verb-Direction Constructions In Mandarin Chinese

Processing Multi-Word Expressions (MWEs) presents a challenge for Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems (Sag et al. 2002). In Mandarin Chinese, there are different kinds of MWEs, such as compounding constructions and serial verb constructions containing multiple predicates (Chao 1968). In this project, I will focus on parsing the semantics of a family of constructions called Verb-Direction Constructions (VDCs) in Chinese. Similar to English Verb-Particle Constructions, VDCs include a verb of precondition followed by a directional verb (e.g., na chu (lit &lsquo;take exit&rsquo;) &lsquo;take out&rsquo;). VDC functions include Self-Motion, Caused-Motion, Aspect, Discourse-Connective, and Evidential, among others (Liu et al. 1998). Achieving native speakers&rsquo; interpretation of a language in machine learning systems can support different applications. Inspired by the framework of Sign-Based Construction Grammar (Sag 2012, Michaelis 2009, 2013) as well as Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff &amp; Johnson 1980, 1998), I conducted three classification tasks. In the first task, I designed a VDC taxonomy, which categorizes distinct functions of VDCs, such as event structures (both causative and non-causative) that involve the movement of an entity through space to a final location. Two versions of the taxonomy were developed and learned. The annotation guideline was mainly based on an analysis of Frame Semantics (Baker, Fillmore, &amp; Lowe 1998) for different VDC events. In the second task, VDCs were annotated as metaphoric and literal expressions, and metaphor detection was performed. The third task makes preliminary steps aimed at detecting the coerced use of VDCs, in which VDCs alter the canonical argument structures of verbs (Goldberg 1995, 1999). This research makes two primary contributions. First, it establishes linguistic analyses of the VDC properties in question, including taxonomies of event types, metaphorical mappings, and coercion, most of which directly support the VDC classification tasks. Second, based on the linguistically motivated categories, it develops an automated method for semantic classification of VDC constructions, surpassing the scope of classification resources previously devised within Chinese NLP (Xue et al. 2000; Xue &amp; Palmer 2009; Huang et al. 2010; Lu &amp; Wang 2017). The system developed potentially supports other NLP applications, such as machine translation, event detection, metaphor processing, and word sense disambiguation.</p

Chapter V: Verbs

This monograph is a translation of two seminal works on corpus-based studies of Mandarin Chinese words and parts of speech. The original books were published as two pioneering technical reports by Chinese Knowledge and Information Processing group (CKIP) at Academia Sinica in 1993 and 1996, respectively. Since then, the standard and PoS tagset proposed in the CKIP report have become the de facto standard in Chinese corpora and computational linguistics, in particular in the context of traditional Chinese texts. This new translation represents and develops the principles and theories originating from these pioneering works. The results can be applied to numerous fields; Chinese syntax and semantics, lexicography, machine translation and other language engineering bound applications

Korean-to-Chinese Machine Translation using Chinese Character as Pivot Clue

Korean-Chinese is a low resource language pair, but Korean and Chinese have a lot in common in terms of vocabulary. Sino-Korean words, which can be converted into corresponding Chinese characters, account for more than fifty of the entire Korean vocabulary. Motivated by this, we propose a simple linguistically motivated solution to improve the performance of the Korean-to-Chinese neural machine translation model by using their common vocabulary. We adopt Chinese characters as a translation pivot by converting Sino-Korean words in Korean sentences to Chinese characters and then train the machine translation model with the converted Korean sentences as source sentences. The experimental results on Korean-to-Chinese translation demonstrate that the models with the proposed method improve translation quality up to 1.5 BLEU points in comparison to the baseline models.Comment: 9 page

A historical and sociolinguistic approach to language change in Mandarin Chinese: Corpus evidence for the development of YOU-MEI-YOU

This dissertation introduces corpus-based analyses of a syntactic construction in Standard Mandarin, YOU-MEI-YOU (or ‘have-not-have’)+VP, which is used to form perfective questions. The purpose of the study is to (i) find evidence for the claim that preverbal YOU-MEI-YOU, i.e. YOU-MEI-YOU found in the new construction, is grammaticalizing into an auxiliary unit, and (ii) to investigate its historical development, including the stage of development that it has reached and its distribution over time. Using data from two databases, the present study first looks at the percentage of preverbal YOU-MEI-YOU conveying a certain grammatical meaning, i.e. sentence type and aspect. Next, the study compares the percentage of three linguistic features of this construction, namely, the grammatical meaning(s) conveyed by preverbal YOU-MEI-YOU, the general types of complement it takes, and the specific types of VP complement it takes, between different 20-year periods. The study also makes a comparison of the frequency of use of preverbal YOU-MEI-YOU between different 10-year periods. The results of the first type of analysis show that preverbal YOU-MEI-YOU helps to form constructions conveying either grammatical meaning in the majority of the clauses, lending support to the claim that it is grammaticalizing into an auxiliary unit. The diachronic comparisons of the three features of the new construction indicate that preverbal YOU-MEI-YOU has reached Stage III as outlined in Heine (1993). The comparison of the frequency of use between different time periods shows no upward trend in the use of (auxiliary) preverbal YOU-MEI-YOU

Getting Past the Language Gap: Innovations in Machine Translation

In this chapter, we will be reviewing state of the art machine translation systems, and will discuss innovative methods for machine translation, highlighting the most promising techniques and applications. Machine translation (MT) has benefited from a revitalization in the last 10 years or so, after a period of relatively slow activity. In 2005 the field received a jumpstart when a powerful complete experimental package for building MT systems from scratch became freely available as a result of the unified efforts of the MOSES international consortium. Around the same time, hierarchical methods had been introduced by Chinese researchers, which allowed the introduction and use of syntactic information in translation modeling. Furthermore, the advances in the related field of computational linguistics, making off-the-shelf taggers and parsers readily available, helped give MT an additional boost. Yet there is still more progress to be made. For example, MT will be enhanced greatly when both syntax and semantics are on board: this still presents a major challenge though many advanced research groups are currently pursuing ways to meet this challenge head-on. The next generation of MT will consist of a collection of hybrid systems. It also augurs well for the mobile environment, as we look forward to more advanced and improved technologies that enable the working of Speech-To-Speech machine translation on hand-held devices, i.e. speech recognition and speech synthesis. We review all of these developments and point out in the final section some of the most promising research avenues for the future of MT

Eliminating grammatical function assignment from hierarchical models of speech production: Evidence from the conceptual accessibility of referents

ABSTRACTThe assignment of grammatical functions has been a key feature of hierarchical (serial) models of speech production since their inception in the 1970s. This article argues that grammatical function assignment is neither sufficient nor necessary in such models. It reports a study of the effects of the conceptual accessibility of referents on the selection of English dative syntactic frames in production and shows that the effects relate to linear precedence rather than grammatical function assignment. A secondary topic addressed in the same study is whether second language speakers of English have difficulty integrating syntactic knowledge where it interfaces with conceptual accessibility in speech production. Findings suggest that advanced proficiency speakers do not and are qualitatively similar to native speakers. The implications of this for the interface hypothesis about second language acquisition are discussed.</jats:p

Without Specifiers: Phrase Structure and Events

This dissertation attempts to unify two reductionist hypotheses: that there is no relational difference between specifiers and complements, and that verbs do not have thematic arguments. I argue that these two hypotheses actually bear on each other and that we get a better theory if we pursue both of them. The thesis is centered around the following hypothesis: Each application of Spell-Out corresponds to a conjunct at logical form. In order to create such a system, it is necessary to provide a syntax that is designed such that each Spell-Out domain is mapped into a conjunct. This is done by eliminating the relational difference between specifiers and complements. The conjuncts are then conjoined into Neo-Davidsonian representations that constitute logical forms. The theory is argued to provide a transparent mapping from syntactic structures to logical forms, such that the syntax gives you a logical form where the verb does not have any thematic arguments. In essence, the thesis is therefore an investigation into the structure of verbs. This theory of Spell-Out raises a number of questions and it makes strong predictions about the structure of possible derivations. The thesis discusses a number of these: the nature of linearization and movement, left-branch extractions, serial verb constructions, among others. It is shown how the present theory can capture these phenomena, and sometimes in better ways than previous analyses. The thesis closes by discussing some more foundational issues related to transparency, the syntax-semantics interface, and the nature of basic semantic composition operations

Neural Combinatory Constituency Parsing

東京都立大学Tokyo Metropolitan University博士（情報科学）doctoral thesi