The head-modifier principle and multilingual term extraction

Advances in Language Engineering may be dependent on theoretical principles originating from linguistics since both share a common object of enquiry, natural language structures. We outline an approach to term extraction that rests on theoretical claims about the structure of words. We use the structural properties of compound words to specifically elicit the sets of terms defined by type hierarchies such as hyponymy and meronymy. The theoretical claims revolve around the head-modifier principle which determines the formation of a major class of compounds. Significantly it has been suggested that the principle operates in languages other than English. To demonstrate the extendibility of our approach beyond English, we present a case study of term extraction in Chinese, a language whose written form is the vehicle of communication for over 1.3 billion language users, and therefore has great significance for the development of language engineering technologies

Binominal Lexemes in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Towards a Typology of Complex Lexemes

The typological, contrastive, and descriptive studies in this volume investigate the strategies employed by the world’s languages to create complex denotations by combining two noun-like elements, together with the kinds of semantic relation they involve, and their acquisition by children. The term ‘binominal lexeme’ is employed to cover both noun-noun compounds and a range of other naming strategies, including prepositional compounds, relational compounds, construct forms, genitival constructions, and more. Overall, the volume suggests a new, cross-linguistic approach to the study of complex lexeme formation that cuts across the traditional boundaries between syntax, morphology, and lexicon

The Semantics of Spanish Compounding: An Analysis of NN Compounds in the Parallel Architecture

Noun-Noun compounds (NN) are a concatenation of two nouns that function as a single unit both morphosyntactically and semantically. One of the main challenges that a study of NN compounding faces is their semantics, and more precisely, identifying the implied semantic relations that hold between the two elements. One of the most recent frameworks that has been proposed to account for the semantic relations between the modifier and head in NN compounds is Jackendoff\u27s (2009, 2016) basic functions model within the Parallel Architecture framework. In this model, a semantic relation between the head and modifier is established by using an external function F (X, Y), which given two nouns N1 and N2 meaning X1 and Y2 respectively, yields the meaning of the compound.;Given that Spanish NN compounds are unproductive as opposed to languages like English, the aim is to demonstrate whether the model can be applied to Spanish, and if so, to identify the basic functions that hold in Spanish NNs organizing them in a hierarchy based on their frequency. Exploring these questions does not only have a potential to shed light on questions regarding the cross-linguistic applicability of Jackendoff\u27s system, but can also allow us to determine whether the unproductivity of NN compounds in Spanish correlates with their semantic inflexibility. The study also provides a comparison of the semantic relations present in Spanish NN compounds to those attested in Spanish N de N constructions (i.e. buque de guerra \u27ship of war\u27 = war ship). Since the latter constructions are very productive in the language, if semantic flexibility correlates with compounding productivity, they are expected to exhibit a wider range of semantic relations as opposed to NNs. Moreover, if it turns out that N de N constructions can be successfully interpreted by the basic function model, we will have evidence that they should be treated as NN compounds semantically.;The results show that the model proposed by Jackendoff can be successfully applied to Spanish. Despite the fact that almost all basic functions are attested in Spanish NN compounds, these functions are not equally frequent or common. In fact, there are significant differences with respect to the productivity of the functions in the language, as it becomes evident once they are arranged on a hierarchy according to their frequency. As for the N de Ns, most of the functions present in NNs are also attested in N de Ns but in a different hierarchical order. Last but not least, taking all the facts discussed in the thesis, it could be argued that semantics is a factor responsible for the peripheral nature of NN compounds in Spanish. Since NN compounds have fewer and less productive basic functions and express fewer semantic relations than alternative N de N construction, it seems that NN compounds are semantically restricted, which could be one reason for their unproductivity

Head to head: Semantic similarity of multi-word terms

Terms are linguistic signifiers of domain–specific concepts. Semantic similarity between terms refers to the corresponding distance in the conceptual space. In this study, we use lexico–syntactic information to define a vector space representation in which cosine similarity closely approximates semantic similarity between the corresponding terms. Given a multi–word term, each word is weighed in terms of its defining properties. In this context, the head noun is given the highest weight. Other words are weighed depending on their relations to the head noun. We formalized the problem as that of determining a topological ordering of a direct acyclic graph, which is based on constituency and dependency relations within a noun phrase. To counteract the errors associated with automatically inferred constituency and dependency relations, we implemented a heuristic approach to approximating the topological ordering. Different weights are assigned to different words based on their positions. Clustering experiments performed on such a vector space representation showed considerable improvement over the conventional bag–of–word representation. Specifically, it more consistently reflected semantic similarity between the terms. This was established by analyzing the differences between automatically generated dendrograms and manually constructed taxonomies. In conclusion, our method can be used to semi–automate taxonomy construction

UTJECAJ LEKSIČKOG I ODNOSNOG USMJERAVANJA NA PROCESIRANJE IMENSKIH SLOŽENICA KOD IZVORNIH I NEIZVORNIH GOVORNIKA ENGLESKOG JEZIKA

Compounds are a frequent occurrence in the English language, but the way in which speakers, both native and non-native, process compounds is still a topic of discussion. Two factors have an influence on the recog-nition speed of compounds – lexical priming and relation priming. The former refers to faster recognition if a target and a prime compound share a common lexeme, while the latter refers to the inner relationships be-tween modifiers and heads within a compound. The study conducted by Gagné & Spalding (2004) shows a significant effect of relation priming on recognition of familiar compounds, while De Cat et al. (2015) report that highly proficient non-native participants use similar strategies for processing compounds as native speakers. The aim of this paper is to rep-licate these results by using sense-nonsense tasks with familiar com-pounds and native and highly proficient non-native participants to exam-ine the effects of lexical and relation priming in these two groups. We hypothesize that the native speakers should provide faster reaction times and higher accuracy rates but that both groups would display similar fa-cilitation effects with different types of primes, which the results of the study confirm.Složenice su česta pojava u engleskom jeziku ali način na koji ih izvorni i neizvorni govornici procesiraju još je predmet lingvističkih rasprava. Dvije vrste čimbenika imaju utjecaj na brzinu prepoznavanja složenica – leksičko usmjeravanje i odnosno usmjeravanje. Prva se vrsta čimbenika ogleda u višoj brzini prepoznavanja u slučajevima kad ciljana i usmjerivačka složenica sadrže zajednički leksem, dok druga vrsta označava podudarnost značenjskog odnosa između modifikatora i glave složenice. Istraživanje koje su proveli Gagné & Spalding (2004) pokazalo je statistički značajan pozitivan utjecaj odnosnog usmjeravanja na prepoznavanje postojećih složenica, a De Cat i suradnici (2015) navode kako pri procesiranju složenica neizvorni govornici s visokom razinom jezične kompetencije koriste slične strategije kao i izvorni govornici. Cilj je ovog istraživanja replicirati ove rezultate korištenjem zadatka procjene smislenosti postojećih složenica na skupini izvornih i neizvornih govornika, kako bi se dodatno istražili učinci leksičkog i odnosnog usmjeravanja kod ovih dviju skupina ispitanika. Početna je hipoteza da će kod rezultata izvornih govornika biti zabilježeno niže vrijeme reakcije i viša razina točnosti, ali i da će kod obiju skupina biti zabilježen sličan olakšavajući utjecaj različitih vrsta usmjerivača, što rezultati istraživanja i potvrđuju

Further investigations into the nature of phrasal compounding

This collection of papers on phrasal compounding is part of a bigger project whose aims are twofold: First, it seeks to broaden the typological perspective by providing data for as many different languages as possible to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon itself. Second, based on these data which clearly show interaction between syntax and morphology it aims to discuss theoretical models which deal with this kind of interaction in different ways. Models like Generative Grammar assume components of grammar and a clear-cut distinction between the lexicon (often including morphology) and grammar. Other models, like construction grammar, do not assume such components and are rather based on a lexicon including constructs. A comparison of these models on the basis of this phenomenon on the morphology-syntax interface makes it possible to assess their descriptive and explanatory power

The role of constituents in multiword expressions

Multiword expressions (MWEs), such as noun compounds (e.g. nickname in English, and Ohrwurm in German), complex verbs (e.g. give up in English, and aufgeben in German) and idioms (e.g. break the ice in English, and das Eis brechen in German), may be interpreted literally but often undergo meaning shifts with respect to their constituents. Theoretical, psycholinguistic as well as computational linguistic research remain puzzled by when and how MWEs receive literal vs. meaning-shifted interpretations, what the contributions of the MWE constituents are to the degree of semantic transparency (i.e., meaning compositionality) of the MWE, and how literal vs. meaning-shifted MWEs are processed and computed. This edited volume presents an interdisciplinary selection of seven papers on recent findings across linguistic, psycholinguistic, corpus-based and computational research fields and perspectives, discussing the interaction of constituent properties and MWE meanings, and how MWE constituents contribute to the processing and representation of MWEs. The collection is based on a workshop at the 2017 annual conference of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS) that took place at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany