Verb similarity: comparing corpus and psycholinguistic data

Similarity, which plays a key role in fields like cognitive science, psycholinguistics and natural language processing, is a broad and multifaceted concept. In this work we analyse how two approaches that belong to different perspectives, the corpus view and the psycholinguistic view, articulate similarity between verb senses in Spanish. Specifically, we compare the similarity between verb senses based on their argument structure, which is captured through semantic roles, with their similarity defined by word associations. We address the question of whether verb argument structure, which reflects the expression of the events, and word associations, which are related to the speakers' organization of the mental lexicon, shape similarity between verbs in a congruent manner, a topic which has not been explored previously. While we find significant correlations between verb sense similarities obtained from these two approaches, our findings also highlight some discrepancies between them and the importance of the degree of abstraction of the corpus annotation and psycholinguistic representations.La similitud, que desempeña un papel clave en campos como la ciencia cognitiva, la psicolingüística y el procesamiento del lenguaje natural, es un concepto amplio y multifacético. En este trabajo analizamos cómo dos enfoques que pertenecen a diferentes perspectivas, la visión del corpus y la visión psicolingüística, articulan la semejanza entre los sentidos verbales en español. Específicamente, comparamos la similitud entre los sentidos verbales basados en su estructura argumental, que se capta a través de roles semánticos, con su similitud definida por las asociaciones de palabras. Abordamos la cuestión de si la estructura del argumento verbal, que refleja la expresión de los acontecimientos, y las asociaciones de palabras, que están relacionadas con la organización de los hablantes del léxico mental, forman similitud entre los verbos de una manera congruente, un tema que no ha sido explorado previamente. Mientras que encontramos correlaciones significativas entre las similitudes de los sentidos verbales obtenidas de estos dos enfoques, nuestros hallazgos también resaltan algunas discrepancias entre ellos y la importancia del grado de abstracción de la anotación del corpus y las representaciones psicolingüísticas.La similitud, que exerceix un paper clau en camps com la ciència cognitiva, la psicolingüística i el processament del llenguatge natural, és un concepte ampli i multifacètic. En aquest treball analitzem com dos enfocaments que pertanyen a diferents perspectives, la visió del corpus i la visió psicolingüística, articulen la semblança entre els sentits verbals en espanyol. Específicament, comparem la similitud entre els sentits verbals basats en la seva estructura argumental, que es capta a través de rols semàntics, amb la seva similitud definida per les associacions de paraules. Abordem la qüestió de si l'estructura de l'argument verbal, que reflecteix l'expressió dels esdeveniments, i les associacions de paraules, que estan relacionades amb l'organització dels parlants del lèxic mental, formen similitud entre els verbs d'una manera congruent, un tema que no ha estat explorat prèviament. Mentre que trobem correlacions significatives entre les similituds dels sentits verbals obtingudes d'aquests dos enfocaments, les nostres troballes també ressalten algunes discrepàncies entre ells i la importància del grau d'abstracció de l'anotació del corpus i les representacions psicolingüístiques

D7.1. Criteria for evaluation of resources, technology and integration.

This deliverable defines how evaluation is carried out at each integration cycle in the PANACEA project. As PANACEA aims at producing large scale resources, evaluation becomes a critical and challenging issue. Critical because it is important to assess the quality of the results that should be delivered to users. Challenging because we prospect rather new areas, and through a technical platform: some new methodologies will have to be explored or old ones to be adapted

D6.1: Technologies and Tools for Lexical Acquisition

This report describes the technologies and tools to be used for Lexical Acquisition in PANACEA. It includes descriptions of existing technologies and tools which can be built on and improved within PANACEA, as well as of new technologies and tools to be developed and integrated in PANACEA platform. The report also specifies the Lexical Resources to be produced. Four main areas of lexical acquisition are included: Subcategorization frames (SCFs), Selectional Preferences (SPs), Lexical-semantic Classes (LCs), for both nouns and verbs, and Multi-Word Expressions (MWEs)

German particle verbs: Compositionality at the syntax-semantics interface

Particle verbs represent a type of multi-word expression composed of a base verb and a particle. The meaning of the particle verb is often, but not always, derived from the meaning of the base verb, sometimes in quite complex ways. In this work, we computationally assess the levels of German particle verb compositionality, with the use of distributional semantic methods. Our results demonstrate that the prediction of particle verb compositionality is possible with statistical significance. Furthermore, we investigate properties of German particle verbs that are relevant for their compositionality: the particular subcategorization behavior of particle verbs and their corresponding base verbs, and the question in how far the verb particles can be attributed meaning by themselves, which they contribute to the particle verb

Syntactic and Semantic Underspecification in the Verb Phrase.

This thesis is concerned with verbs and the relation between verbs and their complements. Syntactic evidence is presented which shows that the distinction between arguments and adjuncts reflects the optionality of adjuncts, but that adjuncts, once introduced, behave as arguments of the verb. An analysis is proposed which reflects this observation by assuming that verbal subcategorization is underspecified, so that optional constituents can be introduced into the verb phrase. The analysis is developed within a formal model of utterance interpretation. Labelled Deductive Systems for Natural Language (LDSNL), proposed in Kempson, Meyer-Viol & Gabbay (1999), which models the structural aspect of utterance interpretation as a dynamic process of tree growth during which lexical information is combined into more complex structures which provide vehicles for interpretation, propositional forms. The contribution of this thesis from the perspective of utterance interpretation is that it explores the notion of structural underspecification with respect to predicate-argument structure. After providing a formalization of underspecified verbal subcategorization, the thesis explores the consequences this analysis of verbs and verb phrases has for the process of tree growth, and how underspecified verbs are interpreted. The main argument developed is that verbs syntactically encode the possibilty for pragmatic enrichment; verbs address mental concepts only indirectly, so that the establishment of their eventual meaning, and, therefore, their eventual arity is mediated by the cognitive process of concept formation. Additional support for this view is provided by an analysis of applied verbs in Swahili which, from the perspective adopted here, can be seen to encode an explicit instruction for concept strengthening, an instruction to the hearer to derive additional inferential effects. The analysis presented in this thesis thus supports the view that natural language interpretation is a process in which structural properties and inferential activity are thoroughly intertwined