Identifying and Analyzing Brazilian Portuguese Complex Predicates

Semantic Role Labeling annotation task depends on the correct identification of predicates, before identifying arguments and assigning them role labels. However, most predicates are not constituted only by a verb: they constitute Complex Predicates (CPs) not yet available in a computational lexicon. In order to create a dictionary of CPs, this study employs a corpus-based methodology. Searches are guided by POS tags instead of a limited list of verbs or nouns, in contrast to similar studies. Results include (but are not limited to) light and support verb constructions. These CPs are classified into idiomatic and less idiomatic. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of this phenomenon, as well as an original resource containing a set of 773 annotated expressions. Both constitute an original and rich contribution for NLP tools in Brazilian Portuguese that perform tasks involving semantics.