We demonstrate the beneets of a multilingual approach to automatic lexical semantic verb classiication based on statistical analysis of corpora in multiple languages. Our research incorporates two interrelated threads. In one, we exploit the similarities in the crosslinguis-tic classiication of verbs, to extend work on English verb classiication to a new language (Italian), and to new classes w...

To what extent are the processing patterns for nouns and verbs universal across languages? Under conditions of semantic strain, English speakers tend to adapt the meaning of the verb to fit the noun in the sentence. We asked Japanese and English speakers to paraphrase simple sentences of the form “The noun verbed,” varying in semantic strain (e.g., “The blender talked”). We then assessed the de...

Lexical classifications have proved useful in supporting various natural language processing (NLP) tasks. The largest verb classification for English is Levin’s (1993) work which defined groupings of verbs based on syntactic properties. VerbNet (Kipper et al., 2000; Kipper-Schuler, 2005) – the largest computational verb lexicon currently available for English – provides detailed syntactic-seman...

Within the framework of minimalist syntax, it is argued that core-syntax derivation verbs in OE and ME (up to approx. 1450) regulated by two licensing T(ense) heads (that is, T Probes) plus a v head (or Probe), all which are charge interpreting τ–features. acts as Probe v-0 (its Goal) order interpret [+/–past] τ–features for strong verbs. This capacity rely on ablaut distinction between Pret. 1...

We propose the use of multilingual corpora in the automatic classiication of verbs. We extend the work of (Merlo and Stevenson, 2001), in which statistics over simple syntactic features extracted from textual corpora were used to train an automatic classiier for three lexical semantic classes of English verbs. We hypothesize that some lexical semantic features that are diicult to detect superrc...

Two experiments investigated the interaction of intonation boundaries and verb bias during spoken language comprehension in English. An online cross-modal naming task proved to be sensitive to the interaction of prosodic, syntactic, and semantic representations during resolution of a temporary syntactic closure ambiguity (e.g., Whenever the lady checks the room...). The results supported previo...

Research on early word learning reveals that verbs present a unique challenge. While English-acquiring 24-month-olds can learn novel verbs and extend them to new scenes, they perform better in rich linguistic contexts (when novel verbs appear with lexicalized noun phrases naming the event participants) than in sparser linguistic contexts (Arunachalam & Waxman 2011). However, in languages like K...

We propose the use of multilingual corpora in the automatic classiication of verbs. We extend the work of (Merlo and Stevenson, 2001), in which statistics over simple syntactic features extracted from textual corpora were used to train an automatic classiier for three lexical semantic classes of English verbs. We hypothesize that some lexical semantic features that are diicult to detect superrc...