We present a method for the extraction of synonyms for German particle verbs based on a word-aligned German-English parallel corpus: by translating the particle verb to a pivot, which is then translated back, a set of synonym candidates can be extracted and ranked according to the respective translation probabilities. In order to deal with separated particle verbs, we apply re-ordering rules to...

Previous computational work on learning the semantic properties of verb-particle constructions (VPCs) has focused on their compositionality, and has left unaddressed the issue of which meaning of the component words is being used in a given VPC. We develop a feature space for use in classification of the sense contributed by the particle in a VPC, and test this on VPCs using the particle up. Th...

Backshift is a phenomenon affecting verb tense that is visible as a mismatch between some specific embedded contexts and other environments. For instance, the indirect speech equivalent of a sentence like Kim likes reading, with a present tense verb, may show the same verb in a past tense form, as in Sandy said Kim liked reading. We present a general analysis of backshift, pooling data from Eng...

We propose different syntax-based methods for automatically identifying verb-particle constructions in English. The methods are based on the Deterministic Finitestate Automaton (DFA), Hidden Markov Model(HMM), and Synchronous ContextFree Grammar (SCFG). Our experiments show that the methods could result in F-score 83.3% over our manually annotated test-set consisting of Wikipedia articles and B...

Despite their prevalence in the English language, multiword expressions like verb-particle constructions (VPCs) are often poorly handled by NLP systems. This problem is partly due to inadequacies in existing corpora; the primary corpus for CCG-oriented work, CCGbank, does not account for VPCs at all, and is inconsistent in its handling of them. In this paper, we apply some corrective transforma...

A fter perusing the articles and guest editors’ introduction for this issue on extreme data, I googled “extreme,” and hundreds of links bubbled up—from computing, coupons, data, and fatigue, to science, scientists and science fun, to “extreme x” (don’t ask). I then concluded that “extreme” has become an unreliable buzzword, used somewhat indiscriminately for its shock value. That said, the fact...

Using the Pontryagin Duality and results of S. Fisher, P. Gartside (1991); P. Gartside, M. Smith (2007) and Y.D. Cornulier, L. Guyot, W. Pitsch (2008) we show that the space S(A) of all closed subgroups of a compact Abelian group A is countable if and only if there is a closed subgroup K of A such that K is topologically isomorphic to ⊕h i=1 Zpi⊕G and A/K is topologically isomorphic to T ⊕ G̃, w...

(1) Russian prefixes and prepositions, Matushansky (2002); Svenonius (2004b) a. iz-bežatj out.from-run a′. iz out.from doma house ‘avoid’ ‘out of the house’ b. pod-bežatj under-run b′. pod under domom house ‘run up to’ ‘under the house’ c. pri-bežatj by-run c′. pri by dome house ‘come running’ ‘by the house’ d. ot-bežatj away.from-run d′. ot away.from doma house ‘run off’ ‘from the house’ e. v-...