In this paper, we describe our methods to detect noun compounds and light verb constructions in running texts. For noun compounds, dictionary-based methods and POStagging seem to contribute most to the performance of the system whereas for light verb constructions, the combination of POStagging, syntactic information and restrictions on the nominal and verbal component yield the best result. Ho...

The first verb (V1) of the verb compound, na2 ‘take’, encodes the general action of removing, the second verb (V2), xia4 ‘descend’, encodes the Path of motion, and the third verb (V3), lai2 ‘come’, indicates Deictic information (i.e. towards the Agent in [1]). Verb compounds like na2-xia4-lai2 are known as directional verb compounds, which typically describe motion events and involve a verb ind...

In this paper I want to look at what the evidence from Complex Predicates can tell us about the design parameters of an empirically adequate theory of Universal Grammar (UG). This is a fertile field for investigation because, according to the standard assumptions of the field, complex predicates are monoclausal with respect to some properties and multiclausal with respect to others and this ten...

A central task of natural language processing is to find a way of answering the question Who did what to whom, how, when and where? with automatic means. This requires insights on how a language realizes events and the participants that partake in them and how this information can be encoded in a humanas well as machine-readable way. In this thesis, I investigate the ways that the spatial notio...

PURPOSE Many typically developing children first use inflections such as -ed with verb predicates whose meanings are compatible with the functions of the inflection (e.g., using -ed when describing events of brief duration with clear end points, such as dropped). This tendency is assumed to be beneficial for development. In this study, the authors examine whether preschool-aged children with sp...

This paper deals with the formation of complex predicates and some interesting scrambling facts in Korean. First, we extend the notion of complex predicates to include various noun-verb combinations by providing syntactic and semantic evidence. Within the HPSG framework, we then propose a general schema based on argument composition, which can be used for different types of complex predicates. ...

The acquisition of argument structures has been studied by a variety of second language acquisition scholars within the past two decades (Atay, 2010; Can, 2009; Chay, 2006, & Kras, 2007, among others). In the present study, ‘Predicate’ as the most substantial element of a sentence is investigated. There are three English verb-types which seem to be more problematic for Persian EFL learners: (a)...

Complex Predicates or CPs are multiword complexes functioning as single verbal units. CPs are particularly pervasive in Hindi and other IndoAryan languages, but an usage account driven by corpus-based identification of these constructs has not been possible since single-language systems based on rules and statistical approaches require reliable tools (POS taggers, parsers, etc.) that are unavai...