Combinatorial Dictionary Research Articles

Colocaciones sensoriales: el tacto y el dominio del intelecto

In this paper, I ponder on the connection between the sense of touch, generally associated with the expression of emotion, and some mental activities related to the notions of knowledge or intellection. This connection has been previously considered in different contexts: Cultural History of the Senses, Philosophy, Cognitive Linguistics and, in particular, Sensory Linguistics. The main objective is to find out how this correlation manifests linguistically in Spanish producing multi-word lexical units, specifically collocations. I thus try to determine which lexical units linked to touch make up the structure of these collocations and what types of tactile properties are related to these units. Considering the data extracted from the combinatory dictionary REDES, the existence of «tactile» collocations representing the materialization of the perception metaphor understanding is touching has been verified. The conclusion reached is that the sense of touch is a productive source domain in the Spanish language, becoming the basis for the creation of a large number of collocations linked to the domain of meta intellect.

An explanatory combinatorial dictionary of English conflict lexis: A case study of modern political discourse

Though political discourse is in the mainstream of modern studies, scholars haven’t so far paid much attention to compiling political discourse-oriented dictionaries. The need to further develop lexicographic theory and practice for specific purposes and advance new methods to dictionary making is a challenge that linguists are facing today. The aim of the case study is twofold: to work out the principles for making an Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary (ECD) of English political conflict lexis and the microstructure of an ECD entry. The source of the data is the NOW corpus; the material is current American political discourse (2022). The ECD is generally consistent with Mel'čuk’s Meaning-Text theory (MTT). The authors describe a process of collecting and processing the data: corpus search and analysis, automatic and manual text processing, glossary compilation with the use of lexicographic, semasiological, and etymological methods and present an example of an ECD entry consisting of semantic, phonological, and cooccurrence zones. The findings prove that the use of electronic text corpora offers an effective way for compiling a specialized discourse-based dictionary. The research illustrates the validity of MTT: though based on the data of “language in context” , the dictionary is synthesis-oriented: it aims at speech production. The paper is the first result of a bigger project sketching the overall framework of the discursive ECD of political conflict lexis, which subsequent studies will hopefully develop with more precision and detail. The dictionary will be helpful for scholars in linguistics, discourse analysis, media and communication, political science, and conflict studies.

Vers une modélisation lexicographique des propriétés sémantico-pragmatiques des locutions-phrases génériques et situationnelles La nuit porte conseil et Le chat est sorti du sac

This article focuses on two categories of ready-made phrases, called generic idiomatic phrases and situational idiomatic phrases. In summary, these sentences are characterized as follows: – they are presented, by the speaker/writer, as descriptions of the world; – they refer or purport to refer to states of fact (although they may implicitly perform illocutionary expressive and/or directive acts); – they acquire their legitimacy according to the discursive theme. The aim is to propose a lexicographical modelling for the kinds of sentences studied. The proposals are inspired by the methodology underlying the elaboration of definitions in the Explanatory and Combinatorial Dictionary (Mel'čuk et al., 1984, 1988, 1992, 1999). Briefly, the semantic-pragmatic analysis scheme sketched reflects 1) the conventional meaning (codified in language) associated with the phrases studied, and 2) the meaning possibly communicated through a generalized implicature (Grice, 1979 [1975]). Close attention is paid to the actions performed by language, which is an inescapable matter whenever statements are involved. The study ends with the presentation of dictionary articles prepared for the generic idiomatic phrase La nuit porte conseil and for the situational idiomatic phrase Le chat est sorti du sac.

Names of Feelings in the Dictionary

AbstractThe paper deals with words that denote feelings rather than with feelings as such. It proposes the strictly lexicographic description of some names of ‘psyche-induced feelings1’ [= ‘feelings2’], such as joy or amazement, in contrast to the names of ‘body-induced feelings1’ [= ‘sensations’], such as hunger and tiredness. This description is based on the semantic prime ‘feel1’, which itself is explicated through a naïve model of the human psyche. Our theoretical and descriptive framework is the Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary: its main principles, the notions of lexical unit (described by a lexical entry) and vocable (described by a lexical superentry), and the three major zones of a lexical entry. A tripartite general schema of the lexicographic definition of a feeling2 name is proposed: the central (= generic) component, the Stimulus component, and the Effect component. According to the Stimulus component, four major classes of feeling2 names are distinguished: names of reactions to facts, to thoughts, to beliefs, and to wishes. These classes are illustrated with the definitions of several English feeling2 names. A complete lexical entry for the feeling2 name anger(N)1 is given.

La combinatoria de peur con verbos en un diccionario sintáctico-combinatorio bilingüe francés-español (TACTICOMB)

Corpus-based combinatorial dictionaries are spreading, some for the general public and others for a specialized audience. We have also recently found some recent projects of bilingual combinatorial dictionaries that show the need for a reflection on the interface between the two languages. In our case, our goal is to design a bilingual French-Spanish combinatorial dictionary (TACTICOMB) that serves effectively for production and translation by combining semantic, syntactic and combinatorial elements and by developing the notion of mesostructure, the interface for passing from one language to another. We will illustrate the design of the dictionary through an entry model for combinatory of the noun peur with verbs.

The active dictionary of lexical combinatorics as a means of optimizing language learning

An important element of language competence is the knowledge of different features of lexical combinatorics. This article describes the structure of an Active Russian-Ukrainian Combinatory Dictionary of Nouns. The main goal of the Dictionary lies within the systematic representation of lexical combinatorics of a particular entry keyword along with its translation equivalent. A keyword is a Russian noun which designates such situations as an action, activity, process, pro-perty, state, or an event. Each lexeme which denotes a situation usually relates to a number of other lexemes that denote correlation between the participants of a situation, its variable signs, typical impacts, e.g., beginning or terminating a particular situation, its creation or ending, and other impacts constrained by its specifics. It is essential that different names of situations relate to different sets of lexemes attached to them. A combination of words with the name of a situa-tion and a lexeme that this name relates to is called collocation. In corpus linguistics, colloca-tions are described by means of apparatus of lexical functions (LF). Thus, the accompanying lexeme of the word combination conveys the meaning of LF for which the name of situation serves as an argument. In the Dictionary, eасh entry involves not only a Russian noun naming situation and its Ukrainian translation but also a set of collocations that correlate with the noun. Each Russian collocation is accompanied by its Ukrainian equivalent. The use of such a dic-tionary furthers the knowledge of the user’s native (first) language (Russian or Ukrainian). The Dictionary is especially important for learners of Ukrainian as a second language. It contains information about “paradigmatic syntagmatics” in Ukrainian yet not fully represented in bilin-gual dictionaries. Keywords: dictionary, noun, combinatorics, collocation, lexical function, predicate, actant.

Материалы к построению толково-комбинаторного словаря русских морфем. Местоимения первого и второго лица

Материалы к построению толково-комбинаторного словаря русских морфем. Местоимения первого и второго лица

Observing Grammatical Collocation in Students’ Writings

This research aimed to describe the types of grammatical collocation errors produced by English learners in their writings. The writers used a qualitative method for collecting and analyzing the data. The data were taken from first-year students’ essays. Collocations from fifteen essays were collected and analyzed. As the standard for the collocations being analyzed, The Oxford Collocation Dictionary and The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English were used by the writers. The results showed that the students made grammatical collocation errors in their writings, with a total of 35 grammatical collocations. It was also found that verb-noun collocation is the most dominant error made, which indicated that the students faced difficulties in using proper verbs in collocations.Keywords: Collocation error, grammatical collocation, students’ writings

COMPATIBILITY VS COMBINATORICS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HISTORY OF UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

The relevance of the studies is due to the need for a comprehensive analysis of compatibility in the Ukrainian language according to written sources of the 16th–18th centuries; special attention is paid to the causes of the emergence and formation of combinatorial connections on the example of adjective-substantive word combinations. The study of combinatorics in the Ukrainian language of the 16th–18th centuries based on one-type phrases actualizes in the future the need to compare lexical-syntactic combinatorial changes in the Ukrainian language at different stages of its development as a necessary condition for creating a synthetic study on compatibility. The scientific novelty of the thesis is that the first time combinatorics (compatibility) in the Ukrainian language of the 16th–18th centuries was studied comprehensively on the basis of combinatorial linguistics in combination with cognitive linguistics, substantive phrases. In this paper, for the first time, a scale of combinatorial (compositional) semantics was proposed for analyzing the compatibility in diachrony; for the first time, the principles of the combinatorial dictionary of the Ukrainian language of the 16th–18th centuries were developed. Keywords the monuments of writing, сompatibility, сombinatorics, active compatibility, passive compatibility, phrase.

Aprender colocaciones en español: utilización de tres repertorios en estudiantes de español

El estudio trata de analizar la influencia que dos Diccionarios monolingües de aprendizaje y un diccionario combinatorio pueden presentar en el desarrollo de la competencia colocacional léxica en un grupo de 97 aprendices universitarios de español como lengua extranjera con diferentes niveles de domino lingüístico. Para ello, se diseñó una prueba, así se presentaron diez enunciados con colocaciones del tipo verbo + sustantivo (OD) donde se había elidido el colocativo y los estudiantes en dos fases tuvieron que rellenar el hueco: en la primera sin la ayuda de los repertorios lexicográficos y en la segunda haciendo uso de ellos. Los resultados del presente estudio no dejan lugar a dudas, ya que el dominio colocacional de los estudiantes aumentó de manera considerable en todos los niveles.

Lexical Co-occurrence and Lexical Inheritance. Emotion Lexemes in German: A Lexicographic Case Study

In the present paper, we tackle the problem of the compact and efficient representation of restricted lexical co-occurrence information in the lexicon along semantic lines. The theoretical framework for this study is the <i>Meaning Text Theory</i> (MTT) and, more specifically, the lexicographic part of MIT --- the <i>Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary</i> (ECD), which contains for each lexeme (i) its semantic definition, (ii) a systematic description of its restricted lexical co-occurrence in terms of <i>Lexical Functions</i> (LF), and (iii) its <i>Government Pattern</i>. The data domain is the semantic field of emotion lexemes in German. In order to represent the restricted lexical co-occurrence (or collocations) of the lexemes in this field, we suggest the following procedure: 1. Construct approximate descriptions of their meaning, i.e. what we call the <i>abridged lexicographic definitions</i>. Formulated in terms of semantic features, these definitions are supposed to provide as much semantic information as necessary for establishing correlations between the semantic features of a lexeme and its collocates. 2. Specify their syntactic Government Patterns, which are needed for a clearer picture of their co-occurrence --- syntactic as well as lexical. 3. Specify their restricted lexical co-occurrence with the verbs chosen. 4. Establish correlations between the values of LFs and the semantic features in the abridged definitions of the emotion lexemes. 5. Based on these correlations, extract recurrent values of LFs (and recurrent Government Patterns) from individual lexical entries and list them under what we call the <b>generic</b> lexeme of the semantic field under study --- in this case, <b>GEFÜHL</b> 'emotion'. This leads on the one hand, to "compressed" lexical entries for emotion lexemes, and on the other hand, to the creation of a lexical entry of a new type: the "public" entry of a generic lexeme. <b>Keywords:</b> lexicography, lexicon, german emotion lexemes, lexical co-occurrence, collocations, meaning text theory, lexical functions, semantic features, semantico-lexical correlations, information extraction, inheritance, individual lexical subentry, public lexical subentry

Cohomology of line bundles on Schubert varieties?I

The aim of this paper is to begin a study of the cohomology modules Hi(X(w),Lλ) for non-dominant weights λ on Schubert varieties X(w) in G/B. The aim is to setup a combinatorial dictionary for describing the cohomology modules and give criteria for their vanishing. Here Lλ denotes the line bundle on X(w) corresponding to the 1-dimensional representation of B given by the character λ.

Arabic Collocations: The Need for an Arabic Combinatory Dictionary

The provtswn of collocations in a reference form is becoming increasingly important for foreign language learners and users as well as for translators. It is also important, however, to understand the nature of lexical collocability so as to be able to determine which lexical combination should be entered in the reference work and which are not needed there. The Arabic language is rich in many forms of collocation, and even native speakers of Arabic today seem to need a reference for the various combinations of lexical items that affect their language production with relation to usage and grammar. This paper aims to explain the semantic nature of lexical collocations, at least in the Arabic language. The paper also proposes a methodology for the entry of Arabic collocations in a special dictionary, which Ihave adopted in the dictionary I have already compiled, which is awaiting publication (cf. Hafiz, forthcoming). It has now become clear that a combinatory dictionary of Arabic is not only important for Arabists and orientalists, but also for translators, foreign writers in Arabic and foreign learners of Arabic. Their need for such a reference work seems to be evident as can be seen from the difficulties they often encounter and the errors they often make while speaking/writing and translating. .

Les Fonctions Lexicales du Dictionnaire Explicatif et Combinatoire Pour L'étude de la Cohésion Lexicale

In this paper, we show that the Lexical Functions (LFs) of the Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary are well suited for addressing some lexical questions in textual cohesion. We first describe LFs and divide them into two subsets: paradigmatic LFs and syntagmatic LFs. We show how paradigmatic LFs can be used to explain coreferential relations and definite descriptions.

Meaning-Text Theory: Linguistics, Lexicography, and Implications (review)

136Reviews Meaning-TextTheory:Linguistics,Lexicography,andImplications. 1990. James Steele, ed. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, ? + 489 pp. $35.00 U.S. Steele's book is a collection of thirteen papers on the nature and application of Meaning-Text Theory (MTT), the approach to linguistic description developed principally by Igor A. Mel'cuk and Alexander K. Zholkovsky some 20 years ago in the Soviet Union. MTT is a theory of the relationship between meaning and linguistic form; central to MTT is the lexicographically better known Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary (ECD), the formal, theoretical (and, generally, non-commercial) lexicon of MTT. The book has three parts: 1. Linguistics: Theoretical Contexts (two chapters on the motivation and historical position of MTT); 2. Lexicography: The Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary (six chapters on ECD entries) 3. Implications and Applications (five chapters on psychological and computational uses of MTT). There are also three appendices, an MTT glossary, an entry for an ECD of Chinese, and a bibliography of MTT writings in English and French. Alexander Nakhimovsky's "Word Meaning and Syntactic Structure: Some Comparative Notes" begins the volume with a survey of the lexicon and syntax in MTT and a comparison of MTT with current lexical theories, mainly Lexical Functional Grammar. Nakhimovsky rightly argues that Mil's lexical focus predates much of the current lexically based work, though it is odd to call this predating "anticipation" (as he does on p. 11), since MTT was developed pretty much outside the MIT/Stanford grammatical tradition that has produced lexical grammar. However, the proper historical and epistemológica! context of MTT is elucidated by Johanna Nichols in her "The Meeting of East and West: Confrontation and Convergence in Contemporary Linguistics" (reprint of 1979). Nichols contrasts the metatheories of MTT and generativism, laying out MTT's structuralist sympathies, e.g., its penchant for illustrated (versus argued ) truth and its distributional (versus deductive) claims. The paper is something of an apologia for MTT, a good piece to read for an understanding of why MTT proceeds as it does: e.g., why Government Binding theory tries to predict the appearance of certain kinds of languages, whereas MTT produces a detailed dictionary (like the ECD), combining meaning, syntax, and usage. The next six chapters, Part 2, comprise the bulk of the book. James Steele and Ingrid Meyer's "Lexical Functions in an Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary: Kinds, Descriptions, and English Examples" has two goals. The first is to illustrate and explain in English the lexical functions of the ECD (the abstract operators that determine the syntagmatic and paradigmatic collocations of an entry word). The second is to suggest a general classification of lexical functions to facilitate their use and recall by the practitioner. Reviews137 The first goal is motivated by the fact that most lists of lexical functions —at least at the time Steele and Meyer wrote their paper—do not give English illustrations (though this depends to some extent on where and how you look: see, e.g., Evens 1980). Frankly, I originally thought this goal to be beside the point, since the existing illustrations are quite clear to begin with (see Apresjan, Mel'cuk, and Zholkovsky's (1969) English/Russian examples) and linguists and lexicographers generally are familiar with at least one ofthe languages (French, German, and Russian) in which the lexical functions have traditionally been explained. But Steele and Meyer explain ECD lexical functions with admirable clarity, and so in spite of my worries, I am convinced of this paper's utility and strength. I am less satisfied with their general classification of lexical functions, however. They broadly classify all lexical functions as either paradigmatic or syntagmatic and give a number of subcategories. However, I do not see the rationale for many of the classifications. For example, MANIF (manifestation ) and NOCER (harmful to) are classed with the "attendant features," but even though "attendant features" are described as "circumstantial," I do not understand what this classification means; MAGN (intensification) is with the "evaluative qualifiers," and GERM (the germ of) is with the "process features ," but I do not see why. My objections might bejust cavils if it were not that the very motivation for the labels is mnemonic ease. (A more useful taxonomy...

Trying out a New Dictionary

U The publication of The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English (M. Benson, E. Benson, & Ilson, 1986) has made available to ESL/EFL teachers and students the major lexical and grammatical collocations of English. When two groups of English teachers, one from Hungary and one from the Soviet Union, came to the University of Pennsylvania campus in the summer of 1987 to participate in programs on TESOL methods and American English, an opportunity presented itself to try out the BBI with precisely the type of user that it is intended for-the advanced learner. An explanation of several key concepts is appropriate here. Words usually combine freely in accordance with the syntactic rules and semantic content of the given language (M. Benson, 1985c, pp. 4-5; Cowrie, 1981, p. 226). Such free combinations can normally be rendered in a second

Morton Benson, Evelyn Benson and Robert Ilson (compilers): The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English: A guide to word combinations

Morton Benson, Evelyn Benson and Robert Ilson (compilers): <i>The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English: A guide to word combinations</i>

Semantic Description of Lexical Units in an Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary: Basic Principles and Heuristic Criteria1

Semantic Description of Lexical Units in an Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary: Basic Principles and Heuristic Criteria¹

Russian expressions denoting physical symptoms of emotions An example of two-argument lexical functions

This paper describes, within the framework of the Meaning-Text theory, Russian standard (set) expressions denoting physical symptoms of emotions (ES-expressions). (1) An ES-expression is language-oriented in its semantics: its meaning represents a language-specified relationship between an emotion and the corresponding bodily change. Thus while in one language ‘one's eyes pop’ out of one's head’ from amazement, in another language the same meaning might imply anger rather than amazement. (2) A generalized semantic representation of ES-expressions is proposed: ‘change Z in the body part Y as a symptom of an emotion X’. Semantic differences between ES-expressions can be represented as differences in the value of variables X, Y, Z. The ranges of these variables for Russian ES-expressions are specified. As to the variable Z, three types of bodily change are distinguished: (a) temporary difficulty in the functioning of Y (= Obstr), (b) temporary cessation of the functioning of Y (= Stop), and (c) temporary excessive functioning of Y (= Excess). (3) The meaning of any ES-expression can be represented according to the following formulas: Obstr of Y as Sympt (symptom) of X, Stop of Y as Sympt of X, Excess of Y as Sympt of X. The constants in these formulas (Obstr as Sympt, Stop as Sympt, Excess as Sympt) can be considered as lexical functions. The specific property of these functions is that they are two-argument: lexical realization of meanings of the type ‘`Stop as Sympt’ is contingent upon lexical realization of variables X and Y; that is, the name of emotion and the name of the body part. All Russian ES-expressions are described in terms of proposed lexical functions (which however are also valid for other languages). (4) The way of representing ES-expressions in the Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary is discussed.

A Lexical Entry for an Explanatory-Combinatorial Dictionary of English ( hope II.1 )

A LEXICAL ENTRY FOR AN EXPLANATORY-COMBINATORIAL DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH (hope ILl) JAMES STEELE This paper describes some general features of an Explanatory -Combinatorial Dictionary (or ECD) and presents one sense of the noun hope as a sample ECD entry. Unlike most dictionaries, an ECD is a theoretically-oriented lexicon not intended for casual reference by the general public: its definitions are cast in an unconventional propositional form, and its methods of describing the syntactic and phraseological properties of a headword require preliminary study. Moreover, an ECD gives no information about either the pronunciation of words or their etymology—aspects of language that are adequately treated in other types of dictionary—and supplies no historical data for their diachronic study. What an ECD does provide, however, is a highly detailed and rigorously systematic account of the semantic, syntactic, and collocational properties of particular word senses. Each entry, in fact, is intended to provide a thoroughly comprehensive description of the delicate ways in which a "lexeme" (or word sense) functions at the present time within a language system. One of the central premises of an ECD, therefore, is Ferdinand de Saussure's insight that the systematic properties of any language are essentially either paradigmatic (i.e., implying "associative" sets of alternatives for particular word senses) or syntagmatic (i.e., implying syntactic patterns for combining elements selected from the paradigmatic sets). An ECD is called "explanatory" partly because it defines a lexeme's meaning by identifying the basic semantic components involved1 and partly because it explicitly describes the "semantic functions" inherent in those elements, that is to say, the roles of all "actants"2 that belong to the meaning's structure and establish the range of its syntactic powers. It is called "combinatorial" because it spells out by means of a comprehensive formula called a "government pattern" (or GP) all the ways in which a lexeme's semantic actants can be realized at the level of surface syntax and because it identifies the collocational properties of any lexeme 1 A Lexical Entry for an ECD by describing the term's "lexical functions," that is to say, the regular dependency relationships obtaining between a headword and certain units of language other than its own actants. An ECD thus correlates semantics with syntax and provides a systematic basis for describing collocational patterns. Moreover, when ECD entries are combined with more general rules relating to semantics, communicative structure , syntax, morphology, and phonology, they form a basic component of a model of natural language as a system. ECD lexicography in this larger context becomes a fundamentally important part of modern theoretical linguistics. The particular field of linguistic study to which all ECD entries are related is the Meaning-Text Model of language, a theory developed by Alexander Zholkovsky and Igor Mel'cuk together with their colleagues in Moscow and Montreal.3 The goal of the M-T Model is to describe the linguistic correspondence that exists between any "meaning" and all "texts" that synonymously express that meaning (and vice versa) and thus to elaborate the purely linguistic rules logically requisite for the production (or understanding) of an utterance. While a "text" in this theory is simply any utterance, whether oral or written, a "meaning" is represented by a formal construction called a Semantic Representation. For any given text in any language, a Semantic Representation consists of a network of semantic elements, which can be translated into actual lexemes of the language under analysis. The Semantic Representation also represents in graphic form the communicative or pragmatic structure of a text's message (the organization of its emphasis and the division of textual elements into "topic and comment" and "given and new"). To explain the relations between a Semantic Representation and an uttered or written surface text, the M-T Model postulates five intermediate levels describing the syntactic, morphological, and phonological shapes that a "meaning" theoretically assumes in the course of becoming an articulated phonetic product or, conversely, that a "text" assumes in the course of becoming comprehended as a "meaning." Each of these levels contains all the information needed for it to be translated into either the level above or the level below, James Steele although the...