Verb-noun Research Articles

Arabic Solid-Stems for an Efficient Morphological Analysis

Arabic natural language processing “NLP” researchers have not yet reached a consensus on a unified definition of stop-words, which is a challenging issue and a limitation in the domain of Arabic NLP in general and Arabic morphological analysis in particular. In this research work, we start by giving a detailed definition and classification of solid-stem words which renames stop-words; we then propose a linguistic-based morphological analysis approach to process this class of words in the Arabic language. A solid-stem word has a unique morphological form and is characterized by the fact that the inflectional ending of the word does not change no matter where the word is in the sentence. A solid-stem word can be a constructed noun (pronoun, indeclinable noun, and verbal noun), an invariable verb, or a particle. A new classification of solid-stems is given, based on their type of affixations. The proposed approach distinguishes between variable and invariable solid-stem types, identifies all possible affixes, and generates all possible morphological variants of each word in a systematic way. For this purpose, we propose a formula for solid-stem affixation and describe in detail affixes schemas using finite-state machine. Building the work on strong linguistic bases lays the foundation for building efficient Arabic search engines and special-purpose information retrieval systems.

Verbal Noun and Inflected Verb

Verbal noun is recorded in dictionary and its inflection process occurs in syntax. Producing inflected verb that has tense and person is found in syntax. Morphology is a system for creating new words for new things. Analyses have shown that internal structure of verbal nouns important inclitic division (subject and object) and inflectional pronouns in a complicated verb. The inflection is in syntax, in association with morphosyntax. So, inflection is morphosyntactic inside syntax. For past inflection, we take the tense base from the dictionary. While for present, we take the root then we bring tense and person. Dictionary, word creation morphology and syntax are interrelated. In this way, segmental changes are phonological and occur in the mind. Verb inflection categories are person, tense, aspect and mood. They are in complementary distribution in terms of: singular and plural, past and present, perfective and imperfective, indicative and uncertainty. Their structured, which are used, are: 1. Person: singular and plural 2. Tense: past /-a/, /y\i-/, /w\u-/, /d-/, /t-/ .and present /de-/. 3. Aspect: each of the linguists Mhamed Mehwi, Wrya Omar Amin and Mahmud Fathulla divided aspect into perfective, imperfective and progressive. However, through analysis and discussion of examples, it has been obvious that aspect is of two types in Kurdish language.The researcher follows the latter conclusion: a. Perfective b. Imperfective (Continuous), Progressive (close) and far. Tense and aspect, which are the verbal inflectional categories, are parts of tense. Tense determines past and present, but aspect determines its perfectness and imperfectness. 4. Mood: Indicative\informative uncertainty (structural, subjunctive, imperative and request)

Выражение номинатива в табасаранском языке

Aim. The article is an attempt of studying the nominative expression in the Tabasaran language, the study of the variety of meanings expressed by the nominative case.Methods. Using various methods, including synchronous descriptive detail, the authors give the structural functional analysis of the nominative.Results. The relevance of this article consists in the fact that for the first time in the Tabasaran language in the syntactic aspect of the nominative the authors describe the functional characteristics of the inflectional forms of all inflectional parts of speech.Conclusions. The Tabasaran nominative can be expressed as a real subject and object (direct object) by substantivized parts of speech, Masdar (verbal noun), the whole word-combination, phraseological units, function words and even by the phone.Â

The morphologization of negation constructions in Nalca (Mek, Tanah Papua), or, how nothing easily moves to the middle of a word

AbstractThe Mek language Nalca has undergone a rapid synthetization of verbal negation by way of two successive stages of asymmetric negation, the first one involving referential zeroing with a verbal noun, the second one reintroducing person marking with an auxiliary in analogy to non-verbal predicates. This development can be traced in texts in the more conservative closely related Mek language Eipo. Referential zeroing originally had the connotation of absolute negation (more than the denial of one specific event). As Nalca negation was integrated into inflectional morphology, it developed some of the hallmarks of autonomous morphology – morphomes and empty morphs. Nalca negation illustrates how grammaticalization and analogy can go hand-in-hand. The fusion of verbal negation is a case of the morphologization of a construction which does not occur in isolation but in concert with other similar processes, together entailing a fragmentation of negation marking. Finally, the Nalca development shows that cases of fusion of verbal negation must be taken into account when dealing with the interplay of existential negation and verbal negation in terms of cyclic processes.

Semantic (Ir)regularities in Action Nouns in Irish

Cross-linguistically, verbal nominalizations display a close semantic and syntactic affinity to their corresponding predicates. Another characteristic feature of action nominalizations is that they exhibit the process/result dichotomy. In the process of lexicalization, the meanings of nominals drift away from the core actional reading, and come to denote ‘something material connected with the verbal idea (agent, instrument, belongings, place or the like)’ (Marchand 1969, 303). Nominalizations in Irish show a systematic polysemy between an abstract action reading and more concrete meanings such as result or object of activity, e.g. míniú ‘explanation’, ceartú ‘correction’, filleadh ‘bend’. We can observe a cline with a non-count action nominal and a count result nominal as extremes. The ability to pluralize is a clear indicator of lexicalization, e.g. oiriúintí ‘fittings, accessories’, admhálacha ‘receipts’, socruithe sochraide ‘funeral arrangements’. It will be demonstrated that the patterns of polysemy in verbal nouns are constrained by the lexical semantics of the base verbs. In the paper an overview is made of nominals related to verbs of different situation types (i.e. Vendler’s (1967) classes such as states, accomplishments, achievements, activities), and different lexical semantic categories (i.e. verbs of creation, consumption, motion, speech act verbs, verbs of emission etc.). The study is based on the corpus of ca. 2300 verbs and their corresponding VNs from Ó Dónaill (1977).

Heuristics in Language Comprehension

We used a sentence-picture matching task to demonstrate that heuristics can influence language comprehension. Interpretation of quantifier scope ambiguous sentences such as Every kid climbed a tree was investigated. Such sentences are ambiguous with respect to the number of trees inferred; either several trees were climbed or just one. The availability of the NOUN VERB NOUN (N-V-N) heuristic, e.g., KID CLIMB TREE, should contribute to the interpretation of how many trees were climbed. Specifically, we hypothesized that number choices for these stimuli would be predicted by choices previously made to corresponding (full) sentences. 45 participants were instructed to treat N-V-N triplets such as KID CLIMB TREE as telegrams and select a picture, regarding the quantity (“several” vs. “one”) associated with tree. Results confirmed that plural responses to quantifier scope ambiguous sentences significantly predict increased plural judgments in the picture-matching task. This result provides empirical evidence that the N-V-N heuristic, via conceptual event knowledge, can influence sentence interpretation. Furthermore, event knowledge must include the quantity of participants in the event (especially in terms of “several” vs. “one”). These findings are consistent with our model of language comprehension functioning as “Heuristic first, algorithmic second.” Furthermore, results are consistent with judgment and decision making in other cognitive domains.

GRAMMATICALIZATION OF “BAŞLAMAK”

The present paper is concerned with the grammaticalization of the Turkish aspectual verb başlamak. The paper analyses the level of autonomy of başlamak with Ch. Lehmann’s parameters of grammaticalization. These parameters are based on three criteria, i.e. weight, cohesion and variability, which act on syntagmatic and paradigmatic axes. The weight of a sign viewed paradigmatically is its integrity or semantic and phonological complexity. Viewed syntagmatically, it is its structural scope, i.e. the extent of constructions it helps to form. For başlamak no signs of phonological attrition (gradual loss of phonological substance) were found. Semantically it has inceptive meaning and acts both as main and functional verb with no change of meaning. Başlamak forms constructions with verbal nouns ending in –maya/-meye , which generally belong to dynamic situation types. The cohesion of a sign on paradigmatic level is depicted by its paradigmaticity, i.e. the degree to which a sign enters a paradigm. On syntagmatic level the cohesion of a sign is associated with the degree to which it depends on or attaches to other signs. Başlamak is the main means of expressing initial phase in the Turkish language. Verbal constructions with it are built according to the schema where başlamak follows a verbal noun, ending in –maya /-meye , are easily divided into logical parts and are not phraseologically related. Paradigmatic variability is the freedom with which the language user chooses a sign which is concerned with the restrictions on its usage. Başlamak is used with no limitations in the structures and forms peculiar to the Turkish language. Syntagmatic variability, in the case of a grammaticalized sign, concerns mainly its positional mutability with respect to those constituents with which it enters into construction. Başlamak is located in the postposition to its complement and syntactically serves link verbs functions majorly acting as a part of complex predicate. The analysis shows that development of başlamak doesn’t show many signs of desemanticization, obligatorification, coalescence and other processes characteristic to grammaticalization. Being semantically neutral and syntagmatically and paradigmatically variable it occupied its slot in expressing initial phase of action in the Turkish language.

Cut(n) andcut(v) are not homophones: Lemma frequency affects the duration of noun–verb conversion pairs

This paper tests whether lemma frequency impacts the duration of homographic noun–verb homophones in spontaneous speech, e.g.cut(n)/cut(v). In earlier research on effects of lemma frequency (e.g. Gahl 2008), these pairs of words were not investigated due to a focus on heterographic homophones. Theories of the mental lexicon in both linguistics and psycholinguistics differ as to whether these word pairs are assumed to have shared or separate lexical representations. An empirical analysis based on spontaneous speech from the Buckeye corpus (Pitt et al. 2007) yields the result that differences in lemma frequency affect the duration of the N/V pairs under investigation. First, this finding provides evidence for N/V pairs having separate representations and thus supports models of the mental lexicon in which lexical entries are specified for word class. Second, the result is at odds with an account of ‘full inheritance’ of frequency across homophones and consequently with speech production models implementing inheritance effects via a shared form representation for homophonous words. The findings are best accounted for in a model that assumes completely separate lexical representations for homophonous words.

Akan noun–verb nominal compounds: The exocentric synthetic view

Akan noun–verb nominal compounds: The exocentric synthetic view

The Split VP Hypothesis Revisited

In this talk, we review Chang’s (2017) article on the split VP hypothesis that the VP headed by a transitive verb such as read an ebook splits into at least two layers: VP core and v*P shell. In this article, it is argued that the verb-final account for the VP core such as [read [an ebook ]] should be equally valid, compared with the verb-intial standard such as [read [ an ebook]], as long as we pursue the fundamental minimalist assumption that merge is an unordered set operation (Chomsky 1995), that is, if there is no ordering of merged elements in a set such as {α, β}. It is also shown that the former approach may outperform the latter, at the very least within the v*P domain, particularly with regard to the syntactic alternation of English phrasal verbs and their gapping in coordinate clauses. In this regard, we touch on the literature which supports the V-final VP core hypothesis, including Chang (2016), Edelstein (2020), van Gelderen (2013) and Sportiche (2005). In this talk, we also look at another idea of Chang’s (2017) that the V-final VP core is derived from what is called a ‘synthetic noun-verb (N-V) compound verb’ (e.g. [ebook read] for ebook reading and ebook reader ). Then, we discuss what kinds of data could support this hypothesis.

Graus de esquematicidade das construções verbo-nominais com o verbo “deixar” no português brasileiro

O objetivo do artigo é investigar, com base na abordagem construcional de Traugott e Trousdale (2013) e na abordagem cognitivo-funcional de Bybee (2010), as construções verbo-nominais (VNs) com o verbo “deixar” no Português brasileiro, que resultam da associação de um verbo semanticamente leve com um sintagma nominal. A hipótese defendida aqui é a de que as construções VNs com este verbo exibem diferentes graus de esquematicidade, incluindo construções totalmente esquemáticas (abertas, em que os slots podem ser preenchidos por quaisquer elementos, como em: Vsuporte+SN) até aquelas as construções fechadas (de natureza substantiva, sem possibilidade de slots para preenchimento, como em: Deixar a peteca cair), passando pelas construções semiabertas (de natureza parcialmente esquemática, em que apenas alguns slots podem ser preenchidos lexicalmente, como em: Deixou uma imagem ruim). Essas configurações apontam, segundo Vieira (2014), para a existência de três tipos de construções VNs: (i) não-lexicalizadas; (ii) semilexicalizadas; (iii) lexicalizadas. Em vista do exposto, examinaremos as ocorrências dessas construções coletadas no Corpus do Português (DAVIS; FERREIRA, 2006), considerando a produtividade, em termos de frequência (BYBEE, 2003; 2010), e sua composicionalidade, para que, assim, possamos verificar a hipótese de que essas construções são decorrentes de dois processos distintos de construcionalização: a construcionalização gramatical e a construcionalização lexical.

Complement or adjunct? The syntactic principle English-speaking children learn when producing determiner–noun combinations in their early speech

In children acquiring various languages, the early mastery of determiners strongly predicts syntactic development. What makes determiners important is not yet clear as there is a linguistic controversy regarding their syntactic behaviour. Some consider determiners to be similar to adjectives and to modify common nouns, while others consider the common nouns their complements. This article aims to find out which of the two basic syntactic operations, complementation or adjunct attribution, children learn when they master determiner–noun combinations in their early speech. Pearson correlations of determiner–nominal combinations with verb–noun combinations and attributive adjective–noun combinations were computed in early two-word-long sentences of a large sample of young English-speaking children. Determiner–nominal combinations were very highly correlated with verb–noun sentences, whereas the correlation with adjective–noun combinations was much lower. It appears that determiner–noun combinations are a type of complementation. When children learn them early, they apparently learn the syntactic principle underlying such combinations which then can be transferred to other syntactic constructions.

EEG source reconstruction evidence for the noun-verb neural dissociation along semantic dimensions

One of the long-standing issues in neurolinguistic research is about the neural basis of word representation, concerning whether grammatical classification or semantic difference causes the neural dissociation of brain activity patterns when processing different word categories, especially nouns and verbs. To disentangle this puzzle, four orthogonalized word categories in Chinese: unambiguous nouns (UN), unambiguous verbs (UV), ambiguous words with noun-biased semantics (AN), and ambiguous words with verb-biased semantics (AV) were adopted in an auditory task for recording electroencephalographic (EEG) signals from 128 electrodes on the scalps of twenty-two subjects. With the advanced current density reconstruction (CDR) algorithm and the constraint of standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography, the spatiotemporal brain dynamics of word processing were explored with the results that in multiple time periods including P1 (60–90ms), N1 (100–140ms), P200 (150–250ms) and N400 (350–450ms), noun–verb dissociation over the parietal-occipital and frontal-central cortices appeared not only between the UN-UV grammatical classes but also between the grammatically identical but semantically different AN-AV pairs. The apparent semantic dissociation within one grammatical class strongly suggests that the semantic difference rather than grammatical classification could be interpreted as the origin of the noun–verb neural dissociation. Our results also revealed that semantic dissociation occurs from an early stage and repeats in multiple phases, thus supporting a functionally hierarchical word processing mechanism.

Ontological Metaphor in Verb and Abstract Noun Collocations in Serbian: A Sample Analysis

ABSTRACTThe paper discusses ontological metaphors in a sample of verb and abstract noun collocations in Serbian, in order to explore lexical patterning as a realization of conceptual metaphor. We examine the ideas a) that we conceptualize abstract entities as persons, containers, concrete physical objects or substances for which our experiences with physical objects provide the basis (Lakoff and Johnson 1980), and b) that the collocations selected reflect the metaphorical mapping of a concrete domain onto an abstract one. The sample selected includes collocations, the content of which indicates that the process of mapping involves the domains of negative experience in the world of matter. More specifically, the domains of painful or injurious physical experience are mapped onto negative emotions and states of mind, which suggests that the experiential basis, on which the speakers rely in forming the collocations is negative.

THE FUNCTIONING OF THE WORD-FORMATIVE TYPES WITH SUFFIXES -ИЦ(Я) AND -ИН(И) IN UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

Thе deverbative word-formative types in Ukrainian language defined in works by I. Kovalyk, S. Bevzenko, S. Samiylenko, V. Tokar, L. Humetska and other. Thе article is devoted to the study of functioning of the word-formative types with suffixes -иц(я) and -ин(и). The attention is focused of the development of these word-formative types. Our research is based on examples from «Dictionary of Ukrainian language» (1907 – 1909) by B. Grinchenko and «Dictionary of Ukrainian language» (1970 – 1980). To reach the aim we had to solve the following problems: to outline the verbal nouns of the word-formative types with formants -иц(я) and -ин(и) in the dictionaries; to study characteristics of these word-formative types; to analyse of they semantic load transformations on the development. Methodology: the descriptive method, the continuous sampling method, the method of morphemic and derivational analysis.

Georgian stem formants and nominalization

The Georgian verb system is complex, and in many cases the function and meaning of certain morphemes is not entirely clear. One such morpheme, the stem formant, appears in both non-perfect verbs and nominal structures. Although they are usually associated with aspect in the verb, I propose that there are several advantages to treating stem formants as nominal heads bearing the feature [+collective]. If stem formants are nominalizers, then several facts about their distribution can be explained, including their historical origin, their presence in abstract and verbal nouns, and their absence from verbs which assign ergative case to their subjects. Doing so also makes it possible to bring Georgian split ergativity closer in line with other analyses of ergative splits in Basque (Laka, 2006) and Chol (Coon, 2013)

Akan noun–verb nominal compounds: The exocentric synthetic view

A synthetic compound is regarded as an endocentric construction in which a deverbal nominal head inherits the internal argument of the underlying verb. The Akan noun-verb nominal compound is analysed as a synthetic noun-noun compound with a deverbal right-hand constituent. This is based on a pattern of downstep observed on the first syllable of the second constituent, triggered by a putative floating low tone of a deleted nominal(izing) prefix. This approach, which makes the compound endocentric, is needed to account for the nominal syntactic category of the compound, given that the left-hand nominal constituent is not the head. In this paper, we discuss and reject this endocentric analysis, showing that the argument for the nominal status of the right-hand constituent based on tonal melody alone is weak because some constructs which meet the structural requirement fail to exhibit the specified tonal melody. We argue, however, that we can maintain the synthetic compound analysis without committing to defend the view that the right-hand constituent is nominalized. This is the exocentric synthetic compound view. We present a constructionist account in which the syntactic category is a holistic constructional property of the compound, which is inherited from a meta-schema for Akan compounding. We also present a preliminary constructionist account of the tonal melody of the compound.

The influence of sense-contingent argument structure frequencies on ambiguity resolution in aphasia

Verbs with multiple senses can show varying argument structure frequencies, depending on the underlying sense. When acknowledge is used to mean ‘recognise’, it takes a direct object (DO), but when it is used to mean ‘admit’ it prefers a sentence complement (SC). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether people with aphasia (PWA) can exploit such meaning-structure probabilities during the reading of temporarily ambiguous sentences, as demonstrated for neurologically healthy individuals (NHI) in a self-paced reading study (Hare et al., 2003). Eleven people with mild or moderate aphasia and eleven neurologically healthy control participants read sentences while their eyes were tracked. Using adapted materials from the study by Hare et al. target sentences containing an SC structure (e.g. He acknowledged (that) his friends would probably help him a lot) were presented following a context prime that biased either a direct object (DO-bias) or sentence complement (SC-bias) reading of the verbs. Half of the stimuli sentences did not contain that so made the post verbal noun phrase (his friends) structurally ambiguous. Both groups of participants were influenced by structural ambiguity as well as by the context bias, indicating that PWA can, like NHI, use their knowledge of a verb's sense-based argument structure frequency during online sentence reading. However, the individuals with aphasia showed delayed reading patterns and some individual differences in their sensitivity to context and ambiguity cues. These differences compared to the NHI may contribute to difficulties in sentence comprehension in aphasia.

Lexicographical Presentation of the Core Verbal Nouns

Lexicographical Presentation of the Core Verbal Nouns

Difference between Written and Spoken Czech: The Case of Verbal Nouns Denoting an Action

Abstract The present paper extends understanding of differences in expressing actions by verbal nouns in corpora of written vs. spoken Czech, namely in the Czech part of the Prague Czech-English Dependency Treebank and in the Prague Dependency Treebank of Spoken Czech. We show that while the written corpus includes more complex noun phrases with more explicit expression of adnominal participants, noun phrases in the spoken corpus contain more deletions and more exophoric references. We also carried out a quantitative analysis focusing on relative frequencies of combinations of participants modifying verbal nouns; although the written corpus shows higher relative frequencies, the order of the relative frequencies of particular combinations is the same in both types of communication.