Enriching Valency Lexicons with Constructional Analyses

This paper deals with two Spanish prefixation processes, namely auto- and co- prefixation, which affect the participants in the event expressed by the verbal bases to which they apply. From our point of view, these two prefixation processes provide new evidence for the claim that it is necessary to distinguish two levels of lexical representation in the study of the relation between lexical semantics, morphology, and syntax, in the line of Booij (1992), Levin and Rappaport Hovav (1995, 1998), and Sadler and Spencer (1998). We will show that only verbs belonging to a specific lexical class can undergo co- prefixation. Therefore, it seems that this process has to be accounted for at the level of lexical semantic structure. As for auto- prefixation, it will be shown that this morphological process can apply to verbs belonging to very different lexical classes. This seems to indicate that auto-prefixation has to be accounted for at the level of argument structure. However, we will show that the existence of an additional semantic restriction governing auto- prefixation makes it necessary to have reference both to a lexical syntactic level of representation like argument structure and to a semantic level of representation like lexical semantic structure.

Split-intransitive systems of argument marking provide an excellent opportunity to study the structure of the lexical-semantic representations that underlie argument structure alternations and argument linking rules. Yukatek Maya has a typologically rare split-intransitive pattern of argument marking controlled by overt aspect-mood marking. Kramer and Wunderlich (1999) have advanced an analysis according to which the linking of thematic relations to syntactic arguments is governed by lexical aspect as the sole lexical-semantic property linking principles are sensitive to in this language. Critical evidence against this proposal comes from the transitivity alternations of three classes of intransitive verbs: degree achievement verbs, non-internally-caused process verbs, and posture verbs. Transitivity alternations emerge as being governed by the distinction of internally-vs. externally-caused events. The Yukatek facts suggest that argument linking operates on a lexical information structure (event structure) that partially determines (and thus also underspecifies) both lexical aspect and participant structure.

Parts and boundaries

Language is used to communicate ideas. Ideas are mental tools for coping with a complex and uncertain world. Thus human conceptual structures should be key to language meaning, and probability—the mathematics of uncertainty— should be indispensable for describing both language and thought. Indeed, probabilistic models are enormously useful in modeling human cognition (Tenenbaum et al., 2011) and aspects of natural language (Bod et al., 2003; Chater et al., 2006). With a few early exceptions (e.g. Adams, 1975; Cohen, 1999b), probabilistic tools have only recently been used in natural language semantics and pragmatics. In this chapter we synthesize several of these modeling advances, exploring a formal model of interpretation grounded, via lexical semantics and pragmatic inference, in conceptual structure. Flexible human cognition is derived in large part from our ability to imagine possibilities (or possible worlds). A rich set of concepts, intuitive theories, and other mental representations support imagining and reasoning about possible worlds—together we will call these the conceptual lexicon. We posit that this collection of concepts also forms the set of primitive elements available for lexical semantics: word meanings can be built from the pieces of conceptual structure. Larger semantic structures are then built from word meanings by composition, ultimately resulting in a sentence meaning which is a phrase in the “language of thought” provided by the conceptual lexicon. This expression is truth-functional in that it takes on a Boolean value for each imagined world, and it can thus be used as the basis for belief updating. However, the connection between cognition, semantics, and belief is not direct: because language must flexibly adapt to the context of communication, the connection between lexical representation and interpreted meaning is mediated by pragmatic inference.

This article focuses on the realization of incrementality in Polish verbal and nominal constructions. The object of investigation is clause-embedding reveal-type concepts like ‘prove’, ‘reveal’, or ‘show’. In Slavic languages, incremental relations have traditionally been examined in direct relation to (im)perfectivity, with imperfective verbs enforcing partial affectedness of events and objects, and perfective verbs enforcing their total affectedness. In the present paper, I take a closer look at the incremental output within the reveal-type concept. I investigate whether an incremental event comes with a fixed incremental path that remains intact independently of any morphological or syntactic modifications. My research question is: Is an incremental feature specified in the lexicon as is the aspectual value ‘(im)perfective’, or does it rather arise compositionally? To answer this question, I analyze the impact of the dative argument and the nominalization on the incremental output of clause-embedding reveal-type predicates. I demonstrate that incremental meanings are affected by the properties of an entire construction. Based on that, I propose to distinguish between two types of incrementality: the non-modifiable (im)perfectivity-dependent partial and total integration requirement, and the compositional incrementality that arises as an interplay between lexical semantics, argument structure, and the morphological shape of the respective lexeme.

Event Structure and Lexical Semantics in Complex Predicates

The aim of this paper is to integrate spatial cognition with lexical semantics. We develop cognitive models of actions and events based on conceptual spaces and vectors on them. The models are then used to present a semantic theory of verbs. We propose a two-vector model of events including a force vector and a result vector. We argue that our framework provides a unified account for a multiplicity of linguistic phenomena related to verbs. Among other things it provides a cognitive explanation for the lexico-semantic constraint regarding manner vs. result and for polysemy caused by intentionality. It also generates a unified definition of aspect.

This book provides an overview of the grammatical structure of the language Yurakare, an unclassified and previously undescribed language of central Bolivia. It consists of 8 chapters, each describing different aspects of the language. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the Yurakare people and their language. Chapter 2 describes the phonology of the language, from the individual sounds to the stress system. In chapter 3 the morphology of Yurakare is introduced, i.e. the parts of speech, and the different morphological processes. Chapter 4 is a description of the noun phrase and contains information about nouns, adjectives, postpositions and quantifiers. It also discusses the categories associated with the noun phrase in Yurakare, such as number, possession, collectivity/distributivity, diminutive. In chapter 5, called 'Verbal agreement, voice and valency' there is a description of the argument structure of predicates, how arguments are expressed and how argument structure can be altered by means of voice and valency-changing operations such as applicatives, causative and middle voice. In chapter 6 there is an overview of verbal morphology, apart from the morphology associated with voice, valency and cross-reference discussed in chapter 5. There is also a description of adverbs in the language in this chapter. Chapter 7 discusses formal and functional properties of modal and aspectual enclitics. In chapter 8, finally, the structure of the clause (both simplex and complex) is discussed, including the switch-reference system and word order. The book ends with two text samples.

List of Figures. List of Tables.Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Lexicalization in NLG. 3. Classifying Lexical Variation. 4. Modelling the Domain. 5. Levels of Representation: SITSPEC and SEMSPEC. 6. Representing the Meaning of Words. 7. Verb Alternations and Extensions. 8. A System Architecture for Multilingual Generation. 9. Generating Paraphrases. 10. From Sentences to Text. 11. Summary and Conclusions. References. Index.

The literature contains a disconnect between accounts of how humans learn lexical semantic representations for words. Theories generally propose that lexical semantics are learned either through perceptual experience or through exposure to regularities in language. We propose here a model to integrate these two information sources. Specifically, the model uses the global structure of memory to exploit the redundancy between language and perception in order to generate inferred perceptual representations for words with which the model has no perceptual experience. We test the model on a variety of different datasets from grounded cognition experiments and demonstrate that this diverse set of results can be explained as perceptual simulation (cf. Barsalou, Simmons, Barbey, & Wilson, 2003) within a global memory model.

Lexical knowledge representation and natural language processing

The morphosyntactic, semantic, and phonological properties of Warlpiri verbs have been investigated by a number of scholars including Hale (1982, 1983), Hale, Laughren, and Simpson (1995), Harvey and Baker (2005), Laughren (1988, 1992), Legate (2002, 2003, 2008), Levin (1983), Nash (1982, 1986), Reimer (2002, 2003, 2008), and Simpson (1991, 2002). This study will focus on that part of the verbal complex which I will refer to as the ‘thematic core’. It minimally consists of a thematic verb (V) which may be augmented by a non-inflecting preverbal (PV) element of a class which, following Nash 1982, I will refer to as ‘lexical’: [(PV lexical])=V], or by PVs derived from other phrasal categories. I will argue that the thematic core of the larger verbal constituent ‘maps onto’ an event structure which represents its predicate argument structure (PAS) and its Aktionsart properties. This study investigates the relationship between the PV and V forms which instantiate the thematic core, from the perspective of their individual and combined contribution to the underlying event structure. It also compares the event structure of ‘heavy verbs’ (HV) with their ‘light verb’ (LV) homophones, and also with synonymous PV-LV complex verbs.

Addresses the role of structure in semantic analysis from the perspective of theories of meaning using rich theories of types. Also relates the theory of frames to these type theories as introducing, to some extent, similar structure into semantic analysis. The authors show how a structured approach is necessary to appropriately analyse phenomena in areas as diverse as lexical semantics and the semantics of attitudinal constructions referring to psychological states. In particular, these are: polysemy taken together with copredication, and attitudes such as belief and knowledge. The authors argue that the very same structure required to define a rich system of types enables them to adequately analyse both of these phenomena, thus revealing similarities in two otherwise apparently unrelated topics in semantics. They also argue that such theories facilitate a semantic theory oriented towards a psychological and contextually situated view of meaning. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

This paper identifies four reciprocal construction types in Khoekhoe (Central Khoisan). After a brief description of the morphosyntax of each construction, semantic factors governing their choice are explored. Besides lexical semantics, the number of participants, timing of symmetric subevents, and symmetric conceptualisation are shown to account for the distribution of the four partially competing reciprocal constructions.

The present volume is centered around five linguistic themes: argument structure and encoding strategies; argument structure and verb classes; unexpressed arguments; split intransitivity; and existential and presentational constructions. The articles also cover a variety of typologically different languages, and they offer new data from under-researched languages on the issues of event and argument structure. In some cases novel perspectives from widely discussed languages on highly debated topics are offered, also addressing more theoretical aspects concerning the predictability and derivation of linking. Several contributions apply current models of the lexicon–syntax interface to synchronic data. Other contributions focus on diachrony and are based on extensive use of corpora. Yet others, although empirically and theoretically grounded, privilege a methodological discussion, presenting analyses based on thorough and long-standing fieldwork.