Event Structure and Lexical Semantics in Complex Predicates

ABSTRACT: One of the main objectives of valency lexicons is to identify predicate argument structures evoked by verbs. The analysis used in these resources heavily rests on lexical semantics and as such provides an accurate description of event structure in cases in which a verb is used in its prototypical sense, such as when the verb kick is used as a force verb in the example He kicked the door . However, this approach to event structure representation proves inadequate for examples in which a verb is used in a non-prototypical sense in which additional event participants are evoked constructionally, such as the use of kick in a transfer event: He kicked him the ball . In this paper, we propose a two-tier representation of event structure in which lexical semantics and the semantics of argument structure constructions are dealt with independently. We present a detailed model of constructional analysis that is compatible with lexically based analyses of event structure used in valency lexicons, such as Propbank, and show that a mapping between lexical and constructional representations provides a more comprehensive understanding of the event semantics when compared to a lexical representation alone.

Parts and boundaries

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.

The distinction between manner and result verbs arises from the event structure approach to verb meaning. In this approach verb meaning consists of two parts, a structural component that includes a small number of primitive predicates indicating event types, and a root component that describes idiosyncratic actions and states. Manner verbs describe actions but not the end results; they have a simple event structure. By contrast, result verbs describe the end results but not the way actions are carried out; they have a complex event structure. The distinction plays an important role in argument realization and constraints on possible verb meanings. It is also related to an issue that has been controversial in the study of Chinese verbs—whether there are simple accomplishments in Chinese. On the basis of Beavers and Koontz-Garboden’s diagnostics for manner and result verbs in English, five tests are suggested for Mandarin Chinese (henceforth Chinese) verbs. Two tests concern result: (a) result cannot be denied; (b) in forming resultative verb compounds the second verb and the object are restricted. Three tests identify manner verbs: (a) subject cannot be nonhuman, (b) action cannot be denied, (c) action has duration. Relying on the five tests, dynamic simple verbs in Chinese are classified into three groups—manner, result, and manner + result. Result verbs include verbs of damage, for example, duan ‘cut off’ and hui ‘destroy’; manner verbs include the verb of killing sha ‘kill’, de-adjectival degree achievement verbs, for example, re ‘heat up’, verbs of cooking, for example, kao ‘bake’; and one verb is found to lexicalize both manner and result—mie ‘put out, extinguish’. The verb of killing sha ‘kill, do killing’ is examined in detail, as its status has remained unresolved in the literature. It is found that sha entails change but not culminating change; morphosyntactically it patterns like manner verbs, hence its manner status. In terms of the affectedness hierarchy, the cutoff between result and manner is between verbs of quantized change and non-quantized change. The grammatical relevance of the verb classification can be seen in argument realization. Manner verbs takes more than one type of object, whereas result verbs only take one type of object, where the patient undergoes scalar change. In argument alternation, result verbs, but not manner or manner + result verbs, participate in causative alternation, and only manner verbs allow object alternations. This data suggests that Chinese does have simple accomplishments.

In Ten Lectures on Event Structure in a Network Theory of Language, Nikolas Gisborne explores verb meaning. He discusses theories of events and how a network model of language-in-the-mind should be theorized; what the lexicon is; how to probe word meaning; evidence for structure in word meaning; polysemy; the lexical semantics of causation; a type hierarchy of events; and event types cross-linguistically. He also looks at the relationship between different classes of events or event types and aktionsarten; transitivity alternations and argument linking. Gisborne argues that the social and cognitive embedding of language, requires a view of linguistic structure as a network where even the analysis of verb meaning can require an understanding of the role of speaker and hearer.

Method-oriented adverbs have received comparatively little attention in the semantic literature on adverbs. I shed light on their semantics. These adverbs relate an event from the lexical semantics of their underlying adjective to the matrix event, and do so in a way similar to that of instruments. I use independently motivated event structure decompositions to model the interaction of adverb and verb. This study broadens our understanding of the semantics of adverbs, and how adverbial modifiers interact with the event structure of the verbs they modify.

Specific features of border discourse as a special form of social interaction are considered in the article. The characteristic features of communicative situations of border discourse are highlighted. The conditions under which modern border discourse takes place are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the professional speech of border guards, which is characterized by professional border guard vocabulary, depending on the field of communication. Discourse is a complex communicative event or sociolinguistic structure created by interlocutors in specific communicative, social and pragmatic situations. Border discourse exists in two forms: the oral form and written form. Oral border discourse is the communication between people in the line of duty. It can be a conversation between two servicemen, between an officer and a person crossing the state border of Ukraine, or a senior officer and a subordinate serviceperson. Written border discourse is secondary to oral speech. Written speech is actually dialogical. The material of the research is presented by normative documents, educational materials, materials of mass media, in which the communicative situations of the border discourse are presented. The place of speech situations of border discourse is determined by the sphere of activity of communicators and the method of communication: personal or indirect means of communication (telephone conversations, Internet, correspondence by regular or e-mail, mass media, etc. Participants in speech situations within this discourse are border guards, academics who teach disciplines related to the activities of border guards, members of the media who cover issues related to border activities, as well as ordinary citizens involved in border discourse when crossing the state border. Motives of communication and speech intentions of communicators are determining factors in the selection of language means to achieve the communicative goal. Areas in which the border discourse takes place are official receptions, meetings, conferences, press conferences, negotiations, command and staff exercises, conferences, training situations with the use of professional border guard vocabulary, regulations, official situations at checkpoints.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will enter a new phase beginning in 2027 with the upgrade to the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). The increase in the number of simultaneous collisions coupled with a more complex structure of a single event will result in each LHC experiment collecting, storing, and processing exabytes of data per year. The amount of generated and/or collected data greatly outweighs the expected available computing resources. In this paper, we discuss effcient usage of HPC resources as a prerequisite for data-intensive science at exascale. First, we discuss the experience of porting CMS Hadron and Electromagnetic calorimeters reconstruction code to utilize Nvidia GPUs within the DEEP-EST project; second, we look at the tools and their adoption in order to perform benchmarking of a variety of resources available at HPC centers. Finally, we touch on one of the most important aspects of the future of HEP - how to handle the flow of petabytes of data to and from computing facilities, be it clouds or HPCs, for exascale data processing in a flexible, scalable and performant manner. These investigations are a key contribution to technical work within the HPC collaboration among CERN, SKA, GEANT and PRACE.

Evaluation of high resolution NWP simulations with radar data