Finding a model for contrastive lexical semantics: A look at verbal communication verbs

Lexical Semantics and Selection of TAM in Bantu Languages: A Case of Semantic Classification of Kiswahili Verbs

The existing literature on Bantu verbal semantics demonstrated that inherent semantic content of verbs pairs directly with the selection of tense, aspect and modality formatives in Bantu languages like Chasu, Lucazi, Lusamia, and Shiyeyi. Thus, the gist of this paper is the articulation of semantic classification of verbs in Kiswahili based on the selection of TAM types. This is because the sem...

Embodied Verbal Semantics: Evidence from a lexical matching task

A Factorized Model for Transitive Verbs in Compositional Distributional Semantics

We present a factorized compositional distributional semantics model for the representation of transitive verb constructions. Our model first produces (subject, verb) and (verb, object) vector representations based on the similarity of the nouns in the construction to each of the nouns in the vocabulary and the tendency of these nouns to take the subject and object roles of the verb. These vect...

Corpus-based cognitive semantics A contrastive study of phasal verbs in English and Russian

In this paper we will present a corpus-based cognitive-semantic analysis of five verbs that express 'begin' in English and Russian, i.e. begin, start, načat', načat'sja and stat'. On the basis of a quantitative analysis of data extracted from the ICE-GB and the Uppsala Corpus we conclude that the prototype for each verb and set of verbs in each language revolves around a different set of charac...

Reanalyzing the Complement Coercion Effect through a Generalized Lexical Semantics for Aspectual Verbs

Coercion verbs have been taken to include not only aspectual verbs like begin, start, and finish but also psychological verbs such as enjoy, endure, and savor and control verbs like try and attempt. Their unifying property has been assumed to be that they select for eventive complements (e.g. John began/enjoyed reading the book/the meeting). On this view, the composition of an entity-denoting e...