Grounding semantic transparency in context

Abstract We present the results of a large-scale corpus-based comparison two German event nominalization patterns: deverbal nouns in -ung (e.g., die Evaluierung , ‘the evaluation’) and nominal infinitives das Evaluieren evaluating’). Among many available patterns for German, we selected these because they are both highly productive challenging from semantic point view. Both known to keep tight relation with denoted by base verb, but different nuances. Our study targets better understanding differences their import. The key notion our is that transparency, propose usage-based characterization relationship between derived nominals bases. Using methods distributional semantics, bring bear concrete measures transparency which highlight nuances: first one, cosine detects nominalizations semantically similar bases; second inclusion used subset contexts verb. find only measure helps characterizing difference types nominalizations, traditionally considered variable relative frequency (Hay, 2001). Finally, analysis allows us frame broader coordinates inflection vs. derivation cline.