Aspectual Modiications to a Lcs Database for Nlp Applications

Verbal and compositional lexical aspect provide the underlying temporal structure of events. Knowledge of lexical aspect, e.g., (a)telicity, is therefore required for interpreting event sequences in discourse We show that it is possible to represent lexical aspect|both verbal and compositional|on a large scale, using Lexical Conceptual Structure (LCS) representations of verbs in the classes cataloged by Levin (1993). We show how proper consideration of these universal pieces of verb meaning may be used to reene lexical representations and derive a range of meanings from combinations of LCS representations. A single algorithm may therefore be used to determine lexical aspect classes and features at both verbal and sentence levels. Finally, we illustrate how knowledge of lexical aspect facilitates the interpretation of events in NLP applications. and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reeect the views of the National Science Foundation, Department of Army, or Department of Defense.