The Representation of Complex Telic Predicates in Wordnets: the Case of Lexical-Conceptual Structure Deficitary Verbs

This paper has a twofold aim: (i) to point out that telicity is both a lexical and a compositional semantic feature; (ii) to propose a straightforward solution to represent lexical telicity in wordnets-like computational lexica. The approach presented here subsumes the basic idea that lexicon is not a repository of idiosyncrasies. It is rather organized following a few general (universal or parametrical) constraints. In this context, despite the fact that the paper is mainly concerned with Portuguese, cross-linguistic generalizations can be captured, on the basis of a contrastive examination of data. The analysis focus on the behavior of complex telic predicates, in particular those which are deficitary with regard to their lexical-conceptual structure. In order to represent appropriately such predicates in wordnets, the specification of information regarding semantic restrictions, within the corresponding synsets, is proposed as well as a telic state relation.