Encoding event structure in Urdu/Hindi VerbNet

We propose a new kind of event structure representation for computational linguistics, based on the theoretical framework of FirstPhase Syntax (Ramchand, 2008). We show that the approach not only gives a theoretically well-motivated set of subevents and related semantic roles, it also posits the levels of representation needed for analyzing a linguistic phenomenon that has repeatedly caused problems in computational systems, namely the treatment of complex predication. In particular, we look at V+V complex predicates in Urdu/Hindi and show that Ramchand’s subevent decomposition implemented in a VerbNet-style resource allows for a consistent semantic analysis of these complex events. We also show how the proposed event representation can be added to existing resources in the language, in particular the Hindi-Urdu Treebank and Hindi PropBank.