In this paper we examine the topicalization paradigm for ten different verbal constructions in German. We argue that a uniform explanation for the observed behaviors follows from the interpretation of the relevant expressions as (parts of) lexical representations. To this end we motivate a revision of Functional Uncertainty as proposed in Kaplan and Zaenen (1989) to account for filler/gap relat...

The goal of this paper is to present algorithms for creating an optimized query plan for retrieving maximum information from multiple relations, using outerjoins. Especially we focus on conjunctive queries in the presence of predicates and foreign functions. We show first with examples that retrieving maximum information by integrating multiple relations requires outerjoin operators. The outerj...

The lexicons of many sign languages hold large proportions of “frozen” forms, viz. signs that are generally considered to have been formed productively (as classifier predicates), but that have diachronically undergone processes of lexicalisation. Nederlandse Gebarentaal (Sign Language of the Netherlands; henceforth: NGT) also has many of these signs (Van der Kooij 2002, Zwitserlood 2003). In c...

A central task of natural language processing is to find a way of answering the question Who did what to whom, how, when and where? with automatic means. This requires insights on how a language realizes events and the participants that partake in them and how this information can be encoded in a humanas well as machine-readable way. In this thesis, I investigate the ways that the spatial notio...