This study examines composite predicates (CPs) in the history of American English and uses an exemplar-based model to explain changes frequency verb–noun pairings over time. Two different types verb-nominal CPs are considered, including those like take a look , which light verb occurs with abstract nominal object, others lose sight more lexically specific verb. Using corpus texts written betwee...

Wordnets, which are repositories of lexical semantic knowledge containing semantically linked synsets and lexically linked words, are indispensable for work on computational linguistics and natural language processing. While building wordnets for Hindi and Marathi, two major IndoEuropean languages, we observed that the verb hierarchy in the Princeton Wordnet was rather shallow. We set to constr...

PersPred is a manually elaborated multilingual syntactic and semantic Lexicon for Persian Complex Predicates (CPs), referred to also as “Light Verb Constructions” (LVCs) or “Compound Verbs”. CPs constitutes the regular and the most common way of expressing verbal concepts in Persian, which has only around 200 simplex verbs. CPs can be defined as multi-word sequences formed by a verb and a non-v...

Complex predicates raise the question of how to encode them in computational lexicons. Their computational implementation in South Asian languages is in its infancy. This paper examines in detail the variety of complex predicates in Telugu revealing the syntactic process of their composition and the constraints on their formation. The framework used is First Phase Syntax (Ramchand 2008). In thi...

The notion ‘preverb’ is a traditional descriptive notion in Indo-European linguistics. It refers to morphemes that appear in front of a verb, and which form a close semantic unit with that verb. In many cases, the morpheme that functions as a preverb can also function without a preverbal context, often as an adverb or an adposition. Most linguists use the notion ‘preverb’ as a cover term for pr...

Complex predicates raise the question of how to encode them in computational lexicons. Theircomputational implementation in South Asian languages is in its infancy. This paper examinesin detail the variety of complex predicates in Telugu revealing the syntactic process of theircomposition and the constraints on their formation. The framework used is First Phase Syntax(Ramcha...

Multiword Expressions (MWEs) are used frequently in natural languages, but understanding the diversity in MWEs is one of the open problem in the area of Natural Language Processing. In the context of Indian languages, MWEs play an important role. In this paper, we present MWEs annotation dataset created for Indian languages viz., Hindi and Marathi. We extract possible MWE candidates using two r...

In this paper, I argue that not only PPs and adverbs can act as predicates of the event argument of the verb, but certain NPs and certain clauses can, as well. I will give syntactic and semantic arguments that NPs that are cognate objects and clauses of (at least some) nonbridge verbs are optional predicates of the event argument of the verb. With respect to clauses, I will argue that for indep...

As the recent volume edited by Aikhenvald and Dixon (2006) indicates, interest in verb serialization or serial verb constructions (SVCs hereafter) persists. Indeed, the question of how serial verbs differ from other types of complex predicates such as converbal complex predicates and verb compounds, as well as other multi-verb constructions like coordination and subordination, remains one of th...

In this paper I look at light verb, serial verb and auxiliary constructions crosslinguistically and try to set up criteria to distinguish these constructions. I argue that while a coherent set of properties can be found to distinguish light verbs from auxiliaries, it is more difficult to find crosslinguistic criteria which set serial verbs apart from light verbs and auxiliaries. This is because...