Subcategorization frame

Revision as of 14:38, 15 September 2009

In the UNL framework, Subcategorization Frames are the number and types of syntactic arguments that co-occurs with the lemma in a sentence.

When to use subcategorization frames

Subcategorization frames are mandatory for words that take one or more syntactic argument, such as:

• intransitive verbs ('sleep', 'rain')
• direct transitive verbs ('kill', 'kiss')
• indirect transitive verbs ('depend', 'rely')
• ditransitive verbs ('give')
• deverbals ('arrival', 'construction')
• adjectives that require a complement ('loyal', 'interested')
• adverbs that require a complement ('contrarily to')
• prepositions ('in', 'after', 'near', 'instead')
• conjunctions ('because', 'and', 'but')

Subcategorization frames are optional for words that take no syntactic argument, such as:

• nouns ('table', 'computer')
• adjectives ('beautiful', 'intelligent')
• adverbs ('yesterday', 'here')
• determiners ('the', 'this')
• pronouns ('he', 'yours')

Syntax

Subcategorization frames should comply with the S-Rule formalism for writing syntactic rules in the UNL framework.

Examples

Adjectives

• BEAUTIFUL
  • There is no need for a semantic frame.
• LOYAL (TO)
  • JC(PP("to"));
    • The complement of the adjective (JC) is a prepositional phrase (PP) whose head is "to".
• INTERESTED (IN)
  • JC(PP("in"));
    • The complement of the adjective (JC) is a prepositional phrase (PP) whose head is "to".

Adverbs

• HERE
  • There is no need for a semantic frame.
• CONTRARILY (TO)
  • AC(PP("to"));
    • The complement of the adverb (AC) is a prepositional phrase (PP) whose head is "to".

Nouns

• TABLE
  • There is no need for a semantic frame.
• CONSTRUCTION (OF)
  • NC(PP("of"));
    • The complement of the noun (NC) is a prepositional phrase (PP) whose head is "of"

Prepositions

• NEAR(TO)
  • PC(PP("to"));
    • The complement of the preposition (PC) is a prepositional phrase (PP) whose head is "to".
• IN
  • PC(NP);
    • The complement of the preposition (PC) is a noun phrase (NP).

Verbs

• INTRANSITIVE ("sleep")
  • VS(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER);
    • The subject (specifier of the verb = VS) is a noun phrase (NP) that receives the nominative case (NOM) and that assigns the number (>NUM) and the person (>PER) agreement to the head
• COPULA ("be")
  • VS(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER),VC({NP,JP}, NOM);
    • The subject (specifier of the verb = VS) is a noun phrase (NP) that receives the nominative case (NOM) and that assigns the number (>NUM) and the person (>PER) agreement to the head, and the complement of the verb (VC) is either a noun phrase (NP) or an adjective phrase (JP), that receives the nominative case (NOM) as well.
• DIRECT TRANSITIVE ("kill")
  • VS(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER), VC(NP,ACC);
    • The subject (specifier of the verb = VS) is a noun phrase (NP) that receives the nominative case (NOM) and that assigns the number (>NUM) and the person (>PER) agreement to the head, and the complement of the verb (VC) is a noun phrase (NP) that receives the accusative case (NOM).
• INDIRECT TRANSITIVE ("depend")
  • VS(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER),VC(PP("on"),ACC);
    • The subject (specifier of the verb = VS) is a noun phrase (NP) that receives the nominative case (NOM) and that assigns the number (>NUM) and the person (>PER) agreement to the head, and the complement of the verb (VC) is a prepositional phrase (PP) whose head is "on". The PP receives the accusative case (ACC).
• DITRANSITIVE ("give")
  • VS(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER), VC(NP,ACC), VC(PP("to"),DAT);
    • The subject (SPEC) is a noun phrase (NP) that receives the nominative case (NOM) and that assigns the number (>NUM) and the person (>PER) agreement to the head, and there are two complements: a noun phrase (NP), that receives the accusative case (ACC), and a prepositional phrase (PP), whose head is "to", and that receives the dative case (DAT).