Subcategorization frame

From UNL Wiki
Revision as of 13:29, 15 September 2009 by Admin (Talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

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

Contents

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 is a prepositional phrase (PP) whose head is "to".
  • INTERESTED (IN)
    • JC(PP("in"));
      • The complement 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 is a prepositional phrase (PP) whose head is "to".

Nouns

  • TABLE
    • There is no need for a semantic frame.
  • CONSTRUCTION (OF)
    • COMP:=(PP,"of"<<0);
      • The complement is a prepositional phrase (PP) that is preceded by "of".

Prepositions

  • NEAR(TO)
    • COMP:=(PP,"to"<<0);
      • The complement is a prepositional phrase (PP) that is preceded by "to".
  • IN
    • COMP:=(NP);
      • The complement is a noun phrase (NP).

Verbs

  • INTRANSITIVE ("sleep")
    • SPEC:=(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER);
      • 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
  • COPULA ("be")
    • SPEC:=(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER); COMP:=({NP,JP}, NOM);
      • 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 the complement is either a noun phrase (NP) or an adjective phrase (JP), that receives the nominative case (NOM) as well.
  • DIRECT TRANSITIVE ("kill")
    • SPEC:=(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER); COMP:=(NP,ACC);
      • 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 the complement is a noun phrase (NP) that receives the accusative case (NOM).
  • INDIRECT TRANSITIVE ("depend")
    • SPEC:=(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER); COMP:=(PP,ACC,"on"<<0);
      • 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 the complement is a prepositional phrase, that receives the accusative case (ACC) and that is preceded by "on".
  • DITRANSITIVE ("give")
    • SPEC:=(NP,NOM,>NUM,>PER); COMP:=(NP,ACC); COMP:=(PP,DAT,"to"<<0);
      • 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, that receives the dative case (DAT) and is preceded by "to".
Software