| Abstract |
This paper reports a new kind of lexicon currently being developed as a resource for natural language processing, language teaching, and other applications. This is a "Pattern Dictionary of English", based on detailed and extensive corpus analysis of each sense of each verb in the language. A pattern consists of a verb with its valencies, plus semantic values for each valency and other relevant clues, and is associated with an implicature that associates the meaning with the context rather than with the word in isolation. For each verb, all normal patterns are recorded. The semantic types in each argument slot are linked to actual words via a large ontology. The paper discusses the relationship between A) words as they are actually used and B) semantic types and functions in a theoretical lexicon. An attempt will be made in the full paper to relate empirically observable, corpus-based facts about ordinary word use to the theoretical abstractions of Generative Lexicon Theory of James Pustejovsky and the Meaning-Text Theory of Igor Mel'čuk. (In an extended abstract, this can only be hinted at; the full paper will discuss it more fully.) Lexicography and linguistic theory are often uneasy bedfellows, but I shall suggest that in at least these two cases, there is a possibility of a harmonious and productive relationship. |
| BibTex |
@InProceedings{ELX06-140,
author = {Patrick Hanks},
title = {The Organization of the Lexicon: Semantic Types and Lexical Sets },
pages = {1165-1168},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 12th EURALEX International Congress},
year = {2006},
month = {sep},
date = {6-9},
address = {Torino, Italy},
editor = {Elisa Corino, Carla Marello, Cristina Onesti},
publisher = {Edizioni dell'Orso},
isbn = {88-7694-918-6},
} |
