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Semantic Features and Selection Restrictions - Coggle Diagram
Semantic Features and Selection Restrictions
Lexical Database of the System Lexicographer
Lexical Database (LBD)
Content
Machine-readable, multi-domain relational vocabulary.
Features
It details lexical morphology, syntax, semantics, prosody, and references. Semantic features include [ + Speech act verb], [ + Performative verb], [ + Verb of motion], [ + Kinship term], [+Part of the body], [+Person], and [+Parameter].
Functions
The system marks vocabulary features, compiles word lists, and generates alphabetical lists.
Bibliographical Database (BBD)
Purpose
This database lists documents with lexicographically useful information and unique bibliographic details about lexemes.
Utility
Users can access document lists detailing specific lexemes or features, reflecting the current state of the BBD catalog.
The lexical database contains about 12,500 words, with morphological data from Zalizniak's dictionary (1977). It handles syntactic and semantic information not found in standard dictionaries.
Key Points of Weinreich's Semantic Features
Semantic Agreement
Semantic features underpin semantic agreement in language, as seen in "pretty girl" versus "*pretty man," highlighting acceptable versus unacceptable usage based on compatibility.
Deviant and Metaphorical Readings
Semantic features help explain non-literal and metaphorical interpretations, such as "a grief ago" or "before the wall".
Provisional Semantic Content
They can temporarily imbue ambiguous words with semantic content to ensure agreement. In "A red house occurred twice," "house" ([-Time]) gains [+Time] from the verb "occur," interpreting it as an event.
Semantic Features in Systems of Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Parsing Predicate-Argument Relations
Semantic features ensure transitive features match, crucial for accurate syntactic parsing.
Disambiguation of Homonymous Predicates
Categorial features clarify ambiguous predicates. For instance, "выйти" (to go out) varies based on [+Movable] or [-Movable] subjects.
Disambiguation of Homonymous Nouns
Transfer features of predicates can resolve the meanings of contextually ambiguous nouns, ensuring correct interpretation.
Verb-Adverbial Combinability
Verb-adverb compatibility relies on semantic agreement. For instance, a purpose adverb must match a verb indicating controlled action.
Coordinate Constructions
Semantic features guide transformations in coordinate constructions, aiding interpretation by reversing conjunction reduction actions.
Anaphoric Relations
Semantic features help identify anaphoric references. In "The cat did not drink the milk. It spilled," "spill" indicates "it" refers to the milk.
Literal vs. Metaphoric Texts
Semantic features differentiate texts allowing literal interpretations from deviant or metaphorical ones, like "the sea smiled."
Classification of Semantic Features
Categorial Features
These are inherent traits of a word, often a noun, reflecting common properties of its referents, like [+Person] for "man" and [+Place] for "house".
Transitive Features
These are conditions set by predicates on their arguments, like emotional state verbs needing a [+Person] subject or motion verbs requiring at least one argument with [+Place].
Weinreich's framework offers a nuanced understanding of how words gain and transfer semantic features in various contexts, enhancing comprehension of language processing and agreement mechanisms.
Semantic Features and Selection Restrictions in Lexicon and Grammar
Wierzbicka's "Semantics of Grammar" argues all grammatical distinctions arise from semantics. Despite debate, examples suggest selection restrictions are semantically driven.
Neg-Raising Predicates
Predicates like "to believe" have semantic features that explain their syntax.
Semantic Distribution of Conjunctions
In Russian, "что" follows verbs with 'know/believe,' while "как" follows verbs with 'perceive.'
Predicates Introducing Indirect Questions
The semantic component 'X knows' determines if a predicate can introduce an indirect question, as seen in "I know why he arrived" versus "*I believe why he arrived."
On Semantic In-Variant of The Class of Words with Genitive Subject
Apresjan (1985) suggested the subject case is determined by a verb's syntactic feature, but the verb list alone isn't reliable. Verbs that can take a genitive subject are called "genitive verbs" and share two main semantic components:
Existence Component
In negative sentences, if the non-negative implies 'X exists', this assertion gets negated, leading to a genitive subject. For instance, "ответа не пришло" negates the existence of the answer, resulting in a genitive subject.
Presence Component
Certain verbs, when negated, require a genitive subject to indicate absence. For instance, in "мороза не чувствуется" (no frost is felt or seen), the genitive subject emphasizes the absence of frost.