1. Cognate prepositions in English and Swedish A corpus-based attempt at categorization Kerstin Lindmark Department of Linguistics Stockholm university

2. Background • Translation – Prepositions are often problematic! – Selection restrictions, collocations – Special problems with closely related languages • Wordnet – Model for categorizing – Matching patterns across languages

3. Background • Small tentative part of a larger project – Student translation corpus – Study of ”errors” could contribute to the exploration of translator/translation competence – Collocations and application of selection restrictions can be revealing

4. Background • Explorative and In Progress! • The categorization is intended to serve as a background for studying translations of prepositions

5. Related work • The Preposition Project – Senses from OED – Linked to FrameNet – Finegrained http://www.clres.com/prepositions.html –

6. Wordnet(s) • Princeton Wordnet – Psychology! – Semantically organized lexical database – Concepts are linked by semantic relations • Hyperonymy • Meronymy • Antonymy • Troponymy

7. Wordnet(s) • EuroWordNet – Dutch, Italian, Spanish, German, French, Czech, and Estonian – Separate wordnets – Linked via interlingual index (modified English net) – ”eq”-relations between languages (to English) – Different approaches to the configuration of the language-specific net

8. Wordnet(s) • Swedish Wordnet – Module to be linked to EWN – Difficulties in stretching the English senses – Experience: Even seemingly straightforward, first order entities are difficult to categorize

9. Prepositions under investigation • Corpora – BNC Sampler • 1 million spoken, 1 million written; representative of the BNC – SUC (Stockholm–Umeå Corpus) • 1 million written: fiction and non-fiction – ESPC (English–Swedish Parallel Corpus) • fiction and non-fiction: 2.8 million words

10. Prepositions under investigation • Cognate words – and related concepts • Examples: afterefter over överunder forför ini, in beforeföre, framför ofav

11. Prepositions under investigation • Why? – Friends – true AND false! – Overlapping basic sense, but different usage and different extended senses – Usage determined not only by the actual sense, but by conventions: • A quarter to eleven • Kvart i elva (in) (SV) • Kvart på elve (on) (NO)

12. Prepositions under investigation • Governed by complement or/and attachment, e.g. verb • in a container – i en behållare • look for someone (distinguish from phrasal verbs) – leta efter någon

13. Prepositions under investigation • Selected: – after – efter – before – före • which – express a time-related basic meaning.

14. Prepositions under investigation – efter • time (sense 1) – after a period of time: efter 10 år, efter en stund, efter semestern – after a point in time: efter 10 juli, efter jul, efter lunch • time (sense 2) – after an event: efter mötet, efter döden, efter uppstigning • sequence (space) (sense 3) – en efter en, han kom efter mig, han låste dörren efter sig • sequence (sense 4) – after financial measures: kostnaden efter skatt • according to (sense 5) – efter europeiskt mönster • thereafter (sense 6) (adverb) – dagen efter

15. Prepositions under investigation – efter • governed by the preceding verb (or noun) – goal (sense 7) söka efter, gräva efter, leta efter, titta efter, vara ute efter; spaning efter, strävan efter, längtan efter – according to (sense 8?) rätta sig efter, ?få namn efter, ?arbeta efter (=enligt, sense 5?) • Different from phrasal verbs: ge efter, se efter, titta efter (!) • Conjunction: efter att, efter det att (after + clause)

16. Prepositions under investigation – after • time (sense 1) – after a period of time: after 15 minutes, after a short time – after a point in time: after 10 july, after Christmas, after lunch, after work, after school • time (sense 2) – after an event: after the accident, after death, after that, after all • time (sense 3) – After an event VERB: after giving birth • sequence (space) (sense 4) – one evidence after the other, generations to come after us, closing the lids after them, clean up the mess after him • sequence (sense 5) – after financial measures: eighty seven pounds after tax • thereafter (sense 6) (later; adverb) – the week after, 6 months after

17. Prepositions under investigation • governed by the preceding verb (or noun) – goal (sense 7) he’s after • Different from phrasal verbs: look after • Conjunction: soon after construction began (after + clause)

18. Prepositions under investigation – före • time (sense 1) – before a period of time: före Jesu tid, före romantiken – before a point in time: före år 2000, före den 1 april 1990, före och efter jul • time (sense 2) – before an event: före bröllopet, före döden, före freden i Brömsebro, före jäsningen, före gryningen • sequence (space/time) (sense 3) – någon kilometer före Pragser Wildsee, någonstans före mitten • sequence (sense 4) – låta talet komma före tanken, liksom min pappa före mig, – before financial measures: rörelseresultatet före finansiella poster • priority (sense 5) – sätta den egna bekvämligheten före tron på… • before (sense 6) (adverb) – dagen före

19. Prepositions under investigation – before • time (sense 1) – before a period of time: before two minutes, before long – before a point in time: before Christmas, before supper, before 1st April 1985 • time (sense 2) – before an event: before installation, before death, before that meeting • time (sense 3) – before an event VERB: before planting, before being freed, • sequence (space/time) (sense 4) –.2 Miles before La Brea Avenue, 70 mph (FOUND ON THE INTERNET) • sequence (sense 5) – composed just before Gloriana, his father before him – before financial measures: before extraordinary items • before (sense 6) (adverb) – I’ve been here before, more than ever before

20. Prepositions under investigation – before • space/abstract: in front of (sense 7) – on the rocks before them, the carrot to dangle before the leading dissident – summoned before the King’s Justices, before the tsar, • Conjunction: before they died (before + clause)

21. Relations • Crosslinguistic relations – after1 eq_syn efter1 – after2 eq_syn efter2 – efter5 eq_syn according_to – efter3, bakom eq_syn after4, behind – before 7 eq_syn införN, framförN

22. And the preposition project?

23. References • SUC http://spraakbanken.gu.se/parole/ • BNC http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/ • ESPC http://www.englund.lu.se/content/view/66/127/ • EuroWordNet http://www.illc.uva.nl/EuroWordNet/ • Princeton Wordnet http://wordnet.princeton.edu/ http://wordnet.princeton.edu/ • Swedish WordNet Viberg, Å., Lindmark, K., Lindvall, A. & Mellenius, I. 2002. The Swedish WordNet Project. In: Proceedings of Euralex 2002, Copenhagen University. Pp. 407-412.The Swedish WordNet Project