1 The Interaction Between Verbs And Constructions Lucas Champollion Oct 18 th, 2004 Goldberg, Adele E. (1995): Constructions. Ch. 2.

2 Motivation Some verbs can occur in many distinct argument structures Pat kicked/prodded the wall. Pat kicked Bob black and blue / Bat prodded Bob into action. Pat kicked/prodded at the football. Pat kicked/prodded his way out of the operating room. Regularities between meanings of diffent verbs in same argument structures To avoid polysemy of verbs, assign meaning to the construction instead

3 The Exception Is The Rule Traditional/generative grammar: principle of compositionality “The meaning of the whole is a function of the meaning of the parts” This principle fails for idioms Spill the beans not related to either spill or beans Idioms even come in “patterns”: Hit me a home run. / ?Bill hit me a home run Rob me a bank. / ?Bill robbed me a bank. / ?Rob Bill a bank Construction grammar makes a virtue of necessity

4 Construction Grammar‘s Approach To Language Generative grammar (e.g. Chomsky): "procedural" view Syntax Semantics linking rules Lexicon + Syntax Semantics Construction 1 Syntax Semantics Construction 2 Syntax Semantics Construction 3 Lexicon Construction grammar (e.g. Fillmore, Lakoff, Goldberg): "object-oriented" view

5 Questions To Be Answered What is the nature of verb meaning? What is the nature of constructional meaning? When can a given verb occur in a given construction?

6 Upgrading The Data Structure /l ۸ v/ FORM MEANING spill the beans Traditional approach: lexicon only stores words CG approach: one uniform data structure for words, idioms, and complex syntactic patterns NEW OLD DIVULGE-INFORMATION

7 Examples Of Argument Structure Constructions (I) Subject Verb Object Object 2 CAUSE-RECEIVE Ditransitive construction Pat faxed Bill the letter. I will tell you the solution.

8 Examples Of Argument Structure Constructions (II) Subject Verb Object Oblique CAUSE-MOVE Caused Motion construction Pat sneezed the napkin off the table. (I thought) you were going to talk me out of the way I feel right now.

9 Examples Of Argument Structure Constructions (III) Resultative construction She kissed him unconscious. Sam talked himself hoarse. CAUSE-BECOME Subject Verb Object Complement

10 What Is The Nature Of Verb Meaning? Verbs often have richer meanings than what Jackendoff-style decomposition can account for e.g. laminate, boycott, divorce, subpoena Construction Grammar’s approach: Decompositional structures correspond to meanings of constructions Verbs “plug in” to constructions, bringing along their own idiosyncratic meaning

11 Argument Structure Construction + Verb Construction +... = Meaning to suddenly, forcefully, and involuntarily expel air through the nose and mouth because of irritation of the nasal passages Pat sneezed the napkin off the table. CAUSE-MOVE Subj. Verb Obj. Oblique sneeze

12 Constructions, Just Like Words, Can Be Polysemous X successfully causes Y to receive Z but also: X causes Y not to receive Z X intends to cause Y to receive Z X enables Y to receive Z Subject Verb Object Object 2 Ditransitive construction give, throw, take, feed refuse, deny make, build, get, win, bake permit, allow

13 Integrating Verbs And Constructions Argument structure constructions require argument roles e.g. meaning of the ditransitive construction: CAUSE-RECEIVE Verbs require frame-specific participant roles e.g. meaning of to hand: HAND Roles are types, not atomic elements Participant roles must be subtypes of argument roles

14 Roles Can Be Profiled Argument roles are profiled iff they are direct grammatical relations (e.g. not oblique objects) Ditransitive: CAUSE-RECEIVE Caused motion: CAUSE-MOVE Participant roles are profiled iff they are obligatorily expressed HAND MAIL ROB STEAL  can be derived from frame semantics

15 Close-Up On The Ditransitive Construction CAUSE-RECEIVE Verb Subject Object Object 2 PREDICATE Instance or means Pat mailed Bill a letter. John will bake Mary a cake.

16 Ditransitive Construction + mail Pat mailed Bill a letter. cf. Pat mailed [Ø] a letter. (not an instance of this construction) CAUSE-RECEIVE Verb Subject Object Object 2 MAIL Instance

17 Ditransitive Construction + hand Pat handed Bill the keys. cf. *Pat handed [Ø] the keys. (not an instance of this construction) CAUSE-RECEIVE Verb Subject Object Object 2 HAND Instance, means

18 When Can A Given Verb Occur In A Construction? Semantic Coherence Principle: Only roles which are semantically compatible may be fused. This is the case iff one role is a subtype of another. Correspondence Principle (simplified(!)): Each profiled participant role of the verb must be fused with a profiled argument role of the construction. But if a verb has three profiled participant roles, then one of them may be fused with a nonprofiled argument role. The construction may have more roles than the verb. In this case the construction may add roles to the meaning of the composite structure. Dashed lines indicate these roles.

19 Ditransitive Construction + kick Joe kicked Bill the ball. CAUSE-RECEIVE Verb Subject Object Object 2 KICK Means Role can be contributed by construction (dashed line)

20 *Ditransitive Construction + anger *Joe angered Bob the pink slip. ("Joe gave Bob a pink slip, causing Bob to become angry.") CAUSE-RECEIVE Verb Subject Object Object 2 ANGER Instance? Means?

21 Ditransitive Construction + send Joe sent Chicago a letter. (only OK if Chicago refers to people)  "send.goal" role must be recipient and therefore animate CAUSE-RECEIVE Verb Subject Object Object 2 SEND Instance

22 What CG Fails To Explain: Ditransitive Construction + Steal *Robin Hood stole the rich their money. But: You stole me my happiness.  ??? CAUSE-RECEIVE Verb Subject Object Object 2 STEAL Instance? Means?

23 Conclusion CG assigns meaning to argument structure constructions Verb polysemy considerably reduced May be useful for Interlingua purposes No implementation so far (I think) Bugs?