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Semantic Roles in VerbNet and FrameNet: Statistical Analysis and Evaluation

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Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing (CICLing 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13452))

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Abstract

Semantic role theory is a widely used approach for verb representation. Yet, there are multiple indications that semantic role paradigm is necessary but not sufficient to cover all elements of verb structure. We conducted a statistical analysis of semantic role representation in VerbNet and FrameNet to provide empirical evidence of insufficiency. The consequence of that is a hybrid role-scalar approach.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://verbs.colorado.edu/verb-index/.

  2. 2.

    Each verb in PropBank has verb-specific numbered roles: Arg0, Arg1, Arg2, etc. with several more general roles that can be applied to any verb. That makes semantic role labeling too coarse-grained. Most verbs have two to four numbered roles. And although the tagging guidelines include a “descriptor” field for each role, such as “kicker” for Arg0 or “instrument” for Arg2 in the frameset of the verb kick, it does not have any theoretical standing [5].

  3. 3.

    http://verbs.colorado.edu/verb-index/vn3.3/.

  4. 4.

    More accurate to use the term verb sense here because of verb polycemy.

  5. 5.

    https://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/fndrupal/.

  6. 6.

    We modified the original comparison presented in [14] for our own purposes.

  7. 7.

    The expression classes/frames is used hereinafter to emphasize that verbs are grouped into classes in VN and into frames in FN.

  8. 8.

    https://framenet2.icsi.berkeley.edu/fnReports/data/frameIndex.xml?frame=Self_ motion.

  9. 9.

    https://framenet2.icsi.berkeley.edu/fnReports/data/frameIndex.xml?frame=Stimu late_emotion.

  10. 10.

    https://framenet2.icsi.berkeley.edu/fnReports/data/frameIndex.xml?frame=Make_ noise.

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Correspondence to Aliaksandr Huminski .

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Huminski, A., Liausvia, F., Goel, A. (2023). Semantic Roles in VerbNet and FrameNet: Statistical Analysis and Evaluation. In: Gelbukh, A. (eds) Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing. CICLing 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13452. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24340-0_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24340-0_11

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