Li-Li Chang

The Module-Attribute Representation of Verbal Semantics: From Semantics to Argument Structure

In this paper, we set forth a theory of lexical knowledge. We propose two types of modules: event structure modules and role modules, as well as two sets of attributes: event-internal attributes and role-internal attributes, which are linked to the event structure module and role module, respectively. These module-attribute semantic representations have associated grammatical consequences. Our data is drawn from a comprehensive corpus-based study of Mandarin Chinese verbal semantics, and four particular case studies are presented.

Segmentation standard for Chinese natural language processing

This paper proposes a segmentation standard for Chinese natural language processing. The standard is proposed to achieve linguistic felicity, computational feasibility, and data uniformity. Linguistic felicity is maintained by defining a segmentation unit to be equivalent to the theoretical definition of word, and by providing a set of segmentation principles that are equivalent to a functional definition of a word. Computational feasibility is ensured by the fact that the above functional definitions are procedural in nature and can be converted to segmentation algorithms, as well as by the implementable heuristic guidelines which deal with specific linguistic categories. Data uniformity is achieved by stratification of the standard itself and by defining a standard lexicon as part of the segmentation standard.

Meaning Representation and Meaning Instantiation for Chinese Nominals

The goal of this paper is to explicate the nature of Chinese nominal semantics, and to create a paradigm for nominal semantics in general that will be useful for natural language processing purposes. We first point out that a lexical item may have two meanings simultaneously, and that current models of lexical semantic representation cannot handle this phenomenon. We then propose a meaning representation that deals with this problem, and also discuss how the meanings involved are instantiated. In particular we posit that in addition to the traditional notion of sense differentiation, each sense may have different meaning facets. These meaning facets are linked to their sense or to other meaning facets through one of two ways: metonymic or metonymic extension.

Alternation Across Semantic Fields: A Study of Mandarin Verbs of Emotion

This paper explores possible co-relations between lexical semantics and morpho-syntactic structures. We first examine a consistent dichotomy among verbs of emotion, which was first observed for verbs of happiness by Tsai et al. [1998]. It is shown that the dichotomy can be determined based on the criterion of whether a verb is a VV compound or not.2 The linguistic contrasts observed include: the grammatical functions of a verb as well as their distribution, the selectional restrictions the verbs impose as an adjunct, a verbs occurrences in imperative and evaluative constructions, its aktionsart, and its transitivity. We will show that the overt morpho-syntactic contrasts are due to lexical event structure properties. The description of a state (of emotion) can focus on how the state comes to be (i.e., the inchoative state) or on the being of the state (i.e., the homogeneous state). Since VV compounding has the semantic function of referring to the generic properties of the set of event tokens, it is natural for VV compounding to be chosen as the morpho-syntactic representation of homogeneity.