Formalization of linking information in the FrameNet lexicon

The paper presents a novel approach to formalization of linking information in the FrameNet lexicon and to acquisition of a principled syntax-semantics interface, suitable for generalizing over combinatorial properties (valences) of predicators. Focusing on verbs that denote ‘notions’, it adopts an entailment-based view of the concept of semantic role, proposing representations of verbal arguments based on semantically primitive, grammatically relevant properties, entailed by the meaning of predicators (lexical entailments). Such generic meaning components abstract over various semantic relations which humans tend to express systematically through language. A limited set of prototypical role-like concepts can be used for modeling the linking properties of a wide range of verbs, in a well-ordered fashion.

In a preliminary study, frame-semantic representations of a set of notion verbs are mapped onto lexical entailment representations, in a portion of the FrameNet corpora. From the annotated data set, associations of semantic and grammatical categories are extracted and are formally rendered in entailment-based classes called Lexicalization Types (L-Types). L-Types are specified in terms of combinations of entailed properties, encoding distinctive predicate-argument structure patterns. A small number of L-Types is shown to readily abstract over the valence patterns of verbs classified in a variety of FrameNet frames. The latter are not systematically connected for purposes of linking. Valence generalizations in the FrameNet lexicon are acquired through appropriate frame-to-frame relations forming the frame hierarchy. L-Types can be represented as abstract, non-lexicalized frames specifying linking constraints. Mappings between L-Types and more specific frames can be encoded by means of a new frame relation modeling the syntax-semantics interface. Such a relation would simplify the current picture of the frame hierarchy by essentially decoupling purely lexical semantic information from information pertaining to linking.