Chapter 9
The middle construction and some machine translation issues
Exploring the process of compositional cospecification in quality-oriented middles
This paper aims at exploring the colloconstructional analysis of multiword units (MWU) in machine
translation regarding the middle construction in terms of compositional cospecification (Yoshimura, 1998; Yoshimura & Taylor, 2004). For
that purpose, I examine the Adverb + Verb collocation focusing on the predicates cut and
drive, collocated with quality-oriented adjuncts (Heyvaert,
2003) and incorporating Inanimate Subject entities (Patients, Enablers and Instruments). The number of
instances examined is 500+. The data analysed reveals that apart from the generalised Qt-Qc pattern
in shift of semantic importance, other patterns (namely, Qc-Qc) can be found by virtue of the
prototype effects of the construction (cf. Taylor, 1995), thus, providing a
potential source of disambiguation in the computational treatment of MWU in machine translation.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Methodology
- 3.Tools for analysis: Qualia structure and the process of compositional cospecification
- 4.Prototype effects in the middle construction: Examining certain issues within the process of machine translation of MWU
- 5.Data collection and results
- 5.1The case of drive middle instances
- 5.2The case of cut middle instances
- 6.Conclusions
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Notes
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References
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