Description of pronominal and affected subject-verb construction meanings in Portuguese aiming to WordNets semantic alignment

• Grant number: 07/01514-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2007
• End date: February 28, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Bento Carlos Dias da Silva
• Grantee: Aline Camila Lenharo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The goal of the project is to investigate the main types of semantic alignment that can be specified between WordNet.Br and Princeton WordNet verb databases where, in Brazilian Portuguese, there occur pronominal verbal constructions like "Ele se feriu com uma faca" (He hurt himself with a knife), "Maria e Paulo abraçaram-se" (Maria and Paulo hugged each other) "Ele se orgulha dela" (He is proud of her), "O ar perfuma-se com diferentes aromas" (The air got scented with different fragrances) "Aqui vive-se bem" (One lives well here), and non-pronominal verb constructions with patient subject like "Ele apanhou muito quando criança" (He got spanked a lot as a child). Accordingly, the project intends to study this semantic alignment task from two complementary perspectives. From the linguistic point of view, it will focus on the study of verb argument structure representation and realization, lexicalization patterns, diathesis alternations, and the meanings of those verb constructions; from the computational-linguistic view, i.e. from the wordnet building perspective, it will focus on the semantic alignment of the pronominal and affected-subject verb constructions in Brazilian Portuguese with their semantically equivalent ones in English.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

LENHARO, Aline Camila. Os synsets de verbos do português com o SE inerente e os seus equivalentes do inglês. 2009. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências e Letras. Araraquara Araraquara.