Light verb constructions with ‘do’ and ‘be’ in Hindi: A TAG analysis

By Ashwini Vaidya, Owen Rambow, Martha Palmer. 2014

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In this paper we present a Lexicalized Feature-based Tree-Adjoining Grammar analysis for a type of nominal predicate that occurs in combination with the light verbs “do” and “be” (Hindi kar and ho respectively). Light verb constructions are a challenge for computational grammars because they are a highly productive predicational strategy in Hindi. Such nominals have been discussed in the literature (Mohanan, 1997; Ahmed and Butt, 2011; Bhatt et al., 2013), but this work is a first attempt at a Tree-Adjoining Grammar (TAG) representation. We look at three possibilities for the design of elementary trees in TAG and explore one option in depth using Hindi data. In this analysis, the nominal is represented with all the arguments of the light verb construction, while the light verb adjoins into its elementary tree.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Language and Linguistics