Lexical and Derivational Meaning in Vector-Based Models of Relativisation
This work addresses the challenge of modeling derivational ambiguity in relative clauses for computational linguists working with Dutch.
This paper extends a compositional distributional analysis of relative clauses to account for derivational ambiguity in Dutch. It provides a single meaning recipe for the relative pronoun, reconciling Frobenius semantics with Dutch derivational syntax.
Sadrzadeh et al (2013) present a compositional distributional analysis of relative clauses in English in terms of the Frobenius algebraic structure of finite dimensional vector spaces. The analysis relies on distinct type assignments and lexical recipes for subject vs object relativisation. The situation for Dutch is different: because of the verb final nature of Dutch, relative clauses are ambiguous between a subject vs object relativisation reading. Using an extended version of Lambek calculus, we present a compositional distributional framework that accounts for this derivational ambiguity, and that allows us to give a single meaning recipe for the relative pronoun reconciling the Frobenius semantics with the demands of Dutch derivational syntax.