Multiword Referring Expression

A multiword referring expression is a referring expression whose meaning is defined by two or more lexemes.

• AKA: MWE, Multi-Word Expression.
• Context:
  • It can have a Word Sense and be found in a Dictionary.
  • It can have restrictions on substitution of its components with other components.
  • It can range from being a Multi-Word Term to being a Multi-Word Common Word.
  • It can be:
    • a Compound Word.
    • an Idiom, such as "storm in a teacup", or "sweep under the rug".
    • a Collocation.
    • a Lexicalized Phrase / Lexicalized Compound.
    • an Institutionalized Phrase.
    • a Nested Entity Mention.
    • a Fixed Phrase, such as: "in vitro", "by and large", "rock’n roll"
    • a Noun Compound, such as "olive oil", and “laser printer.
    • a Compound Verb, such as "take a nap", and "bring about".
• Example(s):
  • VIEWPOINT
  • HIGHSCHOOL
  • ICECREAM
  • KICKTHEBUCKET.
  • TAKEADVANTAGE.
  • TAKEADVANTAGEOF.
  • HEAVYSMOKER ⇒ “He was a [heavy smoker]." <=> "He [smoked heavily]." <≠≠> ?"He was a [furious smoker]”.
  • STIFFBREEZE ⇒ “There was a [stiff breeze]." <=> "The [breeze] was [stiff]." <≠≠> ?"There was a [stiff gust]." <≠≠>  ?"There was a [forceful breeze]”.
  • “out of the question”, <≠≠> ?"external to the query".
  • Lexicalized Compound.
    • "Redmond-based” ⇒ "That company [based in Redmond] … ", a Nominalized Noun.
    • "food additive” ⇒ "The [additive to (the) food] ..."
    • "data mining” ⇒ "The [mining of data] … "
    • "playgoer” ⇒ "That [person who regularly goes to plays] ..."
    • "horse race” ⇒ "That [professional racing of horses event] ..."
    • "washing machine” ⇒ "That [machine that can wash clothes] ..."
  • “The highest mountain in South America”
• Counter-Example(s):
  • “strong gust” a noun phrase that follows a standard Lexical Composition Rule.
  • “orange collar” as in: "He was an [orange collar] worker.” has no distinct Word Sense.
• See: Base Lexeme, Word Form, Lexical Compound.

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References

2014

• (Schneider et al., 2014) ⇒ Nathan Schneider, Spencer Onuffer, Nora Kazour, Emily Danchik, Michael T. Mordowanec, Henrietta Conrad, and Noah A. Smith. (2014). “Comprehensive Annotation of Multiword Expressions in a Social Web Corpus.” In: Proceedings of the 9th Linguistic Resources and Evaluation Confererence (LREC 2014).

2005

• (Girju et al., 2005) ⇒ Roxana Girju, Dan Moldovan, Marta Tatu, and Daniel Antohe. (2005). “On the Semantics of Noun Compounds.” In: Computer Speech and Language — Special Issue on Multiword Expressions.

2004

• http://mwe.stanford.edu/reading-group.html
  • Qualities of Multiword Expressions
  • Institutionalisation/conventionalisation: process of an expression becoming recognised and accepted as a lexical item, through consistent use over time (necessary but not sufficient condition on MWE-hood)
  • Lexicogrammatical fixedness: formal rigidity, preferred lexical realisation, restrictions on aspect, mood, voice, etc. (neither necessary nor sufficient condition on MWE-hood)
  • Semantic/pragmatic non-compositionality: there is a mismatch between the semantics/pragmatics of the parts and the whole; includes the case of the component lexical items having specialised meanings within the context of the MWE, not accessible in simplex contexts (not necessary but sufficient)
  • Syntactic irregularity: the expression cannot be parsed based on the simplex morphology (parts of speech) of the components (not necessary but sufficient)
  • Non-identifiability: when first exposed to the expression, the meaning cannot be predicted from its surface form (not necessary but sufficient)
  • Situatedness: the expression is associated with a fixed pragmatic point (neither necessary nor sufficient)
  • Figuration: the expression encodes some metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, etc, even if the nature thereof is underspecified (neither necessary nor sufficient)
  • Proverbiality: the expression is used "to describe -- and implicitly, to explain--a recurrent situation of particular social interest … in virtue of its resemblance or relation to a scenario involving homely, concrete things and relations" (neither necessary nor sufficient)
  • Informality: the expression is associated with more informal or colloquial registers (neither necessary nor sufficient)
  • Affect: the expression encodes a certain evaluation of affective stance toward the thing it denotes (neither necessary nor sufficient)

2002

• (Sag et al., 2002) ⇒ Ivan A. Sag, T Baldwin, F Bond, Ann Copestake, and D Flickinger. (2002). “Multiword Expressions: A pain in the neck for NLP.” In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Intelligent Text Processing and Computational Linguistics (CICLing-2002).
  • QUOTE: We define multiword expressions (MWEs) very roughly as “idiosyncratic interpretations that cross word boundaries (or spaces)”. As Jackendoff (1997: 156) notes, the magnitude of this problem is far greater than has traditionally been realized within linguistics. He estimates that the number of MWEs in a speaker’s lexicon is of the same order of magnitude as the number of single words. … MWEs can be broadly classified into lexicalized phrases and institutionalized phrases (terminology adapted from Bauer (1983)).

1983

• (Bauer, 1983) ⇒ Laurie Bauer. (1983). “English Word-formation." Cambridge University Press.

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