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Part of
Recent Advances in Multiword Units in Machine Translation and Translation Technology
Edited by Johanna Monti, Gloria Corpas Pastor, Ruslan Mitkov and Carlos Manuel Hidalgo-Ternero
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 366] 2024
► pp. 157–173

Chapter 9
The middle construction and some machine translation issues

Exploring the process of compositional cospecification in quality-oriented middles

| Universidad de Córdoba
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.
Keywords: colloconstructional analysis of MWU, machine translation, middle construction, compositional cospecification, quality-oriented middles, Adverb + Verb collocation, inanimate entities, prototype effects
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
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
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