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The Syntax and Semantics of Verbs of Searching

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Emerging Technologies for Education (SETE 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 13089))

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Abstract

This study selected five typical verbs of searching 搜索 sōusuǒ ‘search’, 搜寻 sōuxún ‘seek’, 寻找 xúnzhǎo ‘look for’, 窥探 kuītàn ‘pry’ and 探听 tàntīng ‘snoop’ to explore their syntax and semantics. With reference to the automatic tagging results of LTP, we manually checked the syntactic dependencies and semantic roles of randomly selected sentences containing the five verbs using a self-developed syntactic-semantic annotation tool. The results showed that verbs of searching take HED as the main syntactic dependency type, VOB as the secondary type, and are rarely used as SBV and ATT. 搜索 sōusuǒ ‘search’ and 窥探 kuītàn ‘pry’ can also be used as ADV. 寻找 xúnzhǎo ‘look for’, 窥探 kuītàn ‘pry’ and 探听 tàntīng ‘snoop’ can also be used as POB. When they act as HED in sentences, 搜索 sōusuǒ ‘search’, 搜寻 sōuxún ‘seek’, 寻找 xúnzhǎo ‘look for’, and 窥探 kuītàn ‘pry’ are often used in sentences with both SBV and VOB in syntax whose semantic roles are AGT and CONT respectively. The most common sentence pattern of 探听 tàntīng ‘snoop’ is the sentence with no SBV, closely followed by the sentences with both SBV and VOB. All the five verbs can collocate with the semantic roles of LOC, TIME and MANN. In addition, 搜索 sōusuǒ ‘search’ and 寻找 xúnzhǎo ‘look for’ can also collocate with TOOL, and 窥探 kuītàn ‘pry’ and 探听 tàntīng ‘snoop’ can also collocate with semantic role of CONS. This study also compared the results with existing dictionary resources, which proves the practicality and innovation of analyzing the syntax and semantics of verbs using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods based on the annotation tool we developed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The abbreviations of dependency relations and their meanings are listed on http://www.ltp-cloud.com/intro_en.

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Acknowledgements

This research is funded by University of Macau (MYRG2019-00013-FAH). This work was performed in part at the high performance computing cluster (HPCC) which is supported by Information and Communication Technology Office (ICTO) of University of Macau.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau

    Shan Wang & Shuchi Chen

  2. Institute of Collaborative Innovation, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau

    Shan Wang

Authors
  1. Shan Wang
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  2. Shuchi Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shan Wang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, China

    Weijia Jia

  2. South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

    Yong Tang

  3. Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

    Raymond S. T. Lee

  4. Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal, Magdeburg, Germany

    Michael Herzog

  5. Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuzai, China

    Hui Zhang

  6. South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

    Tianyong Hao

  7. Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, China

    Tian Wang

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Wang, S., Chen, S. (2021). The Syntax and Semantics of Verbs of Searching. In: Jia, W., et al. Emerging Technologies for Education. SETE 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13089. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92836-0_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92836-0_11

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