Abstract
In this paper, I will discuss the production of paraphrases for the Italian communication predicates. These predicates represent, statistically, a significant part of the Italian lexicon-grammar class 47. My theoretical assumption is the Harrisian concept of transformation, which is an equivalence relation between sentences with a change in the grammatical form while preserving the morphemes and the grammatical relations between them. We deal with paraphrases like pronominalization of the arguments, reduction to zero of the arguments, permutations of the arguments and passivization. Each of the previous types of paraphrases can be combined with each other according to certain syntactic constraints.
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Notes
- 1.
For an introduction to category theory to see Mac Lane, S., Eilenberg, S.: General Theory of Natural Transformations. In: Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 231–294. American Mathematical Society Press, New York (2001).
- 2.
For an introduction to the Italian lexicon-grammar I refer the reader to Elia, A., Martinelli, M., D’Agostino, E.: Lessico e Strutture della Sintassi. LoffredoEditore, Napoli (1981).
- 3.
The expression “carrier verbs” has been introduced in linguistics by Zellig Harris. It refers to verbs which behave syntactically like the traditional copula. Before Harris, Otto Jespersen used the expression “light verbs” in order to refer to the same concept.
- 4.
A reduction for Harris is a transformation, which reduces the morphophonemic shape of a clause but leaves the lexical morphemes and the meaning unaltered.
- 5.
A primitive sentence is synonymous with lexicon-grammar definitional structure. It is different from the kernel, which is a sentence, unmarked in mood and voice (therefore is indicative and active).
- 6.
Harris, Z.S.: Co-occurrence and transformation in linguistic structure. In: Language vol. 33, p. 288. Washington DC: Linguistic Society of America (1957).
- 7.
Maurice Gross has used the expression “support verb” which has to be considered synonymous with carrier verb.
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Langella, A.M. (2016). Paraphrases for the Italian Communication Predicates. In: Barone, L., Monteleone, M., Silberztein, M. (eds) Automatic Processing of Natural-Language Electronic Texts with NooJ. NooJ 2016. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 667. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55002-2_17
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