Combining Universal Dependencies and FrameNet to identify constructions in a poetic corpus: syntax and semantics of Latin felix and infelix in Virgilian poetics
Authors: Giulia Calvi, Riccardo Ginevra, Federica Iurescia (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2024)
Topic: Latin Resources

Abstract
The paper is a pilot study which argues for a constructionist and computer-based approach to the syntactic and semantic analysis of a poetic corpus in Latin. We focus on the terms felix and on its opposite infelix and perform manual annotation of their occurrences in Virgil’s poems using Universal Dependencies for the syntactic analysis and FrameNet for the semantic one. Integrating the approaches of Dependency Syntax and Construction Grammar, we analyze the linguistic contexts in which the two terms occur and identify the different “constructions” (pairings of form and function) that they instantiate. Our methodology is language-independent and has the potential to aid scholars in the comparative analysis of poetic texts, allowing for the detection of hidden parallels in the style and poetics of different texts and authors.

Introduction
The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the potential of a constructionist and computer-based approach to the analysis of syntax and semantics in a Latin poetic corpus. Our corpus comprises Virgil’s (70–19 BCE) literary works, namely (in chronological order of composition) the Eclogues (Ecl.) or Bucolics, the Georgics (Georg.), and the Aeneid (Aen.). We focus on two lemmas that have been studied as key terms in Virgil’s poetics (e.g. [1]; [2]): felix ‘productive, auspicious, fortunate, lucky, happy’ and its opposite infelix ‘unproductive, unlucky, ill-fated, miserable’. Bellincioni [1] analyzed the meanings of the two terms in Virgil’s works and detected differences in their poetic uses. On the one hand, felix is attested in a variety of contexts, ranging from its (likely original) concrete senses ‘productive’, ‘fruitful’ to more figurative senses linked with prosperity and well-being (granted by divine will). When it qualifies humans, felix takes the religious nuance of ‘favored’ by gods and fate. Gagliardi [2] also stressed the polysemy of felix in the Virgilian corpus: the lemma may refer to fecundity, propitious benevolence, or happiness, acquiring new connotations thanks to innovative uses in Virgil’s poetics. On the other hand, according to Bellincioni [1] infelix is rarely used in the technical sense of ‘infertile’ or in the senses ‘helpless’ and ‘inauspicious’, and in the majority of cases it rather seems to be used to qualify human beings as ‘ill-fated’. In order to identify patterns of the use of these terms in context, we combine a syntactic analysis with a semantic one. Following Osborne and Groß [4] and Osborne, Putnam and Groß [5], we integrate the approaches of Dependency Syntax and Construction Grammar. In doing so, we rely on the Universal Dependencies (UD) framework for the syntactic analysis and on the FrameNet approach for the semantic one, drawing inspiration from previous studies along these lines (e.g. [6]; [7]). This integrated approach allows us, on the one hand, to identify the linguistic contexts in which felix and infelix occur in Virgil’s corpus and, on the other hand, to analyze correspondences between the syntactic and the semantic levels of the Virgilian passages where these two terms are employed. By combining syntactic and semantic analyses, we explore the potential of an approach that integrates Universal Dependencies with FrameNet. In doing so, we aim at demonstrating that ours is a viable methodology to retrieve the contexts in which the two terms occur in Virgil’s corpus and to study the correspondences between their syntactic and semantic uses.

Conclusion
With the present study, we show the potential of a constructionist and computer-based approach in the analysis of a poetic corpus in Latin. By integrating syntactic information based on UD with semantic annotation grounded on FrameNet, we were able to identify recurrent constructions involving two key lemmas of Virgilian poetics, felix and infelix. This enabled us to uncover differences and parallels in the uses of these two terms within Virgil’s language. The present work is a pilot study which may pave the way for future research. Our approach is language-independent, and may thus be applied to different corpora across various languages and historical periods, for instance to explore similarities in the poetics of various authors within different traditions. Our investigation relied on manual annotation for both the syntactic and semantic analyses due to the lack or poor performance of automatic annotation systems for Latin poetry at the time of writing. The feasibility and effectiveness of such systems can vary significantly across different languages, depending on the resources available. Future improvements in automatic annotation for Latin may allow us to scale up this approach to perform analyses of even larger corpora. Virgil’s poems played a crucial role in shaping later poetic traditions for centuries: an interesting application of our integrated approach may thus be to investigate whether the same constructions attested in Virgil’s poems also occur in the works of later poets who are known to have been influenced by him, both in Latin (e.g. Valerius Flaccus’s Argonautica, Silius Italicus’s Punica, Publius Papinius Statius’s Thebaid), as well as in other languages, such as Italian (e.g. Dante Alighieri’s Commedia).