P a V e D a - P avia Verbs Database: Challenges and Perspectives (2022)

Abstract: This paper describes an ongoing endeavor to construct Pavia Verbs Database (PaVeDa) – an open-access typological resource that builds upon previous work on verb argument structure, in particular the Valency Patterns Leipzig (ValPaL) project (Hartmann et al., 2013). The PaVeDa database features four major innovations as compared to the ValPaL database: (i) it includes data from ancient languages enabling diachronic research; (ii) it expands the language sample to language families that are not represented in the ValPaL; (iii) it is linked to external corpora that are used as sources of usage-based examples of stored patterns; (iv) it introduces a new cross-linguistic layer of annotation for valency patterns which allows for contrastive data visualization.

## introduction in this paper, we introduce a new typological resource, the pavia verbs database (paveda)1 which is modeled upon the valency patterns leipzig (val-pal)2 database by @xcite , while introducing a number of innovations detailed below. paveda has been designed at the university of pavia and is currently being constructed. the final version of the resource will allow to contrastively and simultaneously display valency patterns and alternations for ancient and modern languages. ## state of the art and current challenges in the last decades, researchers have observed that cross-linguistically verb classes show similar patterns as to their valency patterns and possible alternations. this observation led scholars to study the extent of possible variation across verb classes emerging from languages of different genetic and areal affiliation in order to discover general tendencies. additionally, typologists have striven to design and build foundational toolkits, data-sets, and other resources useful to ease and systematize research on verb classes. the open-access valpal database which is the output of the 2009-2013 project "valency classes in the languages of the world" carried out at leipzig university represented a ground-breaking tool for the field. the rationale behind its construction is fully documented in @xcite . the valpal contains data for 80 verb meanings (and occasionally additional others) from 36 languages. data includes translational equivalents for these verb meanings together with their associated participants called "microroles" (see example (1)a), the basic valency pattern (see example (1)b) and the valency alternations (see example (1)c), all represented through "coding frames". examples of basic (2) and non-basic usages and alternations (3) of stored verbs are also provided. the valpal paved the way both for investigating transitivity scales and construction alternations @xcite while further verbal databases, such as the bivaltyp database3 and the multival lexicons4 have also been created. in spite of these advances, the valpal database can be further improved, in terms of architecture, languages, and data coverage. in the first place, (i) the language sample is unbalanced from the point of view of representability, as several language families are not included. moreover, (ii) it does not contain data from ancient languages: this reflects a more general issues, as no systematic comparative study on diachronic developments across languages is available (see @xcite @xcite . additionally, (iii) the examples stored in the database are only occasionally extracted from corpora; their elicitation relies mainly on the native speakers' intuition of contributors (or elicited from speakers by contributors) or on reference handbooks and dictionaries. finally, (iv) the current interface does not support comparative visualization of constructions and alternations, and comparison is further complicated by the use of language specific labels that make it virtually impossible to retrieve functionally similar alternations across languages. for example, if one searches for the "locative" type among the "all alternations" variable in the database, the online query interface returns 28 entries, i.e., all alternations of all 36 languages available that contain the word "locative" in their name such as "locative alternation" (standard italian, see (1)c and (3) above), "locative applicative o-" (ainu), and "locative alternation (argument rearranging)" and "locative alternation (oblique to object)" (balinese); however, it does not return the russian "prefixal goal-instrumental alternation". as shown in examples (4) and ( 5 ) taken from @xcite and made available on the valpal database, this russian alternation is functionally similar to the italian "locative alternation" in example (3), although in russian it is coded on the verb through prefixation, whereas in italian it is not. on nagruzil seno na telegu. on na-gruzil seno na teleg-u he pfv-loaded hay.acc on cart-acc 'he loaded the hay onto the cart.' on zagruzil telegu senom. on za-gruzil teleg-u sen-om he pfv-loaded cart-acc hay-ins 'he loaded the cart with hay.' instead, ainu "locative applicative o-" and balinese "locative alternation (oblique to object)" point to a valency increasing alternation usually called "applicative" (see @xcite . therefore, the results of this simple query seem both inhomogeneous and incomplete, which is a byproduct of the alternations being languagespecific and at the same time being included in the database by separate contributors. impossible as collecting these data would otherwise be, we find the current architecture problematic in different respects: one may not simultaneously visualize how alternations are encoded cross-linguistically (e.g., comparing italian and russian data) nor how similar alternations are encoded in the same language (e.g., comparing all balinese locative alternations). ## paveda: where it stands and the road ahead to overcome the issues discussed above, a research team based at the university of pavia developed the paveda database -the output of the paveda project which received funding in 2021 from the university of pavia5. besides the local team, several international partners have agreed to take part in this project, in an attempt to build a more insightful typological resource that also allows for diachronic research. the paveda resource complies to the up-todate standards regarding cross-linguistic data formats, as proposed by @xcite in the cross-linguistic data formats initiative (cldf)6. particular attention has been paid to preserving compatibility with other linguistic resources and to avoiding multiplying information by referencing existing data. more specifically, we plan to enhance the database with the four main features described below. our proposed set of "general" alternations is conceived with the following aims in mind: avoid multiplying terminology, be as functional and conceptual as possible, and maximize language coverage. for instance, the italian "locative alternation", the balinese "locative alternation (argument rearranging)", and the russian "prefixal goal-instrumental alternation" are mapped onto the "locative alternation (argument rearranging)", whereas ainu "locative applicative o-" and balinese "locative alternation (oblique to object)" are mapped onto "locative alternation (oblique to object)". "locative alternation (oblique to object)" is preferable over "applicative", as the latter usually implies explicit encoding on the verb. in contrast, the former also accounts for marginal transitive occurrences of abitare 'inhabit' in italian, shown in example (7) as compared to the basic coding frame in example (6) in which the locative microrole is indicated by the preposition in -both examples are retrieved from @xcite . (6) 1 > v.subj[1] > loc 2 mario abita in campagna. mario abit-a in campagn-a mario live-prs.sg in countryside-f.sg 'mario lives in the countryside.' (7) 1 > v.subj[1] > loc 2 la famiglia abita una villa abbandonata. the database will be made freely available to the scientific community on an open-source basis through a dedicated web platform. this will promote the collaboration and reproducible research in linguistics. last but not least, besides contributing to the scholar research on verbal constructions, the contrastive studies promoted by the paveda resource will also enable applications with an impact on first language acquisition and on teaching and learning typologically diverse languages.