Verbal Multiword Expressions in the C roatian Verb Lexicon (2024)

Abstract: The paper examines the complexities of encoding verbal multiword expressions in the Croatian verb lexicon. The lexicon incorporates a verb’s description at the syntactic, morphological, and semantic levels. This study explores the treatment of reflexive verbs, light verb constructions, and verbal idioms across several Croatian and Slavic language resources to find the best solution for the verb lexicon. It addresses the following research questions: 1. How should reflexive verbs, i.e., verbs with the reflexive marker se, be treated? Should they be considered as separate lemmas, sublemmas of non-reflexive counterparts, or as one of their senses? 2. What syntactic label and semantic role should be assigned to a predicative noun in light verb constructions? 3. Should verbal idioms be included, and, if so, at which level of a description? Our conclusion is that all reflexive verbs should be treated as separate lemmas since they are distinct lexemes that have undergone semantic and syntactic change. To differentiate between a semantically full verb and a light verb, we have introduced the label LV and decided not to assign a semantic role to a predicative noun. By including verbal idioms and their translation into English, non-native users can benefit from the lexicon. The aim is to enhance the verb lexicon for the more effective description and recognition of verbal multiword expressions.

## introduction multiword expressions @xcite in running text pose challenges in natural language processing (e.g., @xcite @xcite , in lexicographic resources @xcite , and in theoretical syntactic and semantic research (e.g., @xcite . a verb lexicon containing the description of verbal multiword expressions (vmwes) (see @xcite , such as the croatian verb lexicon verbion, can be useful for improving the accuracy and efficiency of processing and in understanding these expressions in various linguistic applications. the verb lexicon verbion contains a verb lemma accompanied by labels about aspect and reflexive uses, a morphological block with inflectional forms, and verb senses. each sense is accompanied by a semantic class, a semantic frame from framenet @xcite , and one or more valency frames. each valency frame includes an example from corpora which is analyzed at syntactic, morphological, and semantic levels. for the syntactic description, phrase type labels such as np, pp, etc., are used, and for the semantic level, semantic roles mainly adopted from verbnet @xcite and frame elements from framenet @xcite are assigned. in the first phase of the project, a description of the 500 most frequent verbs in croatian will be provided, and the results will be publicly available on the project's webpage ( https://semtactic.jezik.hr/ ). the questions that need to be answered at this stage of planning are: 1. how should reflexive verbs, i.e., verbs with the reflexive marker se, be treated? should they be considered as separate lemmas, sublemmas of transitive or (rarely) intransitive verbs, or as one of the senses of their non-reflexive counterparts? 2. what syntactic label and semantic role should be assigned to a predicative noun in light verb constructions (lvcs)? 3. should verbal idioms be included, and, if so, at which level of a description? in this paper, we present the treatment of reflexive verbs, light verb constructions, and verbal idioms in croatian general language online dictionaries (hrvatski jezični @xmath0: https://hjp.znanje.hr/ ; the online version of hrvatski školski @xmath1: https://rjecnik.hr/ ; hrvatski mrežni @xmath2: https://rjecnik.hr/mreznik/ ) and online valency lexicons (crovallex: ## reflexive verbs there are many classifications of reflexive verbs made both for the croatian language and crosslinguistically. as for croatian, at one end are 1. inherently reflexive verbs or reflexiva tantum, which cannot appear without the reflexive marker se (e.g., smijati se 'laugh', natjecati se 'compete'), and at the other end there are 2. "proper" (or true) reflexive verbs, which are basically transitive verbs whose object can be replaced by the reflexive pronoun sebe 'oneself' or its shorter variant se (e.g., češljati se(be) 'comb oneself'). 1 there is a third distinct group: 3. reciprocal reflexive verbs (e.g., ljubiti se 'kiss each other'). we could add a fourth group -4. derived reflexives -a group that is between inherently reflexive verbs and "proper" reflexive verbs. they have transitive and intransitive counterparts, but the reflexive marker se cannot be replaced by the pronoun sebe (igrati 'play (tran.)' -igrati se 'play (refl.)'. 1 there are many discussions regarding the status of se in croatian. some authors consider it a pronoun @xcite , others view it as a particle @xcite , while some argue that it is a particle with reflexiva tantum and derived reflexive verbs, and a pronoun with "proper" reflexive verbs (silić and since there are many yet unaligned approaches, we investigated the treatment of these four groups of verbs in the resources mentioned in the introduction. @xcite and hrvatski školski rječnik (šr) @xcite list inherently reflexive verbs as separate lemmas (e.g., čuditi se 'wonder'). "proper" or syntactically reflexive verbs are also listed with the reflexive marker, but it is placed in parentheses (e.g., kupati (se) 'bathe (oneself)'). if the meaning of a transitive verb and its reflexive variant which belongs to "proper" reflexive verbs is the same with a different object reference, the reflexive marker se in parentheses is written next to the headword. for example, kupati (se) is the main lemma which means 'to wash somebody in the bathtub or container full of water'. if there is another meaning of the reflexive variant, it is written as an additional sense and the reflexive verb is repeated as a sublemma without parentheses: kupati se 'be in water or swim'. if the meanings of transitive and reflexive verbs are not similar, the reflexive variant is listed only as one of the senses of the transitive verb. for example, in both mrežnik and šr the verb češljati (se) 'comb (refl.)' is recorded only as one sense of the lemma češljati 'comb', and in this case, se is placed in parentheses. the derived reflexive verb buditi se 'wake up' is treated parallel to the "proper" reflexive verb kupati se 'bathe': the reflexive marker se is placed in parentheses next to the main lemma and is also listed as a separate sublemma under one of the main verb's senses. reciprocal reflexive verbs, which are not reflexiva tantum, are treated as a sense of a transitive verb. for example, dogovarati se 'arrange things together' is a sense of the lemma dogovarati 'arrange, fix'. hrvatski jezični portal (hjp), like all other croatian dictionaries, treats inherently reflexive verbs as separate lemmas. however, the treatment of other groups is highly inconsistent. for example, the verbs kupati 'bathe' and kupati se 'bathe oneself' are listed as two separate headwords. in contrast, the verb češljati se 'comb oneself' is treated as a sublemma of the main lemma češljati 'comb' and is recorded as the fourth sense of the @xcite . in a recent work, belaj (2024) distinguishes between single-participant and multiparticipant middle verbs, i.e., reciprocal middle verbs. in both cases, belaj (2004, 98) considers se as an integral part of the verb, and consequently a particle. we believe that se diachronically originates from the pronoun sebe, but, synchronically, it is a particle. ## light verb constructions dealing with light verb constructions is significantly more complex from syntactic, semantic, and technical perspectives. in certain constructions, it can be challenging to distinguish between a semantically full (main) verb and a semantically bleached verb. 2 consequently, determining whether np functions as an object or as part of the predicate can be difficult. there is also the question of semantic roles assignment, whether the verb assigns the role itself, the predicative noun, or both (see @xcite @xcite . since a light verb and a predicative noun form a single unit, it needs to be decided how to show it in the database. in order to find the best solution for the database, we consulted other resources that included descriptions of lvcs. in the czech vallex, a light verb determines a syntactic structure, i.e., valency frames, which are identical to those of their full verb counterparts. however, a predicative noun 2 some authors consider light verbs semantically empty, insignificant, or vague (e.g., @xcite @xcite , while others argue that they affect a sentenceʼs meaning since both verb and noun choices are constrained @xcite . we agree with the later perspective; therefore, we provide sense definitions even for semantically bleached verbs. in e-glava (birtić, brač, and runjaić, 2017), only psych-verbs are available; therefore, it does not currently contain lvcs. regarding general language online dictionaries, lvcs are listed as a separate sense of the verbs only in @xcite . this sense includes a generic definition: 'verb appears as a light verb with nouns and can often be replaced by a full verb related to the corresponding noun', along with examples from corpora. the example of the description of the verb napraviti 'make, do' from mrežnik is given in ( 9 ). ( 9 ) napraviti se kao nepunoznačni glagol pojavljuje uz imenice i najčešće se može zamijeniti punoznačnim glagolom izrazno povezanim s odgovarajućom imenicom. 'to make as a light verb appears with nouns and can most often be replaced with a full verb that is connected to the corresponding noun.' napraviti analizu do/make analysis.acc.sg 'make an analysis' napraviti analizu znači analizirati što, pomno što proučiti. 'do/make (conduct) an analysis means to analyze something, to investigate something thoroughly.' -također sam navela da prije izrade zakona treba napraviti detaljnu analizu i procjenu učinaka propisa. 'i also stated that before drafting a law, a detailed analysis and assessment of the regulation's effects should be conducted.' however, this is not systematically processed (see, e.g., donijeti 'bring'). in verbion, the light verb is categorized as a distinct sense, based on conclusions that light verbs have semantic content beyond a mere functional role (e.g., @xcite @xcite . it is paired with a predicative noun that gives it full meaning. 4 verbs with a general meaning or highly schematic verbs, such as the verb vršiti 'do, conduct', are described with a generic definition "light verb that with a deverbal noun means to perform an activity" ( 12 ). the light verb is annotated with lv to differentiate it from semantically full verbs, which are marked with v. the question is whether a predicative noun bears a semantic role. one possible answer is that direct object nps in lvcs do not bear a semantic role since the light verb is incapable of assigning one. however, due to the argument transfer, the direct object nps transfer their argument structure to the argument structure of the light verb, resulting in the semantic role of the theme being assigned to the object in the genitive case @xcite ; ex: inženjeri su vršili ispitivanja podm orja syn: np lv np np morp h: nom acc gen semr: agent 0 them e fe: agent lu: analizu; čišćenje; dostavu, … proceedings of clib 2024 @xcite ). another answer could be that due to the argument sharing, both the light verb and the noun assign semantic roles (e.g., @xcite @xcite . at the moment, we have decided to label the semantic role of a predicative noun with 0. this choice also prompts the question of whether the np in the genitive case functions as a noun complement or a verb complement (10). in this case, we treat it as a verb complement as when the lvc is substituted with the full verb testirati 'test', the np in the genitive case is in the object positions in the accusative case (11). if a light verb accompanied by different nouns has a different sense, each sense will be recorded (e.g., donijeti velike brige 'bring big @xmath3; @xmath4, to worry'; donijeti zaradu 'bring a profit' -'doprinijeti čemu, biti koristan, često u materijalnom @xmath5, to be useful, often in a material sense'). ## verbal idioms in the general language dictionaries we analyzed, verbal idioms are a separate category within a lexicographic entry. in mrežnik, an explanation of the verbal idiom and an example from the corpora are provided (12). in vallex, idioms are also recorded as one of the verb's senses, but with a detailed analysis of the idiom's components (similar to the semanticsyntactic characterization of other valency frames). for example, the ninth sense of the verb házet impf , hodit pf 'throw' includes a description of the idiom hoditi se do gala (lit. throw (one)self in / at a @xmath6. the variable elements of the idiom are described as other valency elements by virtue of semantic roles (act, pat), the case form expressed by a number and label indicating obligatoriness. the idiom's fixed element is invariably defined with an abbreviation dphr (dependent phraseme), complement (testiranje 'testing') due to the case assignment to podmorje 'seabed'. 6 special attention to idioms is given in the polish walenty (see @xcite . ## conclusion investigating the processing of vmwes in croatian general language dictionaries and valency lexicons has highlighted the complexities of their recognition, classification, and description. the inconsistency in their treatment underscores the need for a more harmonized approach to the documentation and analysis of vmwes. as showed in section 2, the treatment of reflexive verbs in croatian general language dictionaries is not unified either within a single dictionary or across dictionaries. the czech vallex offers a compelling solution by treating all reflexive verbs as separate lemmas since they are distinct lexemes. by introducing different labels, we differentiate between reflexiva tantum (refl tantum), derived reflexive verbs (refl derived), and reciprocal reflexive verbs (refl recipr). currently, we lack resources for advanced classification and for the introduction of syntactic operations as in vallex, but this is planned for the future. light verb constructions present their own set of challenges, particularly in terms of, firstly, criteria for their recognition (which is not the topic of this paper), and for their semantic and syntactic representation. to distinguish between a semantically full verb and a light verb, we introduced the label v for a semantically full verb and lv for a light verb. by listing the most frequent lexemes in the position of a predicative noun and linking it to a full verb entry, we aim to improve the lexicon's usefulness. verbal idioms are included as a separate section, each accompanied by an explanation, a translation into english, an example from the corpus, and a syntactic and semantic description of its participants. other linguistic resources and the processing of vmews in croatian can benefit from a verb lexicon that contains clearly marked and described reflexive verbs, light verb constructions, and, to some extent, verbal idioms. of the european union or the european commission. neither the european union nor the european commission can be held responsible for them.