Semantic features (SEM_FEATS)

The tagsets used to fill the SEM_FEATS field, described in the CoNLL-C field reference. Sourced from the project’s wiki.

OntoClass

The ontological class for nouns and verbs. We use the Topics of Open Multilingual Wordnet — also known as lexicographer files in Princeton WordNet. Not used for adjectives and adverbs, since no such hierarchy exists for those classes.

POS Topic Abbr. Definition
noun Tops top unique beginner for nouns
noun act act nouns denoting acts or actions
noun animal anm nouns denoting animals or animal parts
noun artifact art nouns denoting man-made objects
noun attribute att nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
noun body bod nouns denoting human body parts
noun cognition cog nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
noun communication com nouns denoting communicative processes and contents, including languages and computation
noun event evt nouns denoting natural events
noun feeling flg nouns denoting feelings and emotions
noun food fod nouns denoting foods and drinks
noun group grp nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
noun location loc nouns denoting spatial position
noun motive mtv nouns denoting goals
noun object obj nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
noun person per nouns denoting people
noun phenomenon phn nouns denoting natural phenomena
noun plant pln nouns denoting plants or plant parts
noun possession pos nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
noun process prc nouns denoting natural processes
noun quantity qnt nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
noun relation rln nouns denoting relations between people, things, or ideas
noun shape shp nouns denoting two- and three-dimensional shapes
noun state stt nouns denoting stable states of affairs
noun substance sub nouns denoting substances
noun time tim nouns denoting time and temporal relations
adj all all all adjective clusters
adj pert prt relational adjectives (pertainyms)
adj ppl ppl participial adjectives
verb body bod verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
verb change chn verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
verb cognition cog verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting
verb communication com verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
verb competition cmp verbs of fighting, athletic activities
verb consumption con verbs of eating and drinking
verb contact cnt verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
verb creation crt verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing
verb emotion emo verbs of feeling
verb motion mot verbs of walking, flying, swimming
verb perception pcp verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
verb possession pos verbs of buying, selling, owning
verb social soc verbs of political and social activities and events
verb stative stv verbs of being, having, spatial relations
verb weather wet verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Aktionsart

The aktionsart of verbs, using the UniMorph label scheme, distinguishing between traits and classes.

Traits:

Trait Label Definition
Atelic ATEL The event has no terminal point/culmination.
Durative DUR The event can extend over a time span.
Dynamic DYN The event is dynamic (i.e. it is not a static situation).
Punctual PCT The event does not extend over a time span, has no duration.
Telic TEL The event has a terminal point/culmination.

Classes (and their corresponding trait combinations):

Class Label Traits
Accomplishment ACCMP DYN, TEL, DUR
Achievement ACH DYN, TEL, PCT
Activity ACTY DYN, ATEL, DUR
Semelfactive SEMEL DYN, ATEL, PCT
Stative STAT ATEL, DUR

An element can be constrained to a single class, but in some cases it’s useful to specify just a trait, so as to include every class that shares it.

Adjectives and adverbs

There’s no single agreed-upon semantic classification for Italian adjectives and adverbs yet. For now:

  • Adjectives use Dixon’s (2004) semantic classes:

    Class Examples
    dimension grande ‘big’, piccolo ‘small’, lungo ‘long’, alto ‘tall’, corto ‘short’
    age nuovo ‘new’, vecchio ‘old’, giovane ‘young’
    value buono ‘good’, atroce ‘atrocious’, perfetto ‘perfect’, necessario ‘necessary’, strano ‘strange’
    colour rosso ‘red’, giallo ‘yellow’, blu ‘blue’
    physical_property duro ‘hard’, pesante ‘heavy’, umido ‘wet’, forte ‘strong’, pulito ‘clean’
    human_propensity geloso ‘jealous’, intelligente ‘intelligent’, felice ‘happy’, orgoglioso ‘proud’, ansioso ‘anxious’
    speed veloce ‘fast’, lento ‘slow’
    difficulty difficile ‘difficult, hard’, facile ‘easy’
    similarity simile ‘similar’, diverso ‘different’
    qualification vero ‘true’, comune ‘common’, corretto ‘correct’, normale ‘normal’, ragionevole ‘sensible’, appropriato ‘appropriate’
    quantification alcuni ‘some’, tutto/tutti ‘all’, poco/pochi ‘few’
    position vicino ‘near’, distante ‘distant’
    cardinal_number primo ‘first’, ultimo ‘last’
  • Adverbs use a semantic classification adapted from the Adjective-Adverb Interfaces in Romance project (which doesn’t itself include Italian data):

    Class Definition
    manner Adverbs that characterize a manner-property of an element
    quantity Quantify on a scale or a semantic characteristic, or the degree of a semantic property expressed by the segment they modify
    time Adverbs expressing temporal circumstances
    location Adverbs expressing a local circumstance of the event expressed
    discourse Adverbs expressing metalinguistic, pragmatic and/or discursive extra-propositional characterizations or speaker attitudes
    specification Focus adverbs expressing a semantic specification of the segment they modify; their syntactic scope is mostly a noun or any verbless syntagm

    Both classifications for adjectives and adverbs are still under discussion; other options considered for adjectives include ItalWordNet’s adjective roots and the PAROLE-SIMPLE-CLIPS ontology.


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