On the computational representation of constructions: The place of locative constructions in a knowledge base

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to further explore the formal representation of meaning as regards Level 1 (L1) or non-kernel constructions in the computational environment of the multipurpose lexico-conceptual knowledge base FunGramKB (Periñán-Pascual & Arcas-Túnez, 2010, 2014) with special reference to L1-locative constructions in English. FunGramKB uses the parsing prototype ARTEMIS in order to automatically transduce fragments of natural language and generate their corresponding semantic representation under the format of a conceptual logical structure (CLS). Firstly, we aim to revise the criteria used in order to determine what factors can modify the argumental structure of kernel constructions (Fumero & Díaz, 2017). Any deviation from the kernel construct attributed to a verbal predicate, whose grammatical and semantic information is stored in the Lexicon module of the knowledge base, will result in a particular type of L1-construction that has to be stored in the Grammaticon module, and that will have a direct impact on the formal representation of L1-constructions in ARTEMIS. Thus, the first part of the paper addresses the notion of construction in FunGramKB and revises the catalogue of L1-constructions proposed by Fumero and Díaz (2017). The second part focuses on the computational representation of the family of L1-locative constructions in English and shows how their idiosyncrasies should be formalized in the CLS so that they can be satisfactorily implemented in FunGramKB.