Abstract verbs

Abstract

Existing generation systems use verbs almost exclusively to describe actions/events or to ascribe properties. In doing so, they achieve a direct concrete style of the kind often recommended in style manuals. However in many genres, including academic writing, it is common to find verbs expressing abstract relationships, with events etc. pushed down into nominalisations. This paper illustrates two important classes of abstract verb, one expressing discourse relations, the other expressing participant roles, and discusses some theoretical and practical reasons for studying such verbs and including them in generation systems.