The middle construction and some machine translation issues
Macarena Palma Gutiérrez · Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series 4, Current issues in linguistic theory · 2024
Abstract This paper aims at exploring the colloconstructional analysis of multiword units (MWU) in machine translation regarding the middle construction in terms of compositional cospecification ( Yoshimura, 1998 ; Yoshimura & Taylor, 2004 ). For that purpose, I examine the Adverb + Verb collocation focusing on the predicates cut and drive , collocated with quality-oriented adjuncts ( Heyvaert, 2003 ) and incorporating Inanimate Subject entities (Patients, Enablers and Instruments). The number of instances examined is 500+. The data analysed reveals that apart from the generalised Qt-Qc pattern in shift of semantic importance, other patterns (namely, Qc-Qc ) can be found by virtue of the prototype effects of the construction (cf. Taylor, 1995 ), thus, providing a potential source of disambiguation in the computational treatment of MWU in machine translation.