Parts of Speech

In language technologies, imprecise definitions lead to poor intercoder reliability, which leads to poor training, etc.

• In language technologies, imprecise definitions lead to poor intercoder reliability, which leads to poor training, etc.

A traditional theory of parts of speech

• Verbs denote actions
• Nouns denote entities
• Adjectives denote states
• Adverbs denote manner
• Prepositions denote location
• Determiners specify

Counter-examples

• The same concept can function in several parts of speech.
• Pinker, page 98
• Her interest in fungi (noun)
• Fungi are starting to interest her more and more. (verb)
• She seems interested in fungi. (adjective)
• Interestingly, the fungi grew an inch in an hour. (adverb)

The distributional theory of parts of speech

• “A part of speech, then, is not a kind of meaning; it is a kind of token that obeys certain formal rules, like a chess piece or a poker chip.”
• Pinker, page 98
• Testable and falsifiable
• Assumes discrete categories

The distributional theory of parts of speech

• Distribution
• The contexts where the word can appear
• Morphology
• Prefixes, suffixes, and other changes to the structure of the word.

Identifying parts of speech by their Morphology

• Morphology: The form of words
• Affixes: Prefixes, suffixes, infixes
• Stem changes: swim/swam

Morphological properties of English nouns

• Count nouns
• Cup/cups
• Book/books
• Mass nouns
• Attention/?attentions
• Sand/?sands
• Water/?waters
• Coffee/?coffees

Morphological Properties of English adjectives

• Monosyllabic (one syllable) adjectives
• Tall/taller/tallest
• Fast/faster/fastest
• Multi-syllabic adjectives
• Intelligent/more intelligent/most intelligent
• Except for adjectives that have non-gradable meanings:
• Alphabetical, unique, pregnant