Mischievous Nominal Constructions in Universal Dependencies

TL;DR

This paper examines problematic nominal constructions in Universal Dependencies, highlighting inconsistencies across corpora and proposing solutions mainly for English, which could inform approaches for other languages.

Contribution

It identifies and categorizes mischievous nominal phenomena in UD corpora and suggests potential solutions, addressing a gap in standard treatment of these phenomena.

Findings

Survey of mischievous nominal expressions in English UD corpora

Identification of inconsistencies within and across UD corpora

Proposed solutions for handling problematic nominal phenomena

Abstract

While the highly multilingual Universal Dependencies (UD) project provides extensive guidelines for clausal structure as well as structure within canonical nominal phrases, a standard treatment is lacking for many "mischievous" nominal phenomena that break the mold. As a result, numerous inconsistencies within and across corpora can be found, even in languages with extensive UD treebanking work, such as English. This paper surveys the kinds of mischievous nominal expressions attested in English UD corpora and proposes solutions primarily with English in mind, but which may offer paths to solutions for a variety of UD languages.