Structural Regularities vs. Definition Patterns

Abstract

Abstract In a paper dealing with the computational analysis of dictionaries, Boguraev ("Building a Lexicon: The Contribution of Computers", in International Journal of Lexicography, 4:3, Autumn 1991) claims that exploiting definition patterns in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (PROCTER, 1978) to identify verbs participating in the causative/inchoative alternation misses a number of verb candidates. His contention is that this linguistic property of verbs is reflected in the structure of dictionary definitions and not in the language of definitions. However, the algorithm he suggests for extracting causative/inchoative verbs from LDOCE on the basis of purely structural regularities is not sufficiently selective insofar as it also identifies verbs which participate in other types of transitivity alternations, such as, for instance, the reciprocal alternation.