MWEs in Treebanks: From Survey to Guidelines
Résumé
By means of an online survey, we have investigated ways in which various types of multiword expressions are annotated in existing
treebanks. The results indicate that there is considerable variation in treatments across treebanks and thereby also, to some extent,
across languages and across theoretical frameworks. The comparison is focused on the annotation of light verb constructions and verbal
idioms. The survey shows that the light verb constructions either get special annotations as such, or are treated as ordinary verbs, while
VP idioms are handled through different strategies. Based on insights from our investigation, we propose some general guidelines for
annotating multiword expressions in treebanks. The recommendations address the following application-based needs: distinguishing
MWEs from similar but compositional constructions; searching distinct types of MWEs in treebanks; awareness of literal and nonliteral
meanings; and normalization of the MWE representation. The cross-lingually and cross-theoretically focused survey is intended as an
aid to accessing treebanks and an aid for further work in treebank annotation.