Project description
A grammar of collocations
The language of native speakers is highly idiosyncratic. Especially collocations (natural word pairings such as ‘make a decision’ or ‘strong tea’) dominate our speech. In lexicology, collocations are typically seen as prefabricated units that must be memorised by language learners. Yet small-scale studies have shown that their being prefabricated does not mean that their construction is ad hoc. The ERC-funded MaPPLexiC project employs deep neural models for collocation recognition and classification as cognitive models, analysing their internal patterns to uncover a ‘grammar of collocations’. With a multilingual scope spanning Germanic, Romance, Finno-Ugric and Slavic languages, MaPPLexiC seeks to identify both universal and language-specific rules. Its findings will advance linguistic theory, enhance learning and translation tools, and help support under-resourced languages.
Objective
MaPPLexiC aims to fill the gap in modern language theories concerning the interpretation and description of one type of idiosyncratic word constructions that stands out in terms of its frequency of use and as a measure of language proficiency, namely lexical collocations, and refute the wide-spread assumption that their production is ad hoc and therefore cannot be described in systematic terms. Inspired by the dramatic advances in Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) MaPPLexiC considers a lexical collocation identification and classification DNN as a cognitive model, whose internal neuron activation vectors during the assessment of the collocation status of a given word combination can be translated into interpretable semantic, contextual, and socio-cultural features of the collocation elements and generalized into “collocation production principles” that dictate which features lexical items must possess to form a lexical collocation. In other words, what MaPPLexiC targets is a lexical collocation grammar. For this purpose, the Project will adapt and advance state-of-the-art techniques for the derivation of interpretable features from DNN’s activation vectors of individual lexical collocation samples and neural clustering techniques that will facilitate the generalization of the obtained “profiles” for the individual samples to more generic collocation production principles. Considering that collocation construction differs from language to language, the Project has a strong multilingual orientation. The investigation will be carried out on pairs of Germanic (English, German), Romance (French, Spanish), Finno-Ugric (Finnish, Hungarian), and Slavic (Czech, Russian) languages. The collocation profiles of translation-equivalent collocation samples and the language-specific collocation production principles will be contrasted with the goal to develop cross-language collocation production transfer techniques, which will highly benefit collocationally under-resourced languages.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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08002 Barcelona
Spain
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