A cross-lingual comparison of complex verbs in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian

• Main Author: Ow, Li Xuan Viola
• Other Authors: Francis Bond
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69663
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

While much research has already been done on complex verbs for individual languages, and some research has been done on comparison of complex verbs across two languages, little research has been done on comparison of serial verbs across multiple languages on parallel corpora. This project aims to provide a broad comparison of complex verbs across English, Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian to aid future research on machine translation and automated language tutors. Complex verbs across the four languages were semi-automatically extracted, tagged, and classified. The classification and comparison of complex verbs are based on function, syntax and semantics of constituent V/V1s and P/V2s. The paper found that if classes of complex verbs across the four languages share similar characteristics, complex verb-complex verb translations are possible, with the exception of idiomatic types. In contrast, complex verb-complex verb translations are usually not possible for classes of complex verb that do not share similar characteristics. They are translated into phrasal verbs instead.