A word describing an action or state or attitude. Examples of each of these would be "ate" in "Jane ate the pizza", "is" in "Jane is happy", and "believed" in "Jane believed Paul at the pizza".

    Verbs are one of the major sources of inflection in English, with most verbs having five distinct forms (like "eat" with "eat"/"eats"/"eating"/"ate"/"eaten". The verb "be" is the most irregular, with forms "be", "am", "is", "are", "being", "was", "were", "been", plus some archaic forms, like "art" as in "thou art".

    Verb is often abbreviated to V.

    V is a lexical grammatical category.

verb complement

    The structure which follows the verb or verb group in a sentence.

    ExampleType of complement

    Jane laughed.empty

    Jane ate the pizza.NP

    Jane believed Paul ate the pizza.S

    Jane wanted to eat the pizza.to+VP

    Jane gave Paul the pizza.NP+NP

    Jane was happy to eat the pizza.ADJP

    See also verb phrase.

verb group

    This term is used for a sequence of words headed by a verb together with auxiliaries, and possibly adverbs and the negativeparticle "not".

    For example, in "Jane may not have eaten all the pizza", the verb group is "may not have eaten".

verb phrase

    Verb Phrase is a phrasal grammatical category. Verb phrase is usually abbreviated to VP. A verb phrasenormally consists of a verb or verb group and a complement, together possibly with adverbial modifiers and PP modifiers. The simplest complements are noun phrases, but sentential complements and similar structures are also possible.

    The logical form of a verb phrase is a lambda-expression. For example, the logical form of "likes pizza" would be something like λ(X, likes1(st1, X, pizza1)), where st1 is the var feature variable for the state of liking (pizza), and likes1 and pizza1 are the semantic interpretations of the verb "likes" and the noun "pizza", respectively.

    See also predicate.

VFORM

    A feature of verbs that signifies what form of the verb is present - particularly useful with verbs are irregular in some of their forms, or where a particular form of the verb is required by a particular syntactic rule (for example, modal auxiliaries force the infinitive form of the verb - VFORM inf).

    VFORMExampleComment

    basebreak, be, set, decidebase form

    presbreak, breaks, am, is, are,

    set, sets, decide, decidessimple present tense

    pastbroke, was, were, set, decidedsimple past tense

    fin- finite = tensed = pres or past

    ingbreaking, being, setting, decidingpresent participle

    pastprtbroken, been, set, decidedpast participle

    inf- used for infinitive forms with to

victim

    = object.

Viterbi algorithm

    The Viterbi algorithm is an algorithm applicable in a range of situations that allows a space that apparently has an exponential number of points in it to be searched in polynomial time.

    The Viterbi algorithm was not actually described in detail in COMP9414, but was referred to in the section on statistical NLP in connection with a method for finding the most likely sequence of tags for a sequence of words. Reference: Allen p. 201 ff., especially from p. 202.

VP

    symbol used in grammar rules for a verb phrase.

W

wh-question

    A WH-question sentence is one that expresses a question whose answer is not merely yes or no, as opposed to a Y/N-question, a command, or a statement. See also Y/N-question, imperative, indicative, subjunctive, and mood.

word

    Words are units of language. They are built of morphemes and are used to build phrases (which are in turn used to build sentences.

        See also lexeme

        See also terminal symbol 

word-sense

    One of several possible meanings for a word, particularly one of several with the same part of speech. For example, dog as a noun has at least the following senses: canine animal, a type of fastening, a low person, a constellation - the dog barked, dog the hatches, You filthy dog! Canis major is also called the great dog.

word-sense ambiguity

    A kind of ambiguity where what is in doubt is what sense of a word is intended. One classic example is in the sentence "John shot some bucks". Here there are (at least) two readings - one corresponding to interpreting "bucks" as meaning male deer, and "shot" meaning to kill, wound or damage with a projectile weapon (gun or arrow), and the other corresponding to interpreting "shot" as meaning "waste", and "bucks" as meaning dollars. Other readings (such as damaging some dollars) are possible but semantically implausible. Notice that all readings mentioned have the same syntactic structure, as in each case, "shot" is a verb and "bucks" is a noun.

    See also structural ambiguity and referential ambiguity.

X

Y

y/n question

    A Y/N-question sentence is one that expresses a question whose answer is either yes or no, as opposed to a WH-question, a command, or a statement. See also WH-question, imperative, indicative, subjunctive, and mood.

Z

zeugma

    Not a part of COMP9414 Artificial Intelligence, but it allows us to avoid having an empty list of Z-concepts in the NLP Dictionary. :-)

    A zeugma is a syllepsis in which the single word fails to give meaning to one of its pair. She greeted him with arms and expectations wide.

    One of a couple of dozen little-used terms for figures of speech.

elsewhere [,elsweə]   ad.在别处；向别处   (初中英语单词)

sentence [´sentəns]   n.判决 vt.宣判；处刑   (初中英语单词)

contrast [´kɔntrɑ:st]   n.对比 v.使对比(照)   (初中英语单词)

distinction [di´stiŋkʃən]   n.差别；特征；卓越   (初中英语单词)

driven [´driv(ə)n]   drive 的过去分词   (初中英语单词)

constant [´kɔnstənt]   a.坚定的；坚贞的   (初中英语单词)

function [´fʌŋkʃən]   n.机能；职责 vi.活动   (初中英语单词)

suitable [´su:təbəl, ´sju:-]   a.合适的，适当的   (初中英语单词)

phrase [freiz]   n.短语；词组；措词   (初中英语单词)

speaker [´spi:kə]   n.演讲人；代言人   (初中英语单词)

connection [kə´nekʃən]   n.联系；关系；联运   (初中英语单词)

conditional [kən´diʃənəl]   a.附条件的   (初中英语单词)

generation [,dʒenə´reiʃən]   n.发生；世代；同龄人   (初中英语单词)

system [´sistəm]   n.系统，体系，制度   (初中英语单词)

assert [ə´sə:t]   vt.认定；维护；坚持   (初中英语单词)

distinct [di´stiŋkt]   a.清楚的；独特的   (初中英语单词)

grammatical [grə´mætikəl]   a.语法上的   (初中英语单词)

structure [´strʌktʃə]   n.结构，构造；组织   (初中英语单词)

actually [´æktʃuəli]   ad.事实上；实际上   (初中英语单词)

reference [´refərəns]   n.参考；参照；出处   (初中英语单词)

fastening [´fɑ:səniŋ]   n.(门等)扣绊，拴扣物   (初中英语单词)

weapon [´wepən]   n.武器；斗争手段   (初中英语单词)

artificial [,ɑ:ti´fiʃəl]   a.人工的；模拟的   (初中英语单词)

intelligence [in´telidʒəns]   n.智力；消息   (初中英语单词)

symbol [´simbəl]   n.符号；象征   (高中英语单词)

characteristic [,kæriktə´ristik]   a.特有的 n.特性   (高中英语单词)

concerned [kən´sə:nd]   a.有关的；担心的   (高中英语单词)

probability [,prɔbə´biliti]   n.或有；可能性   (高中英语单词)

incorporate [in´kɔ:pəreit]   v.结合 a.合并的   (高中英语单词)

irregular [i´regjulə]   a.不规则的；不正当的   (高中英语单词)

negative [´negətiv]   a.否定的 n.否定词   (高中英语单词)

particle [´pɑ:tikl]   n.微粒；极小量   (高中英语单词)

decided [di´saidid]   a.明显的；决定的   (高中英语单词)

apparently [ə´pærəntli]   ad.显然，表面上地   (高中英语单词)

finding [´faindiŋ]   n.发现物；判断；结果   (高中英语单词)

classic [´klæsik]   a.第一流的 n.杰作   (高中英语单词)

logical [´lɔdʒikəl]   a.逻辑(上)的   (英语四级单词)

terminal [´tə:minəl]   n.终点(站) a.末端的   (英语四级单词)

refine [ri´fain]   v.精炼；提纯；改进   (英语四级单词)

preceding [pri(:)´si:diŋ]   a.在先的；前面的   (英语四级单词)

constituent [kən´stitʃuənt]   n.成分；要素；选民   (英语四级单词)

sequence [´si:kwəns]   n.继续；顺序；程序   (英语四级单词)

setting [´setiŋ]   n.安装；排字；布景   (英语四级单词)

imperative [im´perətiv]   a.紧急的 n.命令式   (英语四级单词)

constellation [,kɔnstə´leiʃən]   n.星座；灿烂的一群   (英语四级单词)

filthy [´filθi]   a.污秽的，肮脏的   (英语四级单词)

corresponding [,kɔri´spɔndiŋ]   a.符合的；相当的   (英语四级单词)

habitual [hə´bitʃuəl]   a.习惯的，通常的   (英语六级单词)

variable [´veəriəbəl]   a.易变的 n.可变量   (英语六级单词)

applied [ə´plaid]   a.实用的，应用的   (英语六级单词)

indicative [in´dikətiv]   a.指示的；陈述的   (英语六级单词)

triple [´tripəl]   a.三倍的v.增加到三倍   (英语六级单词)

category [´kætigəri]   n.种类；部属；范畴   (英语六级单词)

normally [´nɔ:məli]   ad.正常情况下；通常   (英语六级单词)

liking [´laikiŋ]   n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢   (英语六级单词)

applicable [´æplikəbəl]   a.合适的；适用的   (英语六级单词)