PARSEME Shared Task 1.3 - Annotation guidelines

Annotation guidelines
corpora annotated for multiword expressions

Welcome to the official annotation guidelines of the PARSEME corpora version 1.3.

For previous versions, you can check the index of versions. See also what is new in the guidelines version 1.3 as compared to version 1.2.

Here, you'll find detailed definitons, examples and linguistic tests to guide your decision as to whether a given combination in your language is a verbal multiword expression. Use the table of contents on the left to navigate between sections and the header buttons to show/hide examples.

In addition to these general guidelines, language teams may also provide extra documentation, like lists of borderline cases and decisions taken concerning them. They should all be compatible with these general guidelines.

If you spot errors or if something remains unclear after reading the guidelines, please contact us and we'll do our best to correct the problems.

Authors and contributors (alphabetical order)

Chérifa Ben Khelil, Archna Bhatia, Claire Bonial, Marie Candito, Fabienne Cap, Silvio Cordeiro, Vassiliki Foufi, Polona Gantar, Voula Giouli, Najet Hadj Mohamed, Carlos Herrero, Uxoa Iñurrieta, Mihaela Ionescu, Iskandar Keskes, Alfredo Maldonado, Verginica Mititelu, Johanna Monti, Joakim Nivre, Mihaela Onofrei, Viola Ow, Carla Parra Escartín, Manfred Sailer, Carlos Ramisch, Renata Ramisch, Monica-Mihaela Rizea, Agata Savary, Nathan Schneider, Ivelina Stonayova, Sara Stymne, Ashwini Vaidya, Veronika Vincze, Abigail Walsh, Hongzhi Xu.

Developers (alphabetical order)

Quentin Barrouyer, Carlos Ramisch, Baptiste Souche

1 Definitions and scope
2 Textual annotation scope
3 Categories of VMWEs
4 Annotation process - decision tree
5 Cross-lingual tests
6 Language-specific tests
7 Annotation management
8 Glossary
9 Contact

Section 1

Definitions and scope

In this shared task, we aim at identifying verbal Multiword Expressions (VMWEs) in running texts in about 20 languages from several language families. VMWEs are of particular interest to the PARSEME COST action since they frequently introduce discontinuity and long-distance dependency issues, which are central to deep parsing and to other Natural Language Processing tasks.

This document defines the annotation scope and puts forward a classification of VMWEs together with linguistic tests for their identification and categorization.

Section 1.1

Notation

The notational convention used throughout the document is the following:

Italic is used to display example sentences and expressions.
Bold is used to highlight the lexicalized components of a candidate VMWE inside an example (positive or negative).
Underline is used to focus the reader's attention on the important part of an example
An asterisk (*) precedes ungrammatical examples.
A hash (#) precedes examples where a standard modification yields unexpected meaning shifts with respect to the original expression.
Different colors are used to display examples:
- Red is used for counter-examples, that is, expressions which look like VMWEs but are not one, whatever the language.
- According to the language, different colors are used for other examples, that is, positive examples of the phenomenon being discussed:
Examples are preceded by the 2-letter language code in parentheses
Examples can be shown and hidden using the toggle buttons in the header.

Section 1.2

Words and tokens

While the definition of an MWE inherently relies on the notion of a word, manual annotation and automatic identification of VMWEs in our task is performed on texts which are automatically tokenized. It is therefore important to understand the distinction between words and tokens in the context of VMWEs.

A word is a linguistically (notably semantically) motivated unit. The detection of words is, thus, language-dependent and annotation experts should have a clear idea of how to define it for their own language (even if this definition proves hard in general).

A token is a technical and pragmatic notion, defined according to more or less linguistically motivated clues and depending on the particular tokenization tool at hand. Note that the notion of a token is ambiguous in NLP. It can also mean an individual occurrence of a certain linguistic unit, as opposed to a type, i.e. the set of all surface realisations of a unit. In these guidelines, we refrain from using this second sense.

Tokens should ideally be as close as possible to words. However, in practice - due to the hardness of the (automatic) tokenization task - the relation between tokens and words is not always 1-to-1. The following cases occur:

A token coincides with a word:

مدهشة surprising, نزهة walk, ب with, قام to do

вземам, решение, наяве, бял, на, се, д-р

mít, hlad, se, úžas

einen, Spaziergang, machen, Überraschung

κάνωkano make
παίρνωperno take
έναςenas a
απόφασηapofasi decision

take, a, walk, astonishment

dar, un, paseo, sorpresa, maldecir, bienvivir

ibilaldi, bat, egin, ezuste

faire, une, promenade, étonnement

tóg, siúl, ionadh

δίδωμιdidо̄mi give give
καλός kalos beautiful beautiful
περί peri about about

napraviti, jedan, šetnja, začuđenost

tesz, egy, séta, meglepetés

mengambil, sebuah, berjalan, heran

fare, una, passeggiata, sorpresa

取る, その, 歩く, 驚き

წერსcers writes
ხატავსxatavs draws
ჩვენčʻven we
გულიguli heart

iet, māja, tālāk, un

ferħ, libes, sabiħ

een, wandeling, maken, verrassing

robić to do, na on, dokładność precision

comer eat, uma a, guarda-chuva umbrella, antessala anteroom

face, o, plimbare

iti, na, en, sprehod, začudenost

bëj, një, shëtitje, papritur

седети sedeti to seat, скрштених skrštenih crossed, руку ruku hands

gå, på, promenad, förvåning

采取, 一个, 步行, 惊愕

Several tokens build up one word, like in abbreviations, possessive markers, words with "accidental" separators, inflected or derived forms of foreign names, etc. In this case we speak of a multitoken word (MTW): The pipe symbol '|' indicates token separation in these examples

قرار|ها| decision-her her decision

т|.|н|. etc.
год|. year

z|.|B|. for instance
Wie geht|'|s How goes it How are you

κ. κύριος Mister
υπΔρ υποψήφιος διδάκτορας PhD candidate

M|. Mister
pp|. pages
Pandora|'|s

A|/|A|. a la atención de for the attention of
a|/|f|. a favor in favor
Rte|. remitente sender

etab|. eta abar and so on

می|-|روم، آیت|-|الله، کتاب|-|ها

aujourd|'|hui today

οἷον τ'εἰμίhoion t'eimi of.what.sort and be.1SG I am able to

danas today

időjárás|-|jelentés weather forecast

vice|-|presidente vice-president

ე.ი.e|.i|. ესე იგი, i.e.
გაეროgaero United Nations Organization, UN
ბ-ნიb|-ni ბატონი, Mister

libs|et she wore

a|.|u|.|b|.| please
Pandora|'|s Pandora's

Chomsky|'|ego of Chomsky
SMS|-|ować to write an SMS

vice|-|presidente vice-president

prim|-|ministru prime minister
d|-|voastră polite "you"

g|. Mister
str|. pages
le|-|to

s'kadoesn't have not has doesn't have

FIFA|-|у FIFA|-|u FIFA.ACC
tweet|-|овање tweet|-|ovanje to write tweets

EU|:|s EU's

One token can contain several words, like in contractions and compounds. In this case we speak of a multiword token (MWT). Identifying MWTs is important because they can be potential candidates for VMWEs. However, defining what is a word and a MWT is a hard and language-specific question and language-specific MWT tests are being designed to this end. Examples of MWTs include: See also the representation of MWTs in Universal Dependencies The precise word forms cannot always be straightforwardly deduced from the MWT containing them and vice versa, as in don't, della, du, etc.

وسيكتبوناها =و + س + يكتبون + هاand they are going to write it they are going to write it

вагон-ресторант train carriage+restaurant train buffet

Schulaufgabe = Schule+Aufgabe school+exercisehomework
Apfelbaum = Apfel+Baum apple treeapple tree

στον = σε+τονston = se+ton

don't = do+not

del = de+el of the from/of the
al = a+el to+the to the
compárese = compare+se compare SE_PARTICLE be it compared
suicidarse = suicididar+se suicide SELF to commit suicide

sudurluze = sudur+luze nose+long long-nosed
jarleku = jar(ri)+leku sit+place seat

کتابش=کتاب+ش

du = de+le from the

sa = i+an in the
b'fhearr = ba+fhearr be.COND better prefer

καίτοι = καί + τοιkaitoi = kai + toi and indeed and indeed

uzbrdo = uz+brdo uphill

della = di+la of the

სახლშია = სახლ+ში+აsaxlšia = saxl+ši+a house+in+is, is in the house
მაგიდაზე = მაგიდა+ზეmagidaze = magida+ze table+on, on the table

huiswerk = huis+werk home+workhomework
appelboom = appel+boom apple treeapple tree
pannenkoek = pan + koek pancake

Białymstoku=Białym+stoku white+slope Białystok.INST (a city name)
robiłem=robił+em do.3.SG.PRES+be.1.SG.PAST.AGLI did
żeśmy = że+śmy that+be.1.PL.AGL that-we

neles = em+eles on them

într-o = într-+o in a

nanj = na+njega on him

ma = më + eto me + it to me + it to me + it

напоље = на + поље napolje = na + polje outside
новосадски = ново + садски novosadski = novo + sadski Novi Sad (an adjective from a city name)

arvsmassa = arv+massa genetic stock

While a VMWE always contains at least two words, the relation between VMWEs and tokens can be twofold:

A VMWE contains several tokens, whether each of them coincides with a word or not:

نزهة ب قام make with walk make a walk (2 words , 2 tokens)

вземам решение make a decision (2 words, 2 tokens)
прочитам от корица до корица to read from cover to cover (5 words, 5 tokens)

eine Rede halten (2 words, 2 tokens) a speech hold to give a speech
wie geht's (2 words, 4 tokens) how goes it how are you

παίρνω μία απόφασηperno mia apofasi take a decision to decide (2 words, 2 tokens)
παίζω στα δάχτυλαpezo sta dachtyla play in-the fingers to know very well (3 words, 4 tokens)

to take a walk (2 words, 2 tokens)
to open Pandora's box (3 words, possibly 5 tokens)

dar un paseo 2 words, 2 tokens to give a walk to take a walk
dar por sentado 3 words, 3 tokens to give for seated to take for granted
irse de rositas 3 words, 4 tokens to go_self of little_roses to get off scot free

ibilaldia egin (2 words, 2 tokens)

دستور داد (2 words, 2 tokens)

b'fhearr liom (2 words, 4 tokens) I would prefer

τοὺς λόγους ποιέομαιtous logous poieomai the word do.1SG to speak

dignuti ruke to raise hands to give up (2 words, 2 tokens), otvoriti Pandorinu kutiju open Pandora's box to face with problems (3 words, 3 tokens)

sétát tesz to take a walk (2 words, 2 tokens)

tenere un discorso (2 words, 2 tokens) hold a speech to give a speech
cavalcare l'onda (3 words, 4 tokens) ride the wave ride the wave

რა თავში იხლისra tʻavši ixlis what head+in heat 'What good will it do them' (3 words, 4 tokens)
ფარდას ჩამოაფარებსpʻardas čʻamoapʻarebs Will cover it with a curtain 'Will make it invisible to others' (2 words, 2 tokens)

kien idur fuq il-fatt turns on the fact

een wandeling maken (2 words, 2 tokens) a walk make to take a walk

robi z igły widły make.3.SG a pitchfork out of a needle he makes a mountain out of a molehill (4 words, 4 tokens)
robił|em z igły widły made.3.SG.M1+be.1.SG.AGL a pitchfork out of a needle I made a mountain out of a molehill (4 words, 5 tokens)

dar uma caminhada to give a walk (2 words, 2 tokens)
cair de pára-quedas to fall with parachute to arrive unprepared in the middle of a situation (3 words, possibly 5 tokens) According to new orthography rules, this word would be written 'paraquedas'. Old spelling may still be found in annotated texts, though.
queixar-se-ia complain-self-would would complain (2 words, possibly 5 tokens)

a da ortul popii to die (3 words, 3 tokens)

klicati jelene to call cerfs to vomit (2 words, 2 tokens)
vreči puško v koruzo throw a rifle in the corn to give up (4 words, 4 tokens)

marr vendim (2 words, 2 tokens)take decision take decision make a decision
hedh një sy (3 words, 3 tokens) throw an eye take a look

данути душом danuti dušom to breathe soul to feel relieved (2 words, 2 tokens)
причати на|памет pričati na|pamet to talk by heart to talk not relying on facts (3 words, 2 tokens)

hålla ett tal (2 words, 2 tokens) hold a speech to give a speech

做一个决定 (2 words, 2 tokens) do one CL decision to make a decision

A VMWE contains one (multiword) token:

no example found for Arabic

no example found for Bulgarian

vorbereiten to pre-arrange to prepare
anfangen at-catch to begin

έδωσα-πήρα gave-1SG took-1SG I tried hard

to pretty-print

suicidarse suicide_self to commit suicide

n.a.

court-circuiter to short circuit

προσ-άγωpros-agо̄ towards lead.1SG to lead towards

pripremiti to pre-arrange to prepare

kinyír out.cut to kill

corto-circuitare to short circuit suicidarsi suicide_self to commit suicide

წასვლა-წამოსვლაcasvla-camosvla going away - coming back to visit someone and return

voorbereiden to pre-arrange to prepare
aanvangen at-catch to begin

no example found for Polish

queixar-se-ia compain-SELF-would would complain

a se-ndura RCLI.ACC-have.the.heart to have the heart

pripraviti to pre-arrange to prepare

keqkuptoj bad_understand misunderstand

видео-линкvideo-link

klargöra clear-make clarify påpeka on-point point out

Note finally that multitoken words are not considered verbal MWEs since they contain one (multitoken) word only:

no example found for Bulgarian

αερολογώaerologo air+talk to talk aimlessly

n.a.

odolustu blood+empty to bleed

λογοποιέομαι logopoieomai word-do to speak

SMS-ati to write an SMS

anteporre to put + in front of

სისხლისღვრაsisxlisġvra blood+spill, 'bleeding'

SMS-ować to write an SMS

pós-datar to post-date

a binedispunewell-disposeto cheer up

SMS-jati to write an SMS

no example found for Albanian

SMS-овати SMS-ovati to write an SMS

Whenever the distinction between a word and a token is judged by a particular language team as hard to tackle, a possible option is to consider these two notions equivalent for the needs of this shared task.

Section 1.3

Verbal Multiword expressions

Multiword expressions (MWEs) are (continuous or discontinuous) sequences of words with the following compulsory properties:

They show some degree of orthographic, morphological, syntactic or semantic idiosyncrasy with respect to what is considered general grammar rules of a language. Collocations, i.e. word co-occurrences whose idiosyncrasy is of statistical nature only (e.g. the graphic shows, drastically drop) are not annotated.
Their component words include a head word and at least one other syntactically related word. Most often the relation they maintain is a syntactic (direct or indirect) dependence but it can also be e.g. a coordination. Depending on the category of the head word, the whole MWE can be nominal, adjectival, prepositional, verbal, sentential, etc.
At least two components of such a word sequence have to be lexicalized. In this task we only annotate the lexicalized components and ignore open slots.

Probably the most salient property of MWEs is semantic non-compositionality. In other words, it is often impossible to deduce the meaning of the whole unit from the meanings of its parts and from its syntactic structure. For instance, while it is easy to interpret phrases like to kick the ball or to spill some water from the words that compose them, it is almost impossible to guess, without knowing it beforehand, that to kick the bucket means 'to die' and to spill the beans actually means 'to reveal a secret'.

However, as non-compositionality is a subjective notion, we use inflexibility as a proxy in the tests. Our underlying hypothesis is that (verbal) MWEs have some degree of semantic non-compositionality that implies limited flexibility.

Verbal MWEs (VMWEs) are simply multiword expressions whose syntactic head in the prototypical form is a verb.

Section 1.4

Syntactic variants of VMWEs

VMWEs occurring in a corpus can have various syntactic structures. Since the linguistic tests are structure-driven (cf. e.g. structural tests), there is a necessity to neutralize variation before the tests are applied. In this section we introduce definitions answering these needs.

Prototypical forms

A (candidate) VMWE in its prototypical form (if it exists) is a verbal phrase in active voice whose head verb is in a finite form and whose other lexicalized components depend either on the verb or on another lexicalized component. The VMWE can also contain coordinated verbs. These phrases can be:

Partly saturated, where only some of their arguments are lexicalized:

قرارا أخذ he made a decision make a decision
أنظار الخطف he kidnapped the sight to grab attention
كلمة ألقى he threw a word make a speech

пиля нечии нерви scrape someone's nerves to annoy someone
вземам трудно решение make a difficult decision to make a difficult decision

traf eine Entscheidung made a decision
nahm sich das zu Herzen took this to heart

παίρνω μία απόφασηperno mia apofasi take-1SG a-FE.SG.AC difficult-FE.SG.AC decision-FE.SG.AC to make a difficult decision
παίρνω τα μέτρα μου perno ta metra mou take-1.SG the-NE.PL.AC measures-NE.PL.AC my-1.SG.GE.POSS to take precautions
γράφω στα παλιά μου τα παπούτσια κάποιονgrafo sta palia mu ta paputsia kapion him-MA.SG.AC write-1.SG to-the-NE.PL.AC old-NE.PL.AC my-1.SG.GE.POSS shoes-NE.PL.AC I ignore someone
θα μπορούσα να έχω πάρει μία άλλη απόφασηθa borusa na echo pari mia ali apofasi could-1SG to have-1SG take-INF one.SG.ACC other.SG.ACC decision I could have made another decision

made a decision
break her heart
took this to heart
could take this to heart
would have been making a decision
could have made a different decision

tomó una decisión took.he/she a decision he/she made a decision
le hubiera roto el corazón him/her would_have broken.he/she the heart he/she would have broken his/her heart
se lo tomaría muy a pecho him/her it would_take very to breast he/she would to it deeply to heart

erabakia hartu decision take make the decision
erabaki bat hartu decision one take make a decision
erabaki garrantzitsuak hartzen ari ziren decision importants taking they-were they were making important decisions

a eu du courage has had some courage had courage

déan comhairle make direction make a decision
déan dearmad ar rud do forgetfulness on something forget something

χάριν αποδίδωμιkharin apodidо̄mi gratitude.ACC give.1SG to show gratitude

podnijeti ostavku to submit resign to resign, uzeti što k srcu to take something to heart to think about something seriously

sétát tesz to take a walk

prendere una decisionemake a decision take a decision
spezzare il cuorebreak the heart break the heart
prendere a cuore take to heart take to heart

nam een beslissing made a decision
nam het ter harte took this to heart

podjął niejedną trudną decyzję took.3.SG not-one hard decision he took several hard decisions

eles deram uma caminhada they gave a walk they took a walk

a trece ceva cu vederea to pass sth with sight.the.ACC to overlook
a trece ceva sub tăcere to keep something under silence.ACC to keep quiet about something

zlomiti komu srce to break someone's heart to hurt someone's feelings bad
vzeti si k srcu take something to heart to think about something seriously
bi si lahko to vzel k srcu could take this to heart could think about this seriously
bo v pomoč will be in help will be helpful

vë në dukje put in appearance point out
ka në dorë have in hand have control over
i bie shkurt hit it short cut to the chase
mbaj mend hold mind remember
thyej zemrën e dikujt break the heart of someone break someone's heart
hap zemrën open heart open up, confide

донети одлуку doneti odluku to bring a decision to make a decision (to decide)

fattade ett belsut made a decision

做一个决定 (2 words, 2 tokens) do one CL decision to make a decision

Partly saturated, where the lexicalized arguments include the subject:

لسانه فلانٌ ابتلع someone swallowed his tongue hold one's tongue

излиза ми име appears for-me.DAT name a name sticks for/to me
чашата на търпението ми прелива glass.DET of patience my.POS overflows my patience runs out

ein Vöglein hat mir gezwitschert a little bird has to me twittered a little bird told me

μου έφυγε ο τάκος me.GEN left the chosk I was very tired

a little bird told someone, the problem lies in something

me lo ha dicho un pajarito to_me it has said a little_bird a little bird has told me

txoritxo batek kontatu dit little-bird one told me a little bird told me

περί πολλοῦ ποιέομαιperi pollou poieomai above much.GEN do.1SG to hold in high esteem

problem leži u čemu the problem lies in something

me lo ha detto un uccellino to me it told a little bird a little bird told me

blaffende honden bijten niet barking dogs bite not his bark is worse than his bite
geen haar op mijn hoofd die eraan denkt no hair on my head which it of thinks I would not dream of it

mina komuś zrzedła the face someone.DAT thinned one lost one's confidence

a sua hora chegou your time has arrived your time has come

a mustra cugetul (pe cineva) to chide consciousness-the (PE_Acc somebody) the consciousness chides (PE somebody)

srce pade v hlače komu (someone's) heart drops into the pants one is lacking courage to do something , sekira pade v med komu (someone's) hatchet falls in honey one gets lucky

më zien gjaku to me boils the blood my blood boils

потонуле су некоме све лађе potonule su nekome sve lađe all someones ships sank someone is completely ruined
пао некоме мрак на очи pao nekome mrak na oči darkness fell on someones eyes someone lost control over oneself

en liten fågel viskade i mitt öra a little bird whispered in my ear a little bird told me

Partly saturated, where lexicalized head verbs are coordinated:

цъфна и вържа to blossom and give fruit (usually sarcastically) to prosper

leben und leben lassen to live and let live to live and let live

απορώ και εξίσταμαι aporo ke existame wonder1.SG and be-amazed1.SG to wonder

drink and drive

coser y cantar to_sew and to_sing easy as pie, a piece of cake

ikusi eta ikasi see and learn

ἠντεβόλει καὶ ἱκετεύεēntebolei kai iketeue supplicate.3SG and beseech.3SG he begged and beseeched

žariti i paliti to stoke and to burn to be powerful , vedriti i oblačiti to brighten and to cloud to be poweful

vivi e lascia vivere to live and let live to live and let live

leven en laten leven to live and let live to live and let live

pluł i łapał he spit and catched (he) was lazy, (he) did nothing useful

pintar e bordar paint and knit to abuse

a tunat și i-a adunatit.has thundered and CL.ACC-it.has gatheredbirds of a feather flock together
seamănă, dar nu răsaresow.3SG (homonym of resemble), but not sprout.3SGnot to resemble

živi in pusti živeti to live and let live to live and let live

hyj e dal enter and exit come and go

ведрити и облачити vedriti i oblačiti to brighten and (to) cloud to call the shots
мислити и цвеће брати (није исто) misliti i cveće brati (nije isto) to think and (to) pick flowers (is not the same) to think and put into action are different things

det knallar och går it trots and walks it is OK / things are reasonably good

试试看 try look to try and see

Fully saturated:

فأراولدفالجبلتمخضthe mountain gave birth to a mouse It refers to great promises and great labors that produce little result

пиле не може да прехвръкне bird cannot fly in it is very strictly guarded

der frühe Vogel fängt den Wurmthe early bird catches the wormthe early bird catches the worm

το έξυπνο πουλί από τη μύτη πιάνεται the clever bird is-caught-3SG by the nose people who consider themelves clever fail

the early bird catches the worm

los ojos son el reflejo del alma the eyes are the reflection from_the soul the eyes are the window to the soul

aho hertsitik ez da eulirik sartzen mouth shut-from no is fly coming-in a shut mouth catches no flies

à quelque chose malheur est bon for something bad luck is good bad experiences may bring unexpected positive effects

tá dhá thaobh ar an mbád there are two sides on the boat there are two sides to every story

ἐπὶ τὴν ἑστίαν καταφεύγωepi tēn hestian katapheugо̄ I fled to the heart I appealed for amnesty

tko rano rani, dvije sreće grabi who early comes, two lucks grabs the early bird catches the worm

il mattino ha l'oro in boccathe morning has the gold in mouth the early bird catches the worm

hoge bomen vangen veel wind high trees catch a lot of windthe bigger they are, the harder they fall
de kogel is door de kerk the bullet is through the church the die is cast

nie od razu Kraków zbudowano not at once Cracow was built Rome was not built in a day
kości zostały rzuconethe dice have been thrownalea iacta est

quem vê cara não vê coração who sees face doesn't see heart a person can lie/omit his/her feelings

se revarsă zorile Refl.Cl.3sg.Acc. flow_out dawns it is getting morning

kdor prej pride, prej melje who comes first, mills first it's on a first-come, first-serve basis
še pes ima rad pri jedi mir even the dog does not want to be disturbed during its meals do not bother people during their meals

Një lule nuk sjell pranverën One flower doesn't bring spring One swallow doesn't make a summer

нужда закон мења nužda zakon menja necessity changes the law in great need one does whatever is necessary
удри бригу на весеље udri brigu na veselje turn worries to joy do not worry

哑巴吃黄连 dumb-person eat bitter-medicine a dumb person eats bitter medicine, and he cannot speak out the bitterness

Meaning-preserving variants

Meaning-preserving variants of a (candidate) VMWE include notably:

Verbal expressions with analytical tenses and modals:

جيدة قراراتاتخذ وا they made decisions good they made good decisions

щях да съм взел важно решение I would have made a decition

Η Μαρία έχει πάρει την απόφασή τηςi Maria echi pari tin apofasi tis the Maria has-3.PR.SG taken the-FE.SG.AC decision-FE.SG.AC hers-3.SG.GE Maria has made her decision, Maria has decided
Η Μαρία θα πάρει την απόφασή τηςi Maria tha pari tin apofasi tis the Maria wii take the decision hers Maria will decide

they have made a decision
we are making a decision

han tomado una decisión have taken_they a decision they have made a decision

ils ont pris une décision they have made a decision

γνώμην ἔχοιτεgnо̄mēn ekhoite opinion.ACC have.OPT.2PL you (all) may have an opinion
γνώμην ἔσχεgnо̄mēn eskhe opinion.ACC have.AOR.3SG he had an opinion

mi smo donijeli odluku we have made the decision

hanno preso una decisione they have made a decision

zij hebben een beslissing genomen they have made a decision

będzie podejmował niejedną trudną decyzję will take several hard decisions

Estou tomando uma decisão I-am taking a decision I am making a decision
eles haviam tomado uma decisão they had made a decision

noi am luat decizia we have made the decision

je zlomil komu srce has broken someone's heart has hurt bad someone's feelings

Ka dalë nga kontrolli It has gotten out of control It has spiraled out of control

тек што су били донели одлуку tek što su bili doneli odluku they had only brought a decision they had only made a decision

Nominal groups (headed by nominal complements from the prototypical VMWEs) with relative clauses:

جيد اتخذتهالذيقرارالthe decision that i made is good

решението, което взех decision.DET which I.PRODROP made the decision which I made

Entscheidungen die wir trafen decisions which we made
Herzen die wir gebrochen haben hearts which we broke have hearts which we have broken

η απόφαση που πήραμεi apofasi pu pirame the decision we took the decision we made

decisions which we made
heart which we broke

la decisión que tomamos es arriesgada the decision which took_we is bold the decision we made is bold
no te imaginas la ilusión que le hizo not you imagine_you the excitement which to_him/to_her made_it you cannot imagine how excited he/she was by it

hartutako erabakia taken decision the decision (which was) made

les décisions que nous avons prises hier sont bonnes the decisions that we have taken yesterday are good the decisions that we have made yesterday are good

δόξαν ἣν ἔνιοι ἔχουσι περὶ τῆς Νικοφήμου οὐσίαςdoxan hēn enioi ekhousi peri tēs Nikophēmou ousias opinion which some have.3PL about the Nicophemus’ property the opinion which some hold about Nicophemus' property

odluka koju je donio decisions which he took

la decisione che prendemmo the decision which we took the decision which we made
i cuori che abbiamo spezzato the hearts which we have broken hearts which we have broken

de beslissingen die we hebben genomen the decisions which we have made

decyzje, które podjął decisions which he took

a apresentação que Maria fez the presentation that Mary made

decizia pe care am luat-o the decision that we have made

srca, ki jih je zlomil hearts which he has broken (people's) feelings which he hurt bad

loja në të cilën u vura The game in which I was put The way in which I was mocked

одлуке које смо донели odluke koje smo doneli the decisions that we brought the decisions that we made

他所做的决定 he which make DE decision the decision he made

Non-finite verbal clauses (with infinitives, participles, gerunds, regular nominalizations, masdars, etc.)

ضدهمتخذالإجراء والكشف عن ال And disclose the action taken against him
قرارالأخذ ربما تكرهني للمخاطرة و لكن كان علي you may hate me for taking risks but i have to make a decision
خروجا خرج he+exit exit he went out
ه نهضت تحقيق على المجتمع on the society achievement renaissance its The society must achieve its renaissance

взетите вече решения the decisions already made
броящ звезди who counts stars
неразбитите все още от него сърца the hearts not yet broken by him
вземайки това решение (while) making this decision

aus|machen out|make open
eine Entscheidung treffen a decision meet to make a decision
früher getroffene Entscheidungen earlier made decisions

έχω πάρει την απόφασή μου echo pari tin apofasi mu have-1.SG.PR taken the decision me I have made my decision
παίρνοντας αποφάσεις pernontas apofasis taking decisions making decisions
κάνοντας πλάκαkanontas plaka making fun having fun

we want to make a decision
to break one's heart is easy
we avoid making decisions
heart breakingthe act of breaking hearts
decisions previously made
all hearts broken by him
breaking her heart
they passed a piece of watered-down legislation

tomar una decisión será difícil to_take a decision will be hard it will be hard to_make a decision
solo te tiene que hacer ilusión only to_you has that to_make excitement you only need to be excited about it
las decisiones tomadas ayer son decisivas the decisions taken yesterday are decisive the decisions made yesterday are final
el trato hecho previamente será respetado the agreement made previously will_be observed the previously made agreement will be observed

erabakia hartu decision take decide, make a decision
erabaki asko hartu decision many take make many decisions
emandako pausoak given steps the steps (which were) taken
pauso-ematea step-give the step taking, the action of taking steps

il faut avoir du courage one must to-have some courage to have courage is necessary
les décisions prises hier sont bonnes the decisions taken yesterday are good the decisions that were made yesterday are good
les personnes subissant plusieurs opérations sont fragiles the people undergoing several surgical operations are fragile

γνώμην ἔχεινgnо̄mēn ekhein opinion.ACC have.INF to have an opinion
γνώμην ἔχονταςgnо̄mēn ekhontas opinion.ACC have.PTC.ACT having an opinion

donijeti odluku to bring a decision to make a decision
unaprijed donesena odluka the decision made in advance

prendere una decisione take a decision to make a decision
decisioni prese precedentemente earlier made decisions
prendendo questa decisione by making this decision

voor|gaan before|go to lead (in prayer)
een beslissing nemen to make a decision
eerder genomen beslissingen earlier made decisions

podjąć niejedną trudną decyzję to make several hard decisions
podejmowanie decyzji the making of a decisiondecision making
podejmujący trudne decyzje making hard decisions

tomar essa decisão será difícil to-make this decision will-be difficult to make this decision will be difficult
eu evito tomar decisões precipitadas I avoid to-take decisions precipitated I avoid taking precipitated decisions
a decisão tomada ontem the decision made yesterday
a mulher tomando um banho the woman taking a shower

lua o decizie to make a decision
decizia recent luată the decision recently made
luând decizia making the decision

treba ji je bilo zlomiti srce it was necessary to broke her heart her feelings had to be hurt bad
lomljenje src breaking (people's) hearts hurting (people's) feelings
nedavno zlomljeno srce recently broken heart

për të thyer zemrën e dikujt for to break the heart of someone to break someone's heart
duke e marrë nëpër këmbë dikë while taking someone through feet to mistreat someone

донета одлука doneta odluka a brought decision a decision made (by sb.)
доношење одлука donošenje odluka decision bringing decision making

Diathesis alternation (passive, impersonal, middle, etc.) Some VMWEs (especially LVCs) do allow diathesis alternation.:

خاطئ متخذ ال قرار ال the decision wich is made is wrong (passive alternation)

беше взето важно решение (passive alternation) a decision has been made

ελήφθησαν σημαντικές αποφάσεις (passive alternation) were-taken important decisions important decisions were made
έγιναν σημαντικές αλλαγές (middle alternation) were-made important changes important changes were made

important decisions were made (passive alternation)

decisiones importantes fueron tomadas durante la reunión (passive alternation) decisions important were taken during the meeting important decisions were made during the meeting
las decisiones importantes se toman con calma (middle alternation) the decisions important SE_PARTICLE take with calm important decisions are made quietly

erabaki garrantzitsuak hartu ziren decision importants taken were important decisions were made →middle, impersonal use

les décisions importantes se prennent en groupe the decisions important SELF take in group important decisions are made collectively (middle alternation)

ὁ νόμος ἐτέθηho nomos etethē the law was put.AOR.PAS.3SG the law was established (passive alternation)
νόμον ἔθηκεnomon ethēke law put.AOR.ACT.3SG he established a law / legislated

odluka je donesena the decision was taken (passive alternation)

le decisioni importanti sono state prese the decisions important are been taken important decisions are made (passive alternation)
le decisioni importanti si prendono con calma (middle alternation) the decisions important SE_PARTICLE take with calm important decisions are made quietly

belangrijke beslissingen worden gezamenlijk genomen important decisions are made collectively (passive alternation)

decyzja została podjęta the decision was taken (passive alternation)
decyzje nie podejmują się same decisions do not take SELF alone decisions are not taken on their own (middle alternation)

decisões importantes foram tomadas ontem (passive alternation) decisions important were taken yesterday important decisions were made yesterday
tomam-se decisões importantes aqui (middle alternation) take-SELF decisions important here important decisions are made here

deciziile au fost luate de consiliu decisions-the have been taken by council the decisions have been taken by the council (passive alternation)

njegov piskrček je bil pristavljen k nečemu his little pot was added to someting to join something in order to profit from it (passive alternation)

vendime të rëndësishme janë marrë (passive alternation) decisions important have been taken Important decisions have been made
vendimet e rëndësishme merren me qetësi (middle alternation) the decisions important take-themselves with calmness important decisions are made calmly

важне одлуке су донете važne odluke su donete important decisions were brought important decisions were made

冠军被他拿了 (passive alternation) championship BEI he take LE the championship was won by him

Expressions with interposed modifiers (e.g. complex determiners and quantifiers, such as half a dozen, an impressive number of, …):

نصائحه مجموعة من الأعطاhe gave him a number of advices → apply tests to أعطى نصيحة give advice

те нанесоха многобройни щети → apply tests to те нанесоха щети

η Μαρία πήρε μερικές πολύ σημαντικές αποφάσεις i Maria pire merikes poly simantikes apofasisthe Maria took some very important decisions Maria made some very important decisions → apply tests to η Μαρία πήρε αποφάσεις i Maria pire apofasisthe Maria took decisionsMaria made decisions

they had taken a significant number of steps → apply tests to they take steps

habían tomado un gran número de decisiones had_they taken a great number of decisions they had made a vast number of decisions → apply tests to habían tomado decisiones

n.a.

ποτέρῳ νῦν χρήσονται τῶν λόγων;poterо̄ nun khrēsontai tо̄n logо̄n? which now use.FUT.3PL the.GEN words.GEN how will they say it now?

donijeli su mnoštvo odluka they have made a lot of decisions

hanno preso un significativo numero di provvedimenti → apply tests to preso provvedimenti

zij namen een aantal belangrijke beslissingen → apply tests to zij nemen beslissingen

dostać połowę spadku to receive half of the heritage → apply tests to dostać spadek receive heritage
nie mieć cienia wątpliwości not to have a shadow of a doubt to have no doubt → apply tests to mieć wątpliwość have a doubt

ele fez o restante do trabalho to make the remainder of the work → apply tests to ele fez o trabalho he did the work

ei au luat o serie de importante decizii they have taken a series of important decisions they have made a series of important decisions

донели су низ одлука doneli su niz odluka they brought a series of decisions they made a series of decisions

他做了很多错误的决定 he make LE many wrong DE decision he has made many wrong decisions

Canonical form

For a given (candidate) VMWE occurrence, if its prototypical forms exist and keep the same meaning, these forms are called canonical.

a canonical form for متخذ ال قرار ال the decision madethe decison which is made is قرار يتخذ take a decision

a canonical form for решението, което взеха is взема решение
a canonical form for нанасяйки тежки щети is нанасям щети

a canonical form for das Herz welches er bricht the heart which he breaks is er bricht ihr das Herz he breaks her heart
a canonical form for Wortbruch word-break a promise which has not been hold is Wort brechen to break the word not to hold a promise

. a canonical form for η απόφαση που πήρε ο Γιάννης is ο Γιάννης πήρε μια απόφαση
a canonical form for making an impression on him is she makes an impression on him

a canonical form for the heart which he broke is he broke her heart
a canonical form for making an impression on him is she makes an impression on him

a canonical form for una decisión nunca antes tomada a decision never before taken a decision never made before is ellos tomaron una decisión they took a decision they made a decision

a canonical form for une décision toujours prise a decision always taken is prend une décisionmakes a decision

δόξαν ἣν ἔνιοι ἔχουσιdoxan hēn enioi ekhousi opinion which some have.3PL opinion which some hold
δόξαν ἔχουσιdoxan ekhousi opinion.ACC have.3PL they hold an opinion (canonical form)

a canonical form for odluka koju je donio the decision which he made is donijeti odluku to make a decision

a canonical form for una decisione sempre presa a decision always taken is prende una decisionemakes a decision

a canonical form for het hart dat hij brak the heart he broke is hij brak haar hart makes a decision

a canonical form for decyzje, które podjął decisions which he made is podjął decyzjęhe made a decision

a canonical form for decisão nunca antes tomada decision never before takendecision never made before is eu tomei uma decisãoI made a decision

a canonical form for decizia pe care el a luat-o is el aluat decizia

a canonical form for srca, ki ji je zlomil hearts which he has broken (people's) feelings which he hurt bad is zlomiti komu srce to break someone's heart to hurt someone's feelings bad
a canonical form for njegov piskrček je bil pristavljen k nečemu his little pot was added to someting to join something in order to profit from it is pristaviti svoj piskrček k nečemu to add (one's) pot (to something) to join something in order to profit from it

a canonical form for одлука коју је донела the decision which she made is донела је одлуку donela je odluku she made a decision

a canonical form for 冠军被他拿了 championship BEI he take LE the championship was won by him is 他拿了冠军 he take LE championship he won the championship

For some VMWEs, the only possible forms are not prototypical. For instance, some VMWEs appear in passive voice but never in active voice. If no prototypical form exists or does not preserve the meaning, the given occurrence is considered canonical itself.

броят ми се ребратаbe counted my ribsto be very skinny but not #броя си ребрата I can count my ribs

τα παιδιά της κρέμονται από τη φούστα της ta pedia tis kremonte apo ti fusta tis the children hers hang.PASS from the skirt hers her children depend on her but not#κρεμάνε τα παιδιά της από τη φούστα τηςkremane ta pedia tis apo ti fusta tis hung.3SG the choldren hers from the skirt hers
κρέμομαι από μία κλωστήkremome apo mia klosti hung.1SG.PASS from a thread but not #με κρεμάνε από μία κλωστήme kremane apo mia klosti me.1SG.ACC hung.3PL from a thread

está todo el pescado vendido is_it all the fish sold it's all over bar the shouting but not #he vendido todo el pescado have_I sold all the fish I have sold all the fish

les carrotes sont cuites the carrots are cooked it's too late but not #j'ai cuit les carrotes I have cooked the carrots

kocka je bačena the dice have been thrown alea iacta est

il dado è tratto the dice has been cast the dice is cast

de teerling is geworpen the die has been thrown the die is cast

kości zostały rzuconethe dice have been thrownalea iacta est

vivendo e aprendendo living and learning live and learn but not #vivi e aprendi I-lived and I-learned I lived and I learned

zarurile au fost aruncate dice-the have been cast the die is cast but not cineva a aruncat zarurile someone has cast the dice someone has cast the die

броје ми се ребра broje mi se rebra my ribs are counting I'm thin as a rail but not #бројим си ребра brojim si rebra I'm counting my ribs

The linguistic tests for identification and categorization of VMWEs are always to be applied to a canonical form of the candidate VMWE. Note that, for brevity, many of the VMWE examples in these guidelines are given in their infinitive variants. Still, it is most often a canonical form that is implicitly meant.

Non-verbal variants (not annotated)

Expressions of the syntactic categories mentioned above are considered VMWEs only if they function as verb phrases (in prototypical forms) or nominal phrases (under meaning-preserving variants). Other kinds of variants are not considered VMWEs. This concerns nominalizations morphologically derived from verbs and describing a process, result, state, agent, etc.

вземане на решение making a decision
удар в гърба a stab in the back
високо вдигната летва highly raised bar high bar
играч на карти card player

Wortbruch word-break a promise which has not been hold

η λήψη αποφάσεων the-FE.SG.NOM taking-FE.SG.NOM decisions-GE.PL.GEN deciding

a take-off

toma de decisiones taking of decisions decision making
puesta a punto setting to point set-up

kontu-hartzea issue taking control (n)

la prise en compte the fact of taking into account'
une mise à disposition the fact of making available

τῇ προσέξει τοῦ νοῦth prosexei tou nou the.DAT application.DAT the.GEN attention they paying-attention

donošenje odluke the making of decision

la messa a disposizionethe made to availability the fact of making available

wolkbreuk cloud-break downpour

zabawa czyimś kosztem a play at someone else's expenses derived from bawić się czyimś kosztem to enjoy oneself at someone else's expenses

a tomada de decisão the making of decisions
o tomador de decisão the decision-maker

luarea unei decizii take-noun.suffix a-genit decisionmaking a decision

zlomljeno srce broken heart

забава на туђ рачун zabava na tuđ račun a play at someone else's expenses derived from забавити се на туђ рачун zabaviti se na tuđ račun to enjoy oneself at someone else's expenses

We also do not annotate MWEs containing verbs but functioning as adverbials, adjectives or nominals that are not meaning-preserving variants:

може би (it) may be maybe
разбира се (it) is understood of course

Vergiss-mein-nichtforget-me-notforget-me-not

τα πάρε-δώσε the.NE.PL.ACC give-2SG.IMP take-2SG.IMP relationship of some type

forget-me-not
a run-down apartment

n.a.

izen-ematea name giving registration

peut-être may-be maybe
porte-feuille carry-sheets wallet
couru d'avance run in advance forgone conclusion

ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖνhо̄s epos eipein as word say.INF so to speak

Bog daj God give hello, hi

non-ti-scordar-di-menot you forget-me-forget-me-not

vergeet-mij-niet forget-me-notforget-me-not

zrobić coś za Bóg-zapłać do something for a God-pay to do something for free

um saca-rolhas a pull-corks a corkscrew
um faz-de-conta a make-as-story a make-believe

treacă-meargă pass-golet it be

иди ми - дођи ми idi mi - dođi mi go to me - come to me pell-mell
кафа за понети kafa za poneti coffee to take takeaway coffee

Particular language teams may decide to extend the annotation scope to these variants. It is recommended in this case to introduce a new category for them (e.g. NVPC: nominal verb-particle constructions) so as to keep the (quasi-)universal categories intact.

Section 1.5

Lexicalized components and open slots

Just like a regular verb, the head verb of a VMWE may have a varying number of compulsory arguments, that is, arguments that must be present in each occurrence of this VMWE. For instance, the direct object and the prepositional complement are compulsory in the VMWE to take someone by surprise.

Some components of such compulsory arguments may be lexicalized, that is, always realized by the same lexemes. Here, by surprise is lexicalized while someone is not.This definition of a lexicalized component naturally extends to any syntactic type of MWE. Namely, the head of a (nominal, adjectival, prepositional etc.) MWE is lexicalized (always realized by the same lexeme) together with at least one component of at least one of its modifiers. The head verb of a VMWE is always considered lexicalized. When it can be replaced by another verb, like in to make/take a decision, we consider that these are two different VMWEs, although possibly synonymous.

Conversely, a component of a compulsory argument which can be realized by a free lexeme taken from a relatively large semantic class is called an open slot. In the following VMWE examples (cited after Gross 1994), all having the same syntactic structure NP V NP Prep NP, the lexicalized arguments are highlighted in bold:

Max took the bull by the horns.
The news took John by surprise.
Bob took part in the inquiry
Money burns a hole in Bob’s pocket.

Note on terminology: our definition of lexicalization applies to the component words of a VMWE, and not to the whole VMWE. This might be counter-intuitive, given the traditional definition of lexicalization as a diachronic process by which a lexeme (word or phrase) acquires the status of an autonomous lexical unit, that is, "a form which it could not have if it had arisen by the application of productive rules" (Bauer 1983, p. 50, apud Lipka et al. 2004, p. 6). In other words, traditionally linguistic studies would use the term "lexicalized" to refer to the whole VMWE, as it has idiosyncratic behavior and thus must be listed in the language's lexicon. Our definition, however, stems from computational linguistics and in particular from the parsing literature, in which lexicalized rules refer to rules containing terminal lexemes attached to non-terminal symbols, and a lexicalized grammar is a grammar in which the rules are lexicalized (Manning and Schütze 1999, p. 417; Jurafsky and Martin 2009, p. 507). In this sense, we regard VMWEs as syntactic subtrees in which some of the nodes are annotated with the corresponding terminal symbols that are always realized by the same lexeme (i.e. the lexicalized components) and others are non-terminal nodes that can be realized by any lexeme taken from a larger class (i.e. the open slots).

Special cases

Prepositions have a special status with respect to the notion of lexicalization. In the first, second and fourth example above, the prepositions by and in are lexicalized since they introduce lexicalized complements (the horns, surprise and pocket). However, in the third case the preposition in introduces an open slot whose meaning compositionally combines with the meaning of the VMWE took part. We say in this case that the preposition is selected by the VMWE, i.e. it belongs to the valency properties of the verb. Selected prepositions were discarded in edition 1.0 of the guidelines, and are now re-introduced experimentally and optionally via the inherently adpositional verbs (IAV). If the language team decides to take them into account, they are to be considered in the post-annotation step (step 4), i.e. when all other categories have previously been identified and categorized in the given sentence.

Reflexive clitics in inherently reflexive verbs and possesive pronouns in verbal idioms also have a special lexicalization status (see also the note on more or less frozen determiners). In some languages, the same reflexive clitic or possesive pronoun is used regardless of the person and number, inflecting for case only:

смея се laugh se.REFL to laugh
намирам се find se.REFL to be (somewhere)

-- This category does not apply to Modern Greek

n.a.

–– This category does not apply to Ancient Greek.

smijem se laugh.1.SG self I laugh
smiješ se laugh.2.SG self You laugh
smiju se laugh.3.PL self they laugh

znajduję się find.1.SG.PRES self I find myself
znajdujesz się find.2.SG.PRES self you find yourself
znajdują się find.3.PL.PRES self they find themselves
pójdą na swoje they will go on ones's own they will establish their own household
pójdziemy na swoje we will go on ones's own we will establish our own household

n.a.

smejim se laugh.1.SG self I laugh
smejiš se laugh.2.SG self You laugh
smejijo se laugh.3.PL self they laugh

радујем се radujem se look.1.SG.PRES froward to I look forward to
радујеш се raduješ se look.2.SG.PRES forward to you look forward to
радује се raduje se look.3.SG.PRES forward to She/He looks forward to

In other languages, reflexive clitics and possesive pronouns agree with the subject and the verb:

No examples found for Bulgarian.

sie wundert sich she wonders self.3.SG she wonders
ihr wundert euch you.PL wonder.2.PL self.2.PL you wonder

Ο Γιάννης έκανε την πλάκα του O Yanis ekane tin plaka tu The John made the fun his John had fun
Τα παιδιά έκαναν την πλάκα τους Ta pedia ekanan tin plaka tus The kids made the fun their The kids had fun

I will do my best, They will do their best

yo me quejo I self.1.SG complain I complain
tú te quejas you self.2.SG complain You complain

n.a.

je me trouve I self.1.SG find I find myslef
tu te trouves you self.2.SG find you find yourself
je vide mon sac I empty my bag I express my secret feelings
elle vide son sac she empties her bag she expresses her secret feelings

μου εἰς τὴν γνώμην εἰσῄειmou eis tēn gnо̄mēn eisēei I.GEN into the opinion.ACC come.into.IMPF.3sg it came to my mind

io mi suicido.

zij vergist zich she is mistaken self.3.SG she is mistaken
wij vergissen ons we are mistaken self.2.PL we are mistaken

eu me queixo I self.1.SG complain I complain
tu te queixas you self.2.SG complain You complain

eu mă gândesc I Refl.Cl.1sg.Acc. think I am thinking
tu te gândeștiyou Refl.Cl.2sg.Acc. thinkyou are thinking

It this case, the clitic or the pronoun is realized by different lexemes, depending on the number and gender. Strictly speaking, it is not lexicalized. However, we admit that, regardless of the language, the reflexive clitic and the possesive prounun is a unique lexeme (with lemma się, se, sich, etc. or swój, son, one's) inflecting for person and number. It is thus lexicalized in inherently reflexive verbs and verbal idioms.

Section 1.6

Verbal multiword expressions versus collocations

Collocations are not considered VMWEs in this task and should not be annotated. However, the boundary between both categories is not always easy to define and should be handled with care.

We understand collocations as combinations of words whose idiosyncrasy is purely statistical. In other words, tokens in collocations tend to co-occur with each other more often than expected by chance, but they show no substantial orthographic, morphological, syntactic and (most notably) semantic idiosyncrasy. In this way we oppose MWEs to collocations.

Note that other authors understand collocations slightly differently. E.g. for Sag et al. (2002), collocations are any statistically significant cooccurrences, i.e. they include all forms of MWE. For Baldwin and Kim (2010), collocations form a proper subset of MWEs. According to (Melcuk, 2010), collocations are binary semantically compositional combinations of words subject to lexical selection constraints, i.e. they intersect with what is here understood as MWEs.

Some combinations happen to be very frequent and are perceived as "frozen":

سؤالعلى أجاب answer a question
كتاب إشترى buy a book
وجبة قدمserve a meal

качвам цената raise the price

eine Frage beantworten to answer a question, die Graphik zeigt the grahpic shows, einen Bus nehmen to take a bus

παίρνω το λεωφορείοperno to leoforio take-1SG the bus

drastically drop
the graphic shows
to take a bus

responder a una pregunta to answer a question
el gráfico muestra the graphic shows
coger el autobús to take the bus

interesa agertu interest show to show interest
galdera bati erantzun question one-to answer answer a question
autobusa hartu bus take to take the bus

riješiti dvojbu to solve a dilemma, pripremati jelo to prepare a meal

rispondere a una domanda to answer a question
il grafico mostra the graphic shows
prendere un bus to take a bus

ყავას სვამსqavas svams coffee-SG.DAT drink-3SbjSG

de bus nemen to take the bus

zalać rynek to flood the market to dominate the market

bater um recorde to break a record (bater to beat has a regular sense of to overcome in addition to the litteral sense)
entrar em cartaz enter into poster arrive in theaters (for a movie) (the MWE is em cartaz in poster in theaters, the verb just usually collocates with this MWE)

lua un autobuztake a bus

drastičen upad drastical drop, graf prikazuje graphic shows, vzeti taksi to take a taxi

графикон приказује grafikon prikazuje the graph displays, дијаграм илуструје dijagram ilustruje the diagram illustrates

古人云 the-ancient say the ancient people said
据报道 according-to report according to what is reported

However, applying regular lexical alternations to them does not markedly impact their meaning.

الاستبيانعلىأجابanswer a questionnaire
فطور القدم serve a breakfast
جريدة إشترى buy a newspaper

вдигам цената raise the price, увеличавам цената raise the price, качвам залога raise the bet, качвам температурата raise the temperature

eine Anfrage beantworten to answer a request, das Diagramm zeigt the diagram shows, mit einem Bus fahren to go by bus

παίρνω το πλοίοperno to plio take the ship
παίρνω το τραίνοperno to treno take the train

significantly drop, drastically decrease, the diagram shows, the graphic illustrates, to take a coach

responder a una petición to answer a request
el diagrama muestra the diagram shows
coger el tren to take the train

interesa erakutsi interest show to show interest →'erakutsi' and 'agertu' are synonyms in this context in Basque
zalantza bati erantzun doubt one-to answer answer a doubt
trena hartu train take to take the train

riješiti dilemu to solve a dilemma, pripremati obrok to prepare a meal

rispondere a una richiesta to answer a request
il diagramma mostra the diagram shows

ყავა დალიაqava dalia (He/She) drank coffee.

met de bus gaan to go by bus

zdominować/zarzucić/zapełnić/nasycić rynek to dominate/overwhelm/fill/saturate the market

quebrar/bater/ultrapassar/estabelecer um recorde to break/beat/overcome/establish a record
o recorde foi quebrado the record was broken
entrar/estar/permanecer/ficar/continuar/ter em cartaz enter/be/remain/stay/continue/have in poster

lua o mașină

občuten upad significant drop, drastično zmanjšanje drastical decrease, diagram prikazuje diagram shows, slika prikazuje picture shows

насецкати лук / насецкати першун / исецкати сланину naseckati luk / naseckati peršun / iscekati slaninu to chop onions / to chop parsely / to chop bacon

古人说 the-ancient say the ancient people said 圣者云 the-saint say the saint said 据称 according-to report according to what is reported 有报道 have report there are reports

The difficulty of distinguishing collocations from VMWEs lies in the fact that lexical variability is relevant to some VMWEs:

نصيحةأعطى/أسدى to give / weave an advice , كلمة /خطابألقىthrew a word / speech give a word/speech

нямам пукната пара/пукнат грош to not have a single penny, to be very poor
имам твърда/дебела глава to have a thick head, to be stubborn and not listen to advice

einen Willen/Menschen brechen to break a will/person

παίρνω / λαμβάνω απόφασηperno / lamvano apofasi take / take decision to decide

to come in handy/useful, to stand firm/fast, to break someone's spirit/will, to take the cake/biscuit

dar un paseo/una vuelta give a walk / a turn to go for a walk
darse/tomar una ducha give.self/take a shower take a shower

min eman/egin pain give/do to hurt (somebody)
eskola/klasea eman class give to give a class →'eskola' and 'klasea' are synonyms in Basque

περὶ πολλοῦ / ἐλάττονος ποιέομαιperi pollou / elattonos poieomai above much.GEN / more.GEN / little.GEN do.1SG to hold in high / higher / low esteem

slomiti čiju/čiji volju/duh to break someone's will/spirit

cogliere/prendere di sorpresa, dare/fornire un contributo

გულში ჩავარდნა / ჩაუვარდაgulši čʻavardna / čʻauvarda to fall / fell into the heart. to get suddenly frightened / startled / deeply worried.

zapisać się złotymi literami/zgłoskami to record iteself with golden letters/syllables to be remebered and commemorated for a merit
zamarznąć na kość/lód/sopel to freeze to bone/ice/icicle to freeze strongly

levar em conta/consideração take into account/consideration
chutar o balde/pau da barraca to kick the bucket/the tent's stick to act irresponsibly

lua o decizie/hotărâremake a decision

imeti nekaj na voljo/razpolago to have something available/at disposal, odpreti nekomu pot/vrata to open a way/a door (for someone) to give someone an opportunity to do something

крити нешто као змија ноге/крити нешто као гуја ноге kriti nešto kao zmija noge/kriti nešto kao guja noge to hide (sth.) like a snake hides its legs/to hide (sth.) like a serpent hides its legs to hide something with extreme caution

However, the extent of the vocabulary concerned by this variability is different for collocations and VMWEs. Namely, a head verb in a collocation usually selects a whole semantic class for each of its required arguments. For instance, the verb to take to use a vehicle to travel selects a whole semantic class of means of transport. Similarly, the verb to drop can select a large set of adverbs describing the degree: drastically/significantly/remarkably/slightly/reasonably drop. Conversely, lexical variability in a VMWE is limited to a closed list of lexemes, sometimes only loosely semantically related. For instance, the VMWEs to take a cake/biscuit and to stand firm/fast do not keep their idiomatic readings with semantically close complements: #to take a cookie/wafer, *to stand hard/rigid/solid etc. See also Test VID.2.

Some Light-verb constructions (LVCs) and multiverb constructions (MVCs) belong to the gray zone between MWEs and collocations in the sense that some operator (light) verbs seem to select large classes of nouns, as in to make a speech/declaration/remark/etc. However, some studies (e.g. Bonial 2014) show that there is no such thing as truly productive light verbs (e.g. to give a look vs. to give a stare). Therefore, we do include LVCs and MVCs in our annotation scope.

Section 1.7

Verbal multiword expressions versus metaphor

Another phenomenon closely related to VMWEs is metaphor. According to (Shutova 2010), "a metaphor occurs when one concept is viewed in terms of the properties of the other. In other words it is based on similarity (presence of common characteristics) between two concepts".

Many VMWEs, especially idioms, are based on metaphors. For instance, to take the bull by the horns means to address a problem (the bull) starting with its most challenging aspect (the horns). To set the world on fire is to do something extraordinary and get the admiration (set on fire) of other people (the world), to put all one's eggs in one basket means to rely on one particular course of action (a basket) for success rather than giving oneself several possibilities.

However, verbal metaphors are not always VMWEs. Consider the newspaper title "simple steps to lift your dark cloud of stress", and the extract of a poem by Wordsworth, cited by Shutova: "and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils". The metaphorical expressions to lift dark cloud of stress to relax and my heart ... dances with the daffodils I am happy are not semantically compositional. These expressions, however, were probably constructed for the needs of one article/poem only and are not sufficiently established in the common vocabulary to be considered VMWEs.

The distinction between MWEs and metaphors is a relatively unstudied and open question. There are few precise tests, other than statistical, which would allow human annotators to resolve it reliably. Gross (1982) gives some clues on the reproducibility and predictability of metaphors. It remains to be seen how heavily this problem will impact the annotation of texts selected for our shared task. We suggest that the annotators take notes of such cases and discuss them within their communities, both local and international.

Section 2

Textual annotation scope

In this annotation task, all occurrences of all syntactic types of VMWEs are to be annotated in the text.

We annotate, as integral parts of VMWEs, all lexicalized elements that can form a separate word. For instance, lexicalized particles are annotated but case suffixes are only annotated if the noun they modify is also lexicalized. Thus, in to put something up, the verb and the particle are integral parts of the VMWE (see VPC tests), while in (HU) döntést hoz valamiről decision-ACC bring something-DEL make a decision, only döntést hoz is annotated, even if the delative case suffix is also lexically determined.

Similarly, auxiliairies and modals accompanying the main verb of a VMWE are only annotated if they are themselves lexicalized but not when they simply mark syntactic variants of the VMWE. For instance will is lexicalized, and to be annotated as such, in even a worm will turneven a meek person will resist if pushed too far but not in they will spill the beans.

Both continuous and discontinuous sequences of lexicalized components of VMWEs are annotated.

Reflexive pronouns, particles and prepositions need to be handled with special care, given their particular lexicalization status. Verb+pronoun and verb+particle combinations are annotated essentially if they are inherently reflexive verbs or verb-particle constructions. In this version of the guidelines, verb+preposition combinations like to rely on somebody and to come across something or to put up with somebody are re-introduced optionally and experimentally as via the inherently adpositional verbs (IAVs).

The annotation considers only flat, tokenized sentences whose tokens will be tagged by annotators as part of a VMWE or not. We do not annotate their internal syntactic structure. We do annotate, however, VMWEs embedded in other VMWEs. For instance, the VMWE to let the cat out of the bag contains the embedded VMWE let out and both are to be annotated as different VMWEs. Embeddings are discussed on each category's page, in the "Problematic cases and remarks" sections (e.g. IRVs overlapping with VIDs).

Once identified in a text, VMWEs are also to be assigned to exactly one of the categories described in the following sections. We do not admit assigning two different categories to a single VMWE in order to express hesitation. A comment and a particular value of the annotator's confidence should be used instead.

Section 3

Categories of verbal MWEs

In edition 1.1 of this task we distinguish the following categories of verbal MWEs:

Two universal categories, i. e. valid for all languages participating in the task:

Light verb constructions (LVCs) with two subcategories:
- LVCs in which the verb is semantically totally bleached (LVC.full)
- LVCs in which the verb adds a causative meaning to the noun (LVC.cause)
verbal idioms (VIDs):

Three quasi-universal categories, valid for some language groups or languages but non-existent or very exceptional in others:
- inherently reflexive verbs (IRV):
- verb-particle constructions (VPC) with two subcategories:
  - fully non-compositional VPCs (VPC.full), in which the particle totally changes the meaning of the verb
  - semi non-compositional VPCs (VPC.semi), in which the particle adds a partly predictable but non-spatial meaning to the verb
- multi-verb constructions (MVC):
language-specific categories, defined for a particular language in a separate documentation.

We also introduce an optional experimental category which (if admitted by the given language) is to be considered in the post-annotation step:

inherently adpositional verbs (IAVs)

فيرغبwant to he has a desire to do something

излизам пред някого/нещо come in front of someone/something to surpass, to outdo
излизам със становище come out with a statement

(OEG) 𓂻 𓅓 𓊵𓏏𓊪 (...) ꞽw(.w) m-ḥtp (...) May-he-come-in-peace. He should be welcome. (Kanawati 1981, Abb. 19).

n.a.

to come across
to rely on

confiar en to_trust in to trust in entender de to_understand of to know about

n.a.

caith anuas ar throw down on belittle

–– This category does not apply to Ancient Greek.

suočiti s to face with

confidare su to_trust in to trust in intendersi di to_understand of to know about

behoren tot to belong to

godzić się na każde warunki to agree on any condition
mieć do czynienia z czymś to have to do with sth
odwieść kogoś od czegoś to dissuade someone from doing sth

conta pe count on

dati skozi give through to go through, gre za it goes about it is about

mbështetem në

n.a.

входити доvxodyty do to belong to to be included in or form a component of a group, category, or structure
триматися наtrymatysja na to rely on to have support, foundation, or dependence on something or someone for stability, function, or outcome
полягати вpoljahaty v to consist in the essential nature, purpose, or feature of something is contained in or depends on a particular aspect or element
перейти наperejty na to move to to change from one state, method, place, or system to another
складатися зskladatysja z to consist of to be formed or composed of particular parts, members, or elements

In practice, to identify and categorize verbal MWEs during manual annotation, one must use the rigorous generic decision tree and the structural and category-specific cross-lingual tests provided.

For a summary of changes with respect to edition 1.0 of the guidelines, see the what's new file.

Section 4

Annotation process and decision tree

We propose the following methodology for VMWE annotation:

Step 1 - identify a candidate, that is, a combination of a verb with at least one other word which could form a VMWE. Recall that a candidate can be composed of only one token if it contains several words (cf. the MWT tests). If the candidate has the structure of a meaning-preserving variant, find the corresponding canonical form. The following steps should be applied to this canonical form. This step is largely based on the annotators' linguistic knowledge and intuition after reading this guide.
Step 2 - determine which components of the candidate (or of its canonical form) are lexicalized, that is, if they are omitted, the VMWE does not occur any more. Corpus and web searches may be required to confirm intuitions about acceptable variants.
Step 3 - depending on the syntactic structure of the candidate's canonical form, formally check if it is a VMWE using the generic and category-specific decision trees and tests below. Notice that your intuitions used in Step 1 to identify a given candidate are not sufficient to annotate it: you must confirm them by applying the tests in the guidelines.
Step 4 (experimental and optional) - if your language team chose to experimentally annotate the IAV category follow the dedicated inherently adpositional verb (IAV) tests. These tests should always be applied once the 3 previous steps are complete, i.e. the IAV overlays the universal annotation.

The decision tree below indicates the order in which tests should be applied in step 3. The decision trees are a useful summary to consult during annotation, but contain very short descriptions of the tests. Each test is detailed and explained with examples in the following sections.

Generic decision tree

If you are annotating Italian or Hindi, go to the Italian-specific decision tree or Hindi-specific decision tree. For all other languages follow the tree below.

Apply test S.1 - [1HEAD: Unique verb as functional syntactic head of the whole?]

Apply the VID-specific tests ⇒ VID tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category VID
It is not a VMWE, exit

Apply test S.2 - [1DEP: Verb v has exactly one lexicalized dependent d?]

Apply the VID-specific tests ⇒ VID tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category VID
It is not a VMWE, exit

Apply test S.3 - [LEX-SUBJ: Lexicalized subject?]

Apply the VID-specific tests ⇒ VID tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category VID
It is not a VMWE, exit

Apply test S.4 - [CATEG: What is the morphosyntactic category of d?]

Reflexive clitic ⇒ Apply IRV-specific tests ⇒ IRV tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category IRV
It is not a VMWE, exit

Particle ⇒ Apply VPC-specific tests ⇒ VPC tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category VPC.full or VPC.semi
It is not a VMWE, exit

Verb with no lexicalized dependent ⇒ Apply MVC-specific tests ⇒ MVC tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category MVC
Apply the VID-specific tests ⇒ VID tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category ID
It is not a VMWE, exit

Extended NP ⇒ Apply LVC-specific decision tree ⇒ LVC tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category LVC
Apply the VID-specific tests ⇒ VID tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category VID
It is not a VMWE, exit

Another category ⇒ Apply the VID-specific tests ⇒ VID tests positive?

Annotate as a VMWE of category VID
It is not a VMWE, exit

Section 5

Specific tests for categorizing verbal MWEs

Once a candidate VMWE has been pre-identified in steps 1 and 2 of the annotation process, the confirmation of its status as a VMWE, as well as its categorization, is done according to the decision tree referring to the following cross-lingual tests:

Additionally, language-specific categories (LS) can be defined and tests for them can be used to annotate them in a given language or language group only.

Section 5.1

Structural tests (S)

Structural tests are quite simple preliminary tests that help determining the syntactic structure of the VMWE. This is required in order to point at the right category-specific identification tests. In practice, annotators will rarely need them since they will already have an intuition about the VMWE candidate category when they identify it.

Test S.1 - [HEAD] - Syntactic head

Does the candidate contain a unique verb functioning as the functional syntactic head of the whole?

Apply the VID-specific tests
continue to the next test

The aim of this test is to categorize (as VID or no VMWE) those candidates which have no single clearly identified head verb. This is necessary because all other tests refer to the single head verb v and its dependents. Note that for VMWE candidates having the structure of a meaning-preserving variant, the test should be applied to their canonical form instead. This is required because there may be no verb or the verb may not be the syntactic head in such variants.

قرارال أخذ to make a decision passes the test → variants like هأخذ الذيقرار ال the decison that he made, قراراتال أخذ making decisions , مأخوذةقراراتdecisions made passes the test as well

вземам решение passes the test → variants like решението, което беше взето pass the test as well

eine Entscheidung treffen make a decision passes the test → variants like die Entscheidung wurde getroffen the decision was made, die Entscheidung, welche getroffen wurde the decision which was made, das Treffen der Entscheidung the making of the decision pass the test as well

παίρνω μία απόφαση make a decision passes the test → variants like η απόφαση που πήραμε, πάρθηκε απόφαση, παίρνοντας απόφαση pass the test as well

to make a decision passes the test → variants like the decision which was made, decision-making, the making of the decision pass the test as well

tomar una decisión passes the test → variants like la decisión fue tomada, tomando esa decisión, la decisión que tomaron pass the test as well

erabakia hartu decision take to make a decision passes the test → variants like hartutako erabakia the decision (which was) made, erabaki hura hartzea (the fact of) making that decision, erabakiak hartutakoan when the decisions were made pass the test as well

déan comhairle make counsel make a decision passes the test → variants like comhairle a dhéanamh counsel to make to make a decision ag déanamh comhairle at making counsel making a decision

δόξαν ἔχουσιdoxan ekhousi reputation.ACC have.3PL they have a reputation passes the test
δόξαν ἣν ἔνιοι ἔχουσι περὶdoxan hēn enioi ekhousi peri opinion.ACC which some have.3PL about the opinion which some hold about is a variant and passes the test

donijeti odluku make a decision passes the test → variants like odluka donesena tada decision made then pass the test as well

prendere una decisione to_take a decision make a decision passes the test → variants like la decisione è stata presa the decision was made, la decisione, che è stata presa the decision which was made, prendendo la decisione taking the decision pass the test as well

een beslissing nemen to make a decision passes the test → variants like de beslissing werd genomen the decision was made, de beslissing, die genomen werd the decision which was made, het nemen van de beslissing the making of the decision pass the test as well

zbijać bąki to smash fartsto fool around, to do nothing useful passes the test → variants like zbijanie bąków farts smashingfooling around, doing nothing useful, zbijający bąki smashing farts pass the test as well

tomar uma decisão make a decision passes the test → variants like a decisão que foi tomada the decision which was made, decisão tomada decision made pass the test as well

a lua o decizie make a decision passes the test → variants like decizia care a fost luată the decision which was made, luarea deciziei decision-making pass the test as well

zlomiti komu srce to break someone's heart to hurt someone's feelings bad passes the test → variants like srca, ki jih je zlomil hearts which he has broken (people's) feelings which he hurt bad, lomljenje src breaking (people's) hearts hurting (people's) feelings and nedavno zlomljeno srce recently broken heart pass the test as well

marr një vendim take a decision to make a decision variants like vendimi që u mor (the decision that was made), marrja e vendimit (decision-making) pass the test as well.

донети одлуку doneti odluku to bring a decision to make a decision passes the test → variants like одлука је донета odluka je doneta a decision has been made and доношење одлука donošenje odluka decision making pass the test as well

Test S.2 - [1DEP] - Single dependent

Does the VMWE contain exactly one lexicalized (functional) syntactic dependent d of the head verb v?

Apply the VID-specific tests
Continue to the next test

The test covers only lexicalized dependents. There may be other, non-lexicalized dependents, which the test ignores. We explicitly call the non-verbal elements dependents instead of arguments or complements because argument-adjunct distinction is irrelevant. The outcome of the test is positive if the verb has a single lexicalized dependent, which can be the subject, the direct or indirect object, but also an adverbial complement, adverb, particle, relative clause, etc.

Test S.3 - [LEX-SUBJ] - Lexicalized subject

Is the single lexicalized (functional) syntactic dependent d of the head verb v its subject?

Apply the VID-specific tests
Continue to the next test

This test captures the fact that VMWEs with lexicalized subjects always belong to the VID category. Note that for the VMWE candidates having the structure of a meaning-preserving variant, the test should be applied to their canonical form instead. This is required because there may be no verb or the verb may not be the syntactic head in such variants.

Test S.4 - [CATEG] - Category of the dependent

What is the morphosyntactic category of the (functional) dependent d that co-occurs with the head verb v?

Reflexive clitic - apply IRV tests. If the outcome is negative, discard the VMWE candidate.

Arabic does not have IRV expressions

страхувам се fear myself.REFL to be afraid
радвам се feel joy myself.REFL to feel joy

sich wundern to wonder, sichschämen to be ashamed

. Modern Greek does not have IRV expressions

help yourself to the apples
I found myself in a difficult situation

suicidarse to suicide, quejarse to complain

n.a.

se suicider to suicide, s'évanouir to faint

–– This category does not apply to Ancient Greek.

čuditi se to wonder, penjati se to climb

suicidarsi to suicide, vergognarsi to be ashamed

zich vergissen to be mistaken, zich schamen to be ashamed

bać się fear SELFto be afraid

suicidar-se to suicide, queixar-se to complain

a se sinucide to commit suicide with obligatory ACC reflexive clitic
a se holba to stare with obligatory ACC reflexive clitic

čuditi se to wonder, smejati se to laugh, onesvestiti se to faint

mërzitem bore myself get bored kujtohem remember myself remember

знојити се znojiti se sweat SELFto sweat
откравити се otkraviti se to melt SELFto relax, to cheer up

Particle (as opposed to an adposition) - apply VPC tests. If the outcome is negative, discard VMWE candidate.

Bulgarian does not have VPC expressions

anfangento begin, er fängt anhe begins, er hat angefangen he has begun → in German, VPCs may occur separated or within one word, we annotate all occurrences!
ich schlage vor I propose

παίρνω μπροςperno bros take forward to get started

to give up, to look forward to

n.a.

–– This category does not apply to Ancient Greek.

biti na to be onto to look like

far fuori to_make out to kill, lo fa fuorihe kills him , lo ha fatto fuori he killed him

aanvangento begin, iets vangt aansth begins → in Dutch, VPCs may occur separated or within one word, we annotate all occurrences!
ik stel voor I propose

Polish does not have IVPC expressions

jogar fora to-throw outside to discard, throw away

Romanian does not have VPC expressions

n.a.

Albanian does not have VPC expressions.

n.a.

Verb with no lexicalized dependent - apply MVC tests. If the outcome is negative, apply the VID-specific tests. On negative outcome discard the VMWE candidate.
Adposition (preposition or postposition, as opposed to a particle) - in step 3 of the annotation process adpositions are not annotated unless they introduce a lexicalized dependent. Adpositions are covered optionally and experimentally in the post-annotation step (step 4), following the inherently adpositional verb (IAV) guidelines.
Extended nominal phrase (possibly including modifiers, prepositions, postpositions or case markers) - apply LVC tests. If the outcome is negative, apply the VID-specific tests. On negative outcome discard the VMWE candidate.
(Hindi-specific) Adjective which is morphologically identical to an eventive noun: Apply the LVC tests. If the outcome is negative, apply the VID-specific tests. On negative outcome discard the VMWE candidate.
Adjective: Apply the VID-specific tests. On negative outcome discard the VMWE candidate.
Adverb: Apply the VID-specific tests. On negative outcome discard the VMWE candidate.
Pronoun: Apply the VID-specific tests. On negative outcome discard the VMWE candidate.
Verb with lexicalized dependents including fully lexicalized clauses: Apply the VID-specific tests. On negative outcome discard the VMWE candidate.
Other: Apply the VID-specific tests. On negative outcome discard the VMWE candidate.

The aim of this test is to determine which category-specific identification tests should be applied. Note that for the VMWE candidates having the structure of a meaning-preserving variant, the test should be applied to their canonical form instead. This is required because there may be no verb or the verb may not be the syntactic head in such variants.

Section 5.2

Light verb constructions (LVC)

Light verb constructions (LVC) constitute a universal category. We retain the following key characteristics:

They are formed by a verb v and a (single or compound) noun n, which either directly depends on v (and possibly contains a case marker or a postposition), or is introduced by a preposition.
In case of Hindi, the noun can be replaced by an adjective which is morphologically identical to an eventive noun. If you annotate Hindi, everywhere is this page when the noun is referred to, you should read the noun or the adjective.
The (single or compound) noun n is predicative and refers to an event (e.g. decision, visit) or a state (e.g. fear, courage). Predicative nouns are nouns that have semantic arguments, that is, they express predicates whose meaning is only fully specified by their semantic arguments:
We retain two sub-categories of verbs, which define two sub-categories of LVCs:
- The verb v is "light" in that it contributes to the meaning of the whole only by bearing morphological features: person, number, tense, mood, as well as morphological aspect. This implies that v's syntactic subject is n's semantic argument. In this case, we annotate the construction as LVC.full.
- The verb v is "causative" in that it indicates that the subject of v is the cause or source of the event or state expressed by n. In other words, the noun has semantic arguments expressed as non-subject elements in the sentence, and the subject of the verb brings an additional information, indicating the cause of source of the event/state. In this case, we annotate the construction as LVC.cause. These constructions are expected to be less idiomatic than other VMWEs and can be understood as complex predicates with a causal support verb.

The following decision tree should be applied to decide whether a candidate should be annotated as a LVC.full, LVC.cause or none.

LVC-specific decision tree:

Apply test LVC.0 - [N-ABS: Is the noun abstract?]
- It is not an LVC, exit
- Apply test LVC.1 - [N-PRED: Is the noun predicative?]
  - It is not an LVC, exit
  - Apply test LVC.2 - [V-SUBJ-N-ARG: Is the subject of the verb a semantic argument of the noun?]
    - Apply test LVC.3 - [V-LIGHT: The verb only adds meaning expressed as morphological features?]
      - It is not an LVC, exit
      - Apply test LVC.4 - [V-REDUC: Can a verbless NP-reduction refer to the same event/state?]
        
        It is not an LVC, exit
        
        It is an LVC.full
    - Apply test LVC.5 - [V-SUBJ-N-CAUSE: Is the subject of the verb the cause of the noun?]
      - It is not an LVC, exit
      - It is an LVC.cause

Note: test 10 [N-SEM] from the previous version of the guidelines (1.0) was considered unnecessary and has been abandoned in the current version of the guidelines.

Note: LVC tests are often hard to apply. If you hesitate at some intermediary test, continue to the next one, since the last tests of LVC.full and LVC.cause will help you reach your final decision.

Test LVC.0 - [N-ABS] Noun is abstract

Is the noun n abstract?

continue to next test
it is not an LVC

Some concrete nouns may be predicative (test LVC.1). For instance, a relational noun such as daughter is semantically incomplete without its argument: daughter of X, so daughter is predicative. However, concrete predicative nouns should not pass test LVC.0.

Some nouns may have both concrete and abstract interpretations. For instance, money is concrete when it refers to banknotes (paper money, bills): I didn't have money so I paid by credit card. However, money is abstract when referring to a conventional value used in transactions between people: He spent a lot of money in the mall. If one cannot be sure that the noun is used in its concrete interpretation, test LVC.0 passes.

Test LVC.1 - [N-PRED] Noun is predicative

Does the noun n have at least one semantic argument, implying that it is a predicative noun?

continue to next test
it is not an LVC

We only retain nouns n that have at least one semantic argument, which we define as a semantically mandatory and specific participant of the event or state expressed by the predicative noun.

Sometimes, it might be useful to consider verbs and adjectives derivationally related to the noun to reason about its semantic arguments.

Test LVC.2 - [N-SUBJ-N-ARG] Verb's subject is noun's semantic argument

Is the subject of the verb a semantic argument of the noun? In other words, is the verb linking the predicative noun to one of its semantic arguments that occurs as the subject of the verb?

continue to next test

لصديقه نصيحة أحمد قدم gave Ahmed an advice to his friend Ahmed gave an advice to his friend → أحمد Ahmed is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (Advicer ) of the noun

Иван изнесе доклад Ivan presented a report → Иван is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (agent) of the activity
Президентът получи покана за посещение в Германия The president received an invitation to visit Germany → Президентът president is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the receiver) of the invitation
Президентът получи награда Тhe president received an award→ Президентътpresident is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the receiver) of наградаaward

(OEG) 𓇋𓅱 𓂧𓈖 𓃹𓈖𓇋𓋴 𓈖𓂋𓃭𓅱 𓆑 𓅓 𓄣 𓋴𓈖 ꞽw (w)ṭ.n Wnꞽś nr.w ⸗f m ꞽb ⸗śn Unas (Wnꞽś) put ((w)ṭ.n) his (⸗f) fear (nr.w) in (m) the heart (ꞽb) of them (⸗śn) Unas instilled fear in them. (PT § 302c-d, W) → Unas is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the contender) of the noun.

ο Γιάννης έκανε μία παρουσίαση στο αφεντικό τουO Yanis ekane mia parusiasi sto afentiko tu The John made a presentation to-the boss his John made a presentation to his boss ο Γιάννης is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the presenter) of the noun παρουσίαση
Ο Γιάννης πρόβαλε αντίσταση στις αρχέςo γianis provale antistasi stis arches The John presented resistance to the authorities John resisted to the authorities

John made a presentation to his boss → John is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the presenter) of the noun

María dio un paseo María went for a walk → María is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the walker) of the noun

Max fait une promenade Max takes a walk → Max is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the walker) of the noun

Κῦρος ἐξέτασιν ποιεῖται τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ τῶν βαρβάρωνKuros exetasin poieitai tо̄n Hellēnо̄n kai tо̄n barbarо̄n Cyrus inspection.ACC do.1SG the.GEN Greeks.GEN and the.GEN barbarians.GEN Cyrus inspected the Greeks and the barbarians

Helena je otišla u posjet prijateljici Helena payed a visit to a friend → Helena is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the visitor) of the visit
Susjed jedobio dozvolu za gradnju Neighbour received a permission for construction → Neighbour is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the receiver) of the permission

彼が聴衆から高い評価を受けた（こと）he.nom audience.source high evaluation.acc received (the fact)He received a high evaluation from the audience → The subject is the recipient of praise
聴衆が彼を高く評価した（こと）audience.nom he.acc highly evaluation.made (the fact)The audience gave him high praise → The subject is a 'praiser'

Max maakte een wandeling Max takes a walk → Max is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the walker) of the noun

Jan złożył wizytę Marii Jan payed a visit to Maria → Jan is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the visitor) of the visit
Piotr dostał pozwolenie and budowę Piotr received a permission for construction → Piotr is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the receiver) of the permission
Beata ma marzenia o spokoju Beata has dreams about peace → Beata is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the possessor) of the dreams
wyborcy ponoszą za to winę the electorate bears the responsibility for this→ wyborcy electorate is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the agent) of the guilt
ustawa budzi zastrzeżenia the law wakes-up reservationsthe law raises reservations→ ustawalaw is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the theme) of zatrzeżeniareservations

Felipe tomou dois banhos Felipe took two showers → Felipe is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the person taking a shower) of the noun

Ion i-a făcut o prezentare șefului său Ion made a presentation to his boss→ Ion is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument (the presenter) of the noun

In Janezovo predavanje o slovenski kulturi za študente prevajalstva, the 3 syntactic arguments are expressed as a modifier with a possessive marker (Janezovo Janez's) and prepositional phrases (o slovenski kulturi on Slovene culture and za študente prevajalstva for students of translating )

Бранко је добио постављење Branko je dobio postavljenje Branko was appointed to a position → Branko is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument of the appointment (receiver)
Јелена је Бранку узвратила посету Jelena je Branku uzvratila posetu Jelena returned Branko's visit. → Jelena is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument of the visit (visitor)

Go to test LVC.5

خطاب المراسل ال قاطع The journalist has interrupted the speech → المراسل The journalist that is , the subject of the verb, is not a semantic argument of خطاب the speech , since a speech does not necessarily have an interrupter

Приятелят на Мария прекъсна нейния доклад Maria's friend interrupted her report→ Maria's friend, that is, the subject of the verb, is not a semantic argument of the report, since a report does not necessarily have an interrupter

(OEG) 𓂧 𓊹𓋴𓍿𓈒 𓁷 𓋴𓆓𓏏𓊮 (w)ṭ(.w) śnčr ḥr śč̣.t The incense (śnčr) was-put ((w)ṭ(.w)) on (ḥr) the fire (śč̣.t). The incense was set on the fire. (PT 376b, W) → the passive verb form (w)ṭ(.w) is linking its subject (śnčr) with an adverbial argument (ḥr śč̣.t)

το αφεντικό του Γιάννη διέκοψε την παρουσίασή τουto afentiko tu Yiani diekopse tin parusiasi tu the boss theGEN JohnGEN interrupted presentation his → John's boss interrupted his presentation → #το αφεντικό του Γιάννη (John's boss), that is, the subject of the verb διέκοψε, is not a semantic argument of the noun predicate παρουσίαση presentation, since a presentation does not necessarily have an interrupter

John's boss interrupted his presentation → John's boss, that is, the subject of the verb, is not a semantic argument of the presentation, since a presentation does not necessarily have an interrupter
The report provides information about the economy → information only has one argument, which is its topic. The provider/source of an information is not one of its semantic arguments.

El periodista interrumpió el discurso The journalist interrupted the speech → The journalist, that is, the subject of the verb, is not a semantic argument of the speech, since a speech does not necessarily have an interrupter
El informe facilita información clave the report provides crucial information → information only has one argument, which is its topic. The provider/source of an information is not one of its semantic arguments.

Le journaliste a interrompu le discours The journalist has interrupted the speech → The journalist, that is, the subject of the verb, is not a semantic argument of the speech, since a speech does not necessarily have an interrupter
Le rapport fournit des informations cruciales the report provides crucial information → information only has one argument, which is its topic. The provider/source of an information is not one of its semantic arguments.

ὁ δὲ ἐμπιμπλὰς ἁπάντων τὴν γνώμην ho de empimplas hapantо̄n tēn gnо̄mēn he satisfy.PTC all.GEN the.ACC expectation.ACC he, having satisfied everyone’s expectation → the subject of the verb (he) is not the subject of the noun (all)

Učenici su prekinuli le predavanjeStudents have interrupted the lecture → Students, that is, the subject of the verb, is not a semantic argument of the speech, since a speech does not necessarily have an interrupter

演奏が彼に聴衆の高い評価をもたらした（こと）performance.nom he.dat audience.gen high evaluation.acc brought (the fact)His play brought him a high evaluation from the audience

De journalist heeft de toespraak onderbroken The journalist has interrupted the speech → The journalist, that is, the subject of the verb, is not a semantic argument of the speech, since a speech does not necessarily have an interrupter

Marek dał mi prawo wyboru Marek gave me the right to choose→ Marek is the subject of the verb and but not a semantic argument of the right (a right usually does not need to be grated)
Incydent ten podważył zaufanie wyborców do kandydata This fact undermined the electorate's confidence in the candidate→ Incydent event is the subject of the verb and but not a semantic argument of the confidence
komisja przeprowadziła wybory the committee carried out the vote→ komisja committee is the subject of the verb but not a semantic argument of wybory vote, which only requires the voters and the matter of the vote

O jornalista interrompeu a inauguração The journalist has interrupted the inauguration → The journalist, that is, the subject of the verb, is not a semantic argument of an inauguration, since an inauguration does not necessarily have an interrupter
O relatório traz informações polêmicas the report provides polemic information → information only has one argument, which is its topic. The provider/source of an information is not one of its semantic arguments.

To define a predavanje lecture one needs to mention three participants: the presenter, the audience and the topic of the presentation. In other words, the existence of a lecture implies the existence of its arguments.

Демонстранти су прекинули говор Demonstranti su prekinuli говор Protesters interrupted the speech→ Protesters are the subject of the verb but not a semantic argument of the speech (a speech does not necessarily have an interrupter)
комисија је спровела гласање komisija je sprovela glasanje the committee carried out the vote→ комисија komisija committee is the subject of the verb but not a semantic argument of гласање glasanje vote, which only requires the voters and the matter of the vote

It is not always easy to determine if the verb's subject is an argument of the noun. You can use the former syntactic version of this test to verify your intuitions.

Test LVC.3 - [V-LIGHT] Verb with light semantics

Is v semantically light, that is, is the semantics that v adds to n restricted to: (i) what stems from its morphological features (e.g. future, plural, perfective aspect, etc.), (ii) pointing at the semantic role of n played by v's subject?

continue to next test

قرار أخذ take a decision → أخذ makeadds no meaning to قرار decision besides that of performing an activity
معروف قدم present a favor to give a favor → قدم to give adds no meaning to معروف favorbesides that of performing activity
زيارةبقام to do a visit to pay a visit → قام to do adds no meaning to visit زيارة besides that of performing an activity

вземам решение make a decision → вземам adds no meaning to решение decision besides that of performing an act
държа реч to make a speech → държа adds no meaning to реч besides that of performing an act
поемам отговорност to take responsibility → поемам adds no meaning to отговорност besides that of having a property

eine Entscheidung treffen a decision meet to make a decision → treffen adds no meaning to Entscheidung besides that of performing an activity
Angst haben to have fear → haben adds no meaning to Angst besides that of having a property.

(OEG) 𓇋𓅱 𓂧𓈖 𓃹𓈖𓇋𓋴 𓈖𓂋𓃭𓅱 𓆑 𓅓 𓄣 𓋴𓈖 ꞽw (w)ṭ.n Wnꞽś nr.w ⸗f m ꞽb ⸗śn Unas (Wnꞽś) put ((w)ṭ.n) his (⸗f) fear (nr.w) in (m) the heart (ꞽb) of them (⸗śn) Unas instilled fear in them. (PT § 302c-d, W) → (w)ṭ.n adds no meaning to fear (nr.w) besides that of performing an action.

κάνω μία βόλτα take a walk→ κάνωmake adds no meaning to βόλτα walkbesides that of performing an activity
παίρνω μία απόφαση → παίρνω take adds no meaning to απόφαση decision besides that of performing an activity
δίνω μία απάντηση → δίνω give adds no meaning to the noun απάντηση besides that of performing an activity
διενεργώ έλεγχο perform a check → διενεργώ perform is a pure syntactic operator: in any context, it only bears tense and mood and never adds any sense to the noun
διαπράττω ένα έγκλημα → διαπράττω commit is a pure syntactic operator: in any context,it only bears tense and mood and never adds any sense to the noun
ασκώ δριμεία κριτική → ασκώ commit adds no meaning to the noun κριτική besides that of performing a cognitive activity
νιώθω πολύ άγχος → νιώθω feel adds no meaning to άγχος besides that of being in a mental state
έχω άγχος have anxiety → έχω have adds no meaning to άγχος anxiety besides that of being in a mental state
προβαίνω σε καταγγελία to make a complaint, to complaint → προβαίνω make adds no meaning to καταγγελία complaint besides that of performing an activity

take a walk → take adds no meaning to walk besides that of performing an activity
make a decision → make adds no meaning to decision besides that of performing an activity
have fear → have adds no meaning to fear besides that of having a property
perform a check → perform is a pure syntactic operator: in any context, it only bears tense and mood and never adds any sense to the noun
commit a crime → commit is a pure syntactic operator: in any context,it only bears tense and mood and never adds any sense to the noun
pay a visit → the verb in its usual sense means 'to spend some money on a visit', but here it is not used in this sense and does not add any semantics to the "visiting" event
deliver a speech → the verb in its usual sense means 'to move from one place to another', but here it is not used in this sense and does not add any semantics to the "speech" event
undergo a surgery → undergo adds no meaning to surgery besides indicating that the subject is the patient of the surgery

dar un paseo to take a walk → dar adds no meaning to paseo besides that of performing an activity
tomar una decisión to make a decision→ tomar adds no meaning to decisión besides that of performing an activity
tener miedo to have fear → tener adds no meaning to miedo besides that of having a property

usain egin smell do to smell, to sniff → the verb egin adds no meaning to the noun usain besides that of performing an activity
lo egin sleep do to sleep → the verb egin adds no meaning to the noun lo besides that of performing an activity

ils ont du courage they have some courage → have adds no meaning to courage besides that of having a property
ils reçoivent l’ordre de partir they receive the order of leavingthey are ordered to leave → receive adds no meaning to order besides indicating that the subject is the recepient of the order
il a subi une intervention chirurgicale he has undergone an intervention surgery he underwent surgery → undergo adds no meaning to surgery besides indicating that the subject is the patient of the surgery

γνώμην ἔχεινgnо̄mēn ekhein opinion.ACC have.INF to have an opinion → ἔχειν adds no meaning to γνώμην besides that of having a property.
τιμωρίαν ποιέομαιtimо̄rian poieomai punishment.ACC do.1SG I punish → ποιέομαι adds no meaning to τιμωρίαν besides that of performing an activity

imati hrabrost to have courage → imati have adds no meaning to hrabrost courage besides that of having a property
donijeti odluku to make a decision → donijeti in its usual sense means 'to bring', but here it is not used in this sense and does not add any semantics to event

fareuna passeggiata → fare adds no meaning to passeggiata besides that of performing an activity
prendere una decisione → prendere adds no meaning to decisione besides that of performing an activity
avere paura → avere adds no meaning to paura besides that of having a property
eseguire un controllo → eseguire is a pure syntactic operator: in any context, it only bears tense and mood and never adds any sense to the noun
commettere un crimine → commettere is a pure syntactic operator: in any context,it only bears tense and mood and never adds any sense to the noun
fare una visita → the verb in its usual sense means 'make', but here it is not used in this sense and does not add any semantics to the "visiting" event
fare un discorso → the verb in its usual sense means 'to make', but here it is not used in this sense and does not add any semantics to the "speech" event

子が親に愛情を持つ child.nom parent.dat affection.acc have The child has affection for his parent(s) → 持つ does not add meaning to 愛情 besides that of having a property

een beslissing nemen a decision take to make a decision → nemen adds no meaning to beslissing besides that of performing an activity
een wandeling maken to take a walk → maken adds no meaning to wandeling besides that of performing an activity
schrik hebben to have fear → hebben adds no meaning to schrik besides that of having a property

oddać hołd to give-back tributeto pay tribute → oddać give-back adds no meaning to hołdtribute besides that of performing an activity
wystąpić z wnioskiem to stand out with a proposal to put forward a motion → wystąpić z stand out with adds no meaning to wniosekmotion besides that of performing an activity

mover uma ação judicial to move a lawsuit to sue → to move adds no meaning to lawsuit besides that of performing an activity
apresentar uma lesão present a lesion to have a lesion → to present adds no meaning to lesion besides that of having a property
estar com medo be with fear to be afraid → to be with adds no meaning to fear besides that of being in a state

a avea curaj to have courage → avea adds no meaning to curaj besides that of thaving a property
a lua o decizieto make a decision → lua adds no meaning to decizie besides that of performing an activity

Janez ima predavanje Janez lectures → Janez is the subject of the verb and a semantic argument of the noun (the lecturer)

одати почаст odati počast give away tributeto commemorate/pay tribute → одати odati give away adds no meaning to почаст počast tribute besides that of performing an activity
изрећи казну izreći kaznu to pronounce a sentence → изрећи izreći to pronounce adds no meaning to казну kaznu sentence besides that of performing an activity

it is not an LVC

إنتباه شد grab attention to get attention → شد to grab / to attract indicates that the attention starts

започвам играта start the game, start playing → започвам start adds an aspectual meaning to the noun

eine Rede beginnen to begin a speech → beginnen adds an aspectual meaning to the noun Rede

(OEG) 𓂧 𓊹𓋴𓍿𓈒 𓁷 𓋴𓆓𓏏𓊮 (w)ṭ(.w) śnčr ḥr śč̣.t The incense (śnčr) was-put ((w)ṭ(.w)) on (ḥr) the fire (śč̣.t). The incense was set on the fire. (PT 376b, W) → (w)ṭ(.w) expresses the action of setting incense.

ξεκινάω μία προσπάθειαxekinao mia prospaθια start a trial → ξεκινάω adds an aspectual meaning to the noun

to start a walk → start adds an aspectual meaning to the noun

comenzar un discurso to begin a speech → comenzar adds an aspectual meaning to the noun discurso

oinez hasi foot-by start to start walking → the verb hasi adds an aspectual meaning to the noun

donner du courage to give courage → donner indicates the source of the courage (this would not pass test LVC.2)
donner son avis to give one's opinion→ donner adds the information that the opinion is communicated
Ce fait attire l'attention de la justice This fact attracts the attention of the justice → attirer indicates the attention starts

ἄρχειν τοῦ λόγουarkhein tou logou start the speech to begin speaking → ἄρχειν adds an aspectual meaning to the noun λόγου
πολέμου παύσασθαιpolemou pausasthai war end to stop fighting → παύσασθαι adds an aspectual meaning to the noun πολέμου

početi igru start the game → početi start adds an aspectual meaning to the noun

cominciare un ballo to start a dance → cominciare adds an aspectual meaning to the noun ballo

子が手に荷物を持つ child.nom hand.loc luggage.acc have The child holds luggage in his hand(s) → 持つ indicates the act of holding an object ; it alternates with other verbs of holding, such as 抱える

een toespraak beginnen to begin a speech → beginnen adds an aspectual meaning to the noun toespraak

wymierzyć sprawiedliwośćto measure justiceto do justice→ wymierzyćmeasure adds an aspectual meaning to sprawiedliwośćjustice, this expression still passes VID tests
przejść na emeryturęto cross to retirementto take retirement→ przejść adds an inchoative (change-of-state) meaning to the noun
dopełnić obowiązkuto fulfill one's duty→ dopełnićfulfill adds a fulfillment meaning to obowiązekduty

entrar com uma ação judicial to enter with a lawsuit to file a lawsuit → to enter adds an aspectual meaning to the noun
dar uma opinião to give an opinion → to giveadds the meaning of communication which is not present in the name itself (one can ter uma opinião to have an opinion without ccommunicating it).

a începe muncato start work the to start working → începe adds an aspectual meaning to the noun

Študent je prekinil njegovo predavanje The student has interrupted his lecture → The student, that is, the subject of the verb, is not a semantic argument of the lecture, since a lecture does not necessarily have an interrupter

отићи у пензију otići u penziju to leave to retirement to take retirement → отићи otići adds an inchoative (change-of-state) meaning to the noun
испунити дужност ispuniti dužnost to fulfill one's duty → испунити ispuniti fulfill adds a fulfillment meaning to дужност dužnost duty

Note that this light semantics of the verb is either usual for that verb (i.e. the verb is a pure syntactic operator, like commit, perform), or occurs in the context of the particular noun (e.g. for pay in to pay a visit). Both types of verbs pass the test.

In our view of LVCs, we do not require a light verb to be "bleached", as it is sometimes described in the literature. We simply do not take into account the relation between the verb's use as a light verb and its other uses. While the specific meaning added by light verbs to the predicative nouns have been extensively studied and described (e.g. by Miriam Butt and Tafseer Ahmed), we do not adopt any fine-grained classification here. If you have a doubt about a verb's "lightness", proceed to the next test: if you can evoke the same event/state without using the verb, then it is considered light.

Test LVC.4 - [V-REDUC] - Verb reduction

Try to build an NP without the verb, in which v's subject s becomes n's dependent. You might need to test several prepositions (of, by, for, from), possessives (my, her, somebody's), postpositions, case markers, as long as you use no verb. Can this verbless NP refer to the same event or state as the candidate v+n construction does?

annotate as LVC.full
it is not an LVC

This test has a simple formulation but its application has some important subtleties which are central to our definition of the LVC.full category. The goal of this test is to keep only constructions in which the predicative noun is an event or state, excluding "gray-zone" predicates.

First, if it is not possible to build an acceptable NP where the verb v's subject s becomes a dependent of the noun n, e.g. using any preposition, postposition and/or case marker, this means that the verb is not light, and the construction cannot be annotated as LVC.full. This may remove constructions in which there is control, that is, both the noun and the verb share the same subject. However, control is not sufficient to characterize an LVC.full. In other words, LVC.4 fails, the verb is not completely light, and you cannot annotate the construction as LVC.full, even if intuitively it resembles an LVC.full due to control:

العمل قرار أحمد أخذ Ahmed a pris une decision de travail → قرار أحمد بالعمل the decision of Ahmed for work is unacceptable

Paul a l'air de dormir Paul has the air of to-sleep Paul seems to be sleeping → *l'air de dormir de Paul is unacceptable
Paul a eu l'occasion de dormir Paul has had the oportunity to sleep Paul had the oportunity to sleep → *l'occasion de Paul de dormir is unacceptable

Zdravnik je postavil diagnozo The doctor made a diagnosis → njegova diagnoza His diagnosis both refer to the same event
Politik jedal napoved The politician made a forecast → njegova napoved his forecast both refer to the same event

Second, the fact that the NP is acceptable does not suffice to characterise an LVC.full. Furthermore, the NP version in which the verb was omitted, if acceptable, must evoke the same event or state as the LVC. Here are some tricky examples and some recommendations about how to interpret them:

جديدة اجراءت الشركة أخذت the company took new procedures → the NP الاجراءت الجديدة new procedures is ok, the "الاجراءت " "procedures " seem to refer to new procedures, so ok to annotated as LVC.full

Имам по-голям брат I have an elder brother → моят брат my brother refers to one member of the relation, and not to the state of brotherhood between both actants
отправих покана към приятелите си I sent an invitation to my friends→ покана invitation can be interpreted both as the act of inviting and as its contents; for the first reason we count this candidate as LVC.full

Η Μαρία έχει έναν αδελφό I Maria echi enan aδelfo Maria have.3SG a brother → Ο αδελφός της Μαρίας is a concrete NP referring to one member of the relation (does not pass LVC.0), and not to the state of brotherhood between both actants
Η Μαρία έστειλε ένα γράμμα Maria send.03.SG a letter → Το γράμμα της Μαρίας refers to a concrete object participating in the event (does not pass LVC.0), but not to the sending event itself
Η Μαρία έχει την άποψηi maria echi tin apopsi Maria has the opinion Maria believes and more generally, cases of έχω + a noun refering to the state of having a mental content (άποψη, γνώμη, πεποίθηση) → η άποψη της Μαρίας is ambiguous between the fact that she has an opinion and the content of her opinion. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full
Η Μαρία έδωσε την υπόσχεσηi maria eδose tin iposchesi the maria give.3.PST the promise Maria promised and more generally, cases of δίνω + a noun refering to a speech act (υπόσχεση, διαταγή, απάντηση, κατάθεση) → Η υπόσχεση της Μαρίας refers to the informational content produced or communicated during the speech act, but can also refer to the act itself. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full
Η Μαρία πήρε μία απόφαση I maria pire mia apofasi The Maria take.03.PR a decision Maria decided → απόφαση can refer to the deciding event (μία δύσκολη απόφαση) and/or to what is decided. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full

Mary has a brother → Mary's brother is a concrete NP referring to one member of the relation (does not pass LVC.0), and not to the state of brotherhood between both actants
Mary sent a letter → Mary's letter refers to a concrete object participating in the event (does not pass LVC.0), but not to the sending event itself
Mary has an opinion and more generally, cases of have + a noun refering to the state of having a mental content (opinion, belief) → Mary's opinion is ambiguous between the fact that she has an opinion and the content of her opinion. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full
Mary made a speech and more generally, cases of make + a noun refering to a speech act → Mary's speech refers to the informational content produced or communicated during the speech act, but can also refer to the act itself. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full
Mary made a decision → decision can refer to the deciding event (a quick decision) and/or to what is decided. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full

María tiene un hermano María has a brother → el hermano de María María's brother is a concrete NP referring to one member of the relation (does not pass LVC.0), and not to the state of brotherhood between both actants
María envió una carta María sent a letter → La carta de María María's letter refers to a concrete object participating in the event (does not pass LVC.0), but not to the sending event itself
María dio un discurso María made a speech and more generally, cases of dar + a noun refering to a speech act → el discurso de María refers to the informational content produced or communicated during the speech act, but can also refer to the act itself. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full
María tomó una decisión María made a decision → decisión decision can refer to the deciding event (a quick decision) and/or to what is decided. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full

la compagnie a pris des mesures d'économie the company took some measures of savingthe company took cost-saving measures → the NP les mesures d'écononmie de la compagnie is ok, the semantic equivalence is difficult to judge, the "measures" seem to refer to cost-saving actions, so ok to annotated as LVC.full

εἶχε τὴν ἀδελφὴν Σιτάλκηςeikhe tēn adelphēn Sitalkēs have.3SG the sister.ACC Sitalkes Sitalkes had a sister → ἀδελφὴν is a concrete NP referring to one member of the relation (does not pass LVC.0), and not to the state of brotherhood between both actants
οὐκ ἂν ἐπιστολὴν ἔπεμπονouk an epistolēn epempon not PRT letter.ACC send.3pl they would not have sent a letter → ἐπιστολήν refers to a concrete object participating in the event (does not pass LVC.0), but not to the sending event itself
τὴν γὰρ γνώμην εἶχεtēn gnо̄mēn eikhe the thus opinion have.3SG he thus held the opinion and more generally, cases of have + a noun referring to the state of having a mental content → γνώμην is ambiguous between the fact that she has an opinion and the content of her opinion. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full
ὁ δὲ Σιτάλκης πρός τε τὸν Περδίκκαν λόγους ἐποιεῖτοho de Sitalkēs pros te ton Perdikkan logous epoieito the Sitalkes to also the Perdikkas speech.ACC do.3SG Sitalkes spoke to Perdikkas and more generally, cases of make + a noun refering to a speech act → λόγους refers to the informational content produced or communicated during the speech act, but can also refer to the act itself. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full

Marie neemt een beslissing → decision can refer to the deciding event (a quick decision) and/or to what is decided. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full

mam starszego brata I have an elder brother → mój brat my brother refers to one member of the relation, and not to the state of brotherhood between both actants
Maria wysłała wiadomość Maria sent a message→ wiadomość Marii Maria's message refers to the contants of the message sent by Maria, rather than to the sending event itself
Maria jest zdania, że Mary has the opinon that... → zdanie Marii Mary's opinion refers to the content of the opinion, and not to the state of having an opinion
miał na celu awans He had promotion on the aim His aim was a promotion→ jego cel refers to the aim inself, and not to the state of having a aimta partia w wyborach miała większość this party had a majority in the elections→ #większość tej partii the majority of the party provokes a considerable shift in meaning
złożył zeznania na policji he gave testimony on the police office→ jego zeznania can be interpreted both as the act of testimony and as its contents; for the first reason we count this candidate as LVC.full

Mojca jedala Tini priložnost Mojca gave Tina an opportunity → #Mojčina priložnost Mojca's opportunity has a different meaning; if the verb is removed, the original meaning is lost, so the verb is not light.

Марија је послала поруку Marija je poslala poruku Marija sent a message→ Маријина порука Marijina poruka Mariјa's message refers to the contants of the message sent by Maria, rather than to the sending event itself

Finally, some nouns, especially nominalisations, are ambiguous between events and their participants. For instance, a costruction may be an event (the construction of the bridge took 2 years) or its result (this bridge is a spectacular construction). In that case, if the verbless NP can refer to the event, then you should prefer this reading over the "participant" interpretation. For example, in John made a construction, you may ask if John's construction refers to the construction event or to its result. In this case, it can refer to the event, so it should be annotated as LVC.full.

Test LVC.5 - [V-SUBJ-N-CAUSE] Verb's subject is noun's cause

Is the subject of the verb expressing the cause of the predicate expressed by the noun? In other words, does the verb bring an additional participant to the scene, representing the source or cause of the event or state referred to by the noun?

annotate as LVC.cause

حقوق أعطى to give rights → X has the right to Y, the granter is not a semantic argument of rights, but it causes somebody to have the right to do someting

Иван даде възможност на Мария да представи картините си Ivan gave Maria the opportunity to present her paintings→ Ivan is not a semantic argument of възможност opportunity but he is the cause of the opportunity

(OEG) 𓇋𓅱 𓂧𓈖 𓃹𓈖𓇋𓋴 𓈖𓂋𓃭𓅱 𓆑 𓅓 𓄣 𓋴𓈖 ꞽw (w)ṭ.n Wnꞽś nr.w ⸗f m ꞽb ⸗śn Unas (Wnꞽś) put ((w)ṭ.n) his (⸗f) fear (nr.w) in (m) the heart (ꞽb) of them (⸗śn). Unas instilled fear in them. (PT § 302c-d, W) → The subject of the verb is the cause of the event reffered to by the predicative noun.

δίνω ικανοποίησηδino ikanopiisi give satisfaction to satisfy → the subject of the verb δίνω is the cause for the emotion denoted by the predicative noun ικανοποίηση and experienced by its complement

to grant rights → X has the right to Y, the granter is not a semantic argument of rights, but it causes somebody to have the right to do someting
to give a headache → X has a headache, the cause of the headache, indicated as the subject of give is not a semantic argument
the new law provoked the destruction of the building → the destruction of X by Y, the reason for the destruction is indicated by the verb provoke, which is a prototypical causative verb. Here, the subject is not the agent of destruction, but its cause. Notice that if the sentence was the explosion provoked the destruction of the building, then the construction would be an LVC.full
residents seek to build consensus on the development of the territory → the semantic argument of consensus is the topic on which everybody agrees, the subject of build consensus expresses an external participant responsible for the consensus to exist.

otorgar derechos to grant rights → X has the right to Y, the granter is not a semantic argument of rights, but it causes somebody to have the right to do someting
dar dolor de cabeza → X has a headache, the cause of the headache, indicated as the subject of dar is not a semantic argument
la nueva ley provocó la destrucción del edificio the new law provoked the destruction of the building → the destruction of X by Y, the reason for the destruction is indicated by the verb provocar to provoke, which is a prototypical causative verb. Here, the subject is not the agent of destrucción destruction, but its cause. Notice that if the sentence was la explosión provocó la destrucción del edificio the explosion provoked the destruction of the building, then the construction would be an LVC.full

τιμωρίαν ποιέωtimо̄rian poieо̄ punishment.ACC do.1SG I inflict punishment → the subject of the verb is the cause of the event referred to by the noun

zadati glavobolju to give a headache→ X has a headache, the cause of the headache, indicated as the subject of give is not a semantic argument

質の高い演奏が彼に聴衆の高い評価をもたらした（こと）quality.gen high performance.nom he.dat audience.gen high evaluation.acc brought (the fact)His high-quality play earned him high praise from the audience → The subject is the cause of the 'high praise' from the audience

hoofdpijn geven → X has a headache, the cause of the headache, indicated as the subject of give is not a semantic argument

Marek dał mi prawo wyboru Marek gave me the right to choose→ Marek is not a semantic argument of prawo right but he is the cause of the right
dać podstawy prawne to give legal foundation
nakładać na kogoś powinność to put a duty on sb.
narazić kogoś na straty to expose someone to losses
stawiać komuś cel to set an aim to someone
ślady krwi wzbudziły podejrzenia policji the traces of blood raised suspicion to the police

Bombardamentul a provocat moartea multor civili. The bombing provoked the death of many civilians.→ Many civilians (mulți civili) died and their death (moarte) was provoked by the bombing (bombardamentul)

Борко је Марији задао бриге Borko je Mariji zadao brige Borko gave to Marija worries Borko worried Marija → Marija has a headache, the cause of the headache, indicated as the subject of задао zadao give is not a semantic argument of бриге brige worries

it is not an LVC

إنطباع أعطى → the subject of أعطى to give is not what is causing إنطباع the impression

Този инцидент подрони авторитета на кандидата This incident undermined the authority of the candidate→ Инцидентът incident is neither a semantic argument of the authority nor its cause

(OEG) 𓂧 𓊹𓋴𓍿𓈒 𓁷 𓋴𓆓𓏏𓊮 (w)ṭ(.w) śnčr ḥr śč̣.t The incense (śnčr) was-put ((w)ṭ(.w)) on (ḥr) the fire (śč̣.t). The incense was set on the fire. (PT 376b, W) → The subject of the passive verb form is not the cause of the event.

παίρνω απάντησηperno apantisi to take an answer to receive an answer → the subject of παίρνω is not what is causing a reply

to relieve a headache → the subject of relieve is not what is causing a headache
to give birth → tricky case, since the subject of give actually is a semantic argument of birth, so it passes the LVC.full tests and test LVC.5 is never applied.
excessive heat provokes fire → even though provoke prototypically expresses a cause, in this case fire is not predicative and should not pass test LVC.1, so the construction cannot be annotated as LVC.cause

calmar un dolor de cabeza to relieve a headache → the subject of calmar to relieve is not what is causing a headache
dar a luz to give birth→ tricky case, since the subject of dar to give actually is a semantic argument of a luz, so it cannot be its cause. This construction must be annotated as VID (it does not pass test VPC.4 either).
un calor excesivo provoca incendios excessive heat provokes fires→ even though provocar prototypically expresses a cause, in this case incendios is not predicative and should not pass test LVC.1, so the construction cannot be annotated as LVC.cause

συγγνώμης τυγχάνειsuggnо̄mēs tugkhanei pardon.GEN get.3SG he gets pardoned → the subject of the verb is not the cause of the event referred to by the noun

de hoofdpijn verlichten → the subject of verlichten is not what is causing a headache

Incydent ten podważył zaufanie wyborców do kandydata This fact undermined the electorate's confidence in the candidate→ Incydent event is neither a semantic argument of the confidence nor its cause (it is the opposite of the cause)
komisja przeprowadziła wybory the committee carried out the vote→ komisja committee is neither a semantic argument of wybory vote not its cause
mocny zapach uśpił czujność psów the strong scent lulled the vigilance of the dogs → the scent is the opposite of the cause of vigilance

căldura excesivă provoacă incendii → even though provocaprovoke prototypically expresses a cause, in this case incendiufire is not a predicate and should not pass test LVC.1, so the construction cannot be annotated as LVC.cause

Marija ima brata Marija has a brother → Marijin brat Marija's brother is a concrete NP referring to one member of the relation (does not pass LVC.0), and not to the state of brotherhood between both actants
Marija je poslala pismo Marija sent a letter → Marijino pismo Marija's letter refers to a concrete object participating in the event (does not pass LVC.0), but not to the sending event itself
Marija ima mnenje Marija has an opinion and more generally, cases of imeti to have + a noun refering to the state of having a mental content (mnenje, predstava, dvom opinion, idea, doubt ) → Marijino mnenje Marija's opinion is ambiguous between the fact that she has an opinion and the content of her opinion. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full
Marija je postavila vprašanje/trditev Marija posed a question/statement and more generally, cases of postaviti make + a noun refering to a speech act → Marijino vprašanje Mary's question refers to the informational content produced or communicated during the speech act, but can also refer to the act itself. We recommend that these cases should be annotated as LVC.full

Борко ће Марију ослободити брига Borko će Mariju osloboditi briga Borko freed Marija of her worries. → Borko, the subject of ослободити osloboditi relieve is not what is causing бриге brige worries

Constructions annotated as LVC.cause involve:

verbs that are typically used to express the cause of predicative nouns in general (e.g. cause, provoke), or
verbs that are only used to express the cause of particular predicative nouns (e.g. grant in to grant a right).

When the construction involves a typically causative verb (e.g. cause, provoke), it might seem counter-intuitive to annotate it as VMWE because it looks perfectly regular, not presenting any VMWE idiosyncrasy. However, it turned out difficult to distinguish idiosyncratic from regular LVC.cause, so both should be annotated, like for LVC.full. In other words, some LVC.cause constructions are compositional and can be understood as complex predicates with a causal support verb, regardless of their compositionality.

Typically causative verbs (e.g. cause, provoke) can sometimes be light. In this case, according to the LVC decision tree, LVC.full has priority over LVC.cause. For instance, the announcement provoked an unexpected reaction should be annotated as LVC.full and not LVC.cause, although provoke is a typically causative verb. Indeed, reaction has two arguments (reaction of X to Y), one of which is the subject of the verb (test LVC.2 passes). In other words, typically causative verbs may be used in either LVC.full or LVC.cause, depending upon whether the cause subject of the verb is a normal, canonical argument to the predicative noun (LVC.full) or an "external" non-canonical cause (LVC.cause).

Some verbs could be considered causative, but their interpretation goes beyond purely indicating the cause of the event/state. Therefore, you should NOT annotate as LVC.cause constructions involving:

verbs which encode a manner of causation:
verbs which encode modality:
aspectual verbs whose subject is a semantic argument of the noun:

Problematic cases and remarks

Syntactic variants

The (single or compound) noun n functions as a regular syntactic dependent, so LVCs exhibit regular syntactic variants.

قرار أخذ make a decision → المدير أخذه الذي القرار the decision that made by the director

взема решение → решението, което президентът взе the decision that the president made

eine Entscheidung treffen → die Entscheidung die der Direktor zu treffen hatte.

παίρνω μία απόφαση → η απόφαση που πρέπει κάποιος να πάρει.perno mia apofasi → i apofasi pu prepi kapios na pari take a decision → the decision one has to take to make a decision, the decision I have to make

make a decision → the decision that the director has to make.

tomar una decisión → la decisión tomada por la directora.

erabaki bat hartu decision one take to make a decision→ zuzendariak hartutako erabakia director taken decision the decision (which was) made by the director

prendre une décision → la décision prise par la directrice.

δόξαν ἣν ἔνιοι ἔχουσι περὶ τῆς Νικοφήμου οὐσίαςdoxan hēn enioi ekhousi peri tēs Nikophēmou ousias opinion which some have.3PL about the Nicophemos’ property the opinion which some hold about Nicophemus' property is a syntactic variant
δόξαν ἔχουσιdoxan ekhousi opinion.ACC have.3PL they hold an opinion is the canonical form

donijeti odluku to make a decision → odluka koju je morao donijeti direktor the decison that the director had to make

prendere una decisione → la decisione che il direttore ha dovuto prendere.

een beslissing nemen → de beslissing die de directeur moet nemen.

wziąć udział to take participation.ACCto take part → wzięcie udziału taking.GER participation.GENtaking part, biorący udział taking.PART participation.ACCtaking part

tomar banho take shower → o banho que eu tomei estava bom the shower which I took was good

a lua o decizieto make a decision → decizia pe care directorul trebuie să o ia the decison that the director has to make.

dati ime nekomu to give (somebody) a name to name (somebody) → the object receives a name and this action implies that as a result he/she is named. Therefore person who gives a name causes that something is named. The subject of the verb is not its semantic argument.
narediti konec nečemu to make an end (to something) to end (something) → the result of this action is that something is finished, which is caused by the subject of narediti to make

задати некоме бриге zadati nekome brige to give worries to sb. to worry sb. → бриге које је Борко задао Марији brige koje je Borko zadao Mariji The worries Borko gave to Marija

As explained in the section on syntactic variants of VMWEs, all LVC tests should be applied to the canonical form, that is, one in which the verb is in active voice and in finite form. If there is no canonical form, this is an indication that the target construction might not be an LVC, but a verbal idiom instead.

Selection of the verb

In many cases of LVCs, it can be said that there is some degree of selection of the verb by the noun.

جولة ب قام make a walk vs سباق ب قام make a race

вземам решение to make a decision vs *вземам отговорност to take responsibility
имам право to be right vs *притежавам право

eine Entscheidung treffen a decision meet make a decisionvs.*eine Entscheidung machen a decision make vs. *einen Beschluss treffen a resolution meet

κάνω διάλειμμα vs. #παίρνω διάλειμμα
παίρνω απόφαση vs.#κάνω απόφαση

have a walk vs *have a race
run a race vs *run a walk

tomar una decisión take a decision make a walk vs *dar una decisión give a decision but darse/tomar una ducha give.self/take a shower

pauso eman step give to take a step vs. ?pauso egin step do
bisita egin visit do to pay a visit vs. bisita eman visit give

faire une marche make a walk take a walk vs *procéder à une promenade perform a walk but faire/procéder à une enquête make/perform an inquiry

χάριν δίδωμιkharin didо̄mi gratitude.ACC give.1SG I show gratitude #χάριν ποιέομαι

postaviti pitanje to put a question to pose a question vs *postaviti odgovor

prendere una decisione take a decision make a decisionvs.*fareuna decisione make a decision vs. *prendere una conclusione take a conclusion

een wandeling maken a walk make to take a walk vs.*een race maken a race make

wziąć udział to take participation vs. *pobrać udział
mieć rację to have rightto be right vs. *posiadać rację to possess right

fazer uma prece to make a prayer vs. *dar uma prece to give a prayer but fazer/dar uma caminhada to make/give a walk

a da divorț to give divorce to divorce vs. *a oferi divorț

dati nasvet to give an advice → the subject of dati give cannot cause an advice

имати право imati pravo to have right to be right vs. *поседовати право *posedovati pravo to possess right

Yet some regularities exist. For example, large classes of nouns function with have (e.g. +property) or commit (+negative achievement). Therefore, we chose not to retain the selection of the verb as a criterion for LVC categorization. Instead, the decision tree should be applied to decide whether a candidate should be annotated as LVC.

Scope of annotation vs. literature on LVCs

Many authors distinguish support verbs from light verbs, still others differentiate between true light verbs and vague action verbs.

On the one hand, we take a narrower scope than what is usually considered in the literature by ignoring aspectual support verbs (except when aspect is morphological). We believe that aspectual verbs do contribute an additional (change of state) meaning to the expression, and most of the time they are completely productive, not forming interesting VMWEs. For instance, for the predicative noun walk, we will consider the light verb to have, but not the aspectual verbs to start, to pursue, to stop a walk. Thus, to have a walk is an LVC.full. Note that for some nouns such as bloom, which are in itself inchoative, we do consider to come into bloom as LVC.full, as both the verb and the noun are inchoative, so the verb does not add any semantics to the noun.

On the other hand we take a broader scope than what is usually considered in the literature by taking in cases in which the verb has light semantics per se (it only bears morphology, such as the tense and mood, in any case), which hence cannot be described as "bleached" as is usually said of support verbs. For instance, whereas to pay does not have its usual meaning in to pay a visit, it cannot really be said that commit does not have one of its meanings in commit a crime (note that commit can be used with any negatively charged achievement noun, e.g. suicide, crime, fraud, felony...). Nonetheless, we annotate to commit a crime as LVC.full since it passes all tests.

Verb and adjective paraphrase

One test often used in the literature is the existence of a morphologically related verb or adjective that means the same as the LVC. For instance, to make a visit is equivalent to to visit, to have an illness is equivalent to to be ill. Note however that it is neither sufficient nor compulsory:

some LVCs have no derivationally-related equivalents, such as to have a flu, to have faith and to commit a crime;
some constructions that are not LVCs do have a derivationally-related equivalent such as to write an email and to email;
some LVCs have derivationally-related equivalents that do not mean the same as the LVC, such as to make a face and to face, or that have different argumental structure from the LVC, such as to have a problem and to be problematic.

Nonetheless, it might be useful to reason about the derivationally-related equivalents to decide whether a noun is predicative in test LVC.1. Therefore, here are some useful questions that might help deciding about the predicative nature of the noun in the LVC candidate

Verb paraphrase Is the abstract noun derivationally related to a verb with the same semantics? Then, there is probably a semantic argument, which coincides with the subject of the verb, so test LVC.1 passes:

القرار أحمد أخذ Ahmed made a decision = أحمد قرر Ahmed decided

вземам решение to make a decision = решавам to decide
правя грешка to make a mistake = греша/сгрешавам to make a mistake

ο Γιάννης παίρνει μία απόφαση John makes a decision = ο Γιάννης αποφασίζει John decides
ο Γιάννης κάνει ένα ταξίδι John makes a trip = o Γιάννης ταξιδεύει
ο Γιάννης έχει θάρρος John has courage = ο Γιάννης είναι θαρραλέος John is courageous → and, more generally, characteristics and attributes
ο Γιάννης έχει πείνα/δίψα John has hunger/thirst = ο Γιάννης πεινάει/διψάει John is hungry/thirsty → and, more generally, physical sensations
ο Γιάννης έχει πάθος/φόβο/θυμό John has passion/fear/anger = ο Γιάννης παθιάζεται/φοβάται/θυμώνει John is passionate/afraid/angry → and, more generally, feelings, emotions, states

John makes a decision = John decides
John has a walk = John walks

Juan toma una decisión Juan makes a decision = Juan decide Juan decides
Juan da un paseo Juan takes a walk = Juan pasea Juan walks

Jonek erabakia hartu du = Johen erabaki du John decision-the taken has = John decided has John has made a decision = John has decided

πορείαν ποιέομαιporeian poieomai march.ACC do.1SG I march = πορεύομαι

Ivan donosi odluku Ivan takes decision = Ivan odlučujeIvan decides
Janica jeodnijela pobjedu Janica carried away a win = Janica je pobijedila Janica won

John neemt een beslissing John makes a decision = John beslist John decides

Jan podejmuje decyzję John takes decision = Jan decyduje John decides
Ewa odniosła zwycięstwo Eva carried away a victory = Ewa zwyciężyła Eva won

Ion ia o decizie John makes a decision = Ion decide John decides

postaviti vprašanje to pose a question → vprašanje, ki ga je moral postaviti the question that he had to pose

Марко је донео одлуку Marko je doneo odluku Marko brought a decision Marko made a decision = Марко је одлучио Marko je odlučio Marko decided
Марко је узео учешће Marko je uzeo učešće Marko took participation = Марко је учествовао Marko je učestvovao Marko participated

Adjective paraphrase: Is the abstract noun derivationally related to an adjective with the same semantics? Then, there is probably a semantic argument, which coincides with the noun that is modified by the adjective, so test LVC.1 passes.

شجاعة أحمد ال يملك Ahmed has the courage = شجاع أحمد Ahmed is courageous

имам смелост to have courage = съм смел to be courageous
нямам търпение to not have patience = съм нетърпелив to be impatient
нося отговорност to carry responsibility = съм отговорен to be responsible

ο Γιάννης έχει θάρρος = ο Γιάννης είναι θαρραλέοςo Yanis echi θaros = o Yanis ine θaraleos → and, more generally, characteristics and attributes
Ο Γιάννης έχει δύναμη = Ο Γιάννης είναι δυνατόςO Γianis echi δinami = O Γianis ine δinatos → and, more generally, characteristics and attributes

John has courage = John is courageous → and, more generally, characteristics and attributes
John has hunger/thirst = John is hungry/thirsty → and, more generally, physical sensations
John has passion/fear/anger = John is passionate/afraid/angry → and, more generally, feelings and emotions
John has problems/difficulties = Something is problematic/difficult for John → and, more generally, states

Juan tiene miedo Juan has fear = Juan es miedoso Juan is easily scared → and, more generally, characteristics and attributes
Juan tiene hambre Juan has hunger = Juan está hambriento Juan is hangry → and, more generally, physical sensations

Anek itxaropena du = Ane itxaropentsu dago Ane hope has = Ane hopeful is Ane has hope = Ane is hopeful → and, more generally, characteristics and attributes
Anek = Ane gosetuta Ane hunger has = Ane hungry is Ane has hunger = Ane is hungry→ and, more generally, physical sensations

νοῦν ἔχωnoun ekhо̄ sense.ACC have.1SG I am sensible = ἔννοος

imati strpljenja to have patience = biti strpljiv to be patient
nositi odgovornost to carry responsibility = biti odgovoran to be responsible

John heeft moed John has courage = John is moedig → and, more generally, characteristics and attributes

mieć odwagę to have courage = być odważnym to be courageous
mieć straty to have losses = być stratnym to have lost sth
mieć sens to have a sense to make sense = być sensownym to be reasonable

avea curaj to have courage = fi curajosto be courageous

имати храбрости imati hrabrosti to have courage = бити храбар biti hrabar to be courageous

Synonym verb/adjective paraphrase: Does the abstract noun have a synonym/hypernym derivationally related to a verb or adjective with the same semantics? Then, the questions above can be applied to the synmonym verb/adjective.

Иван и Мария постигнаха консенсус Ivan and Maria reached a consensus = Ivan and Maria agreed → consensus has no corresponding verb or adjective, but agreement is a synonym

έχω τη γνώμη echo ti gnomi I have the opinion I think = πιστεύω → γνώμη has no corresponding verb or adjective, but πίστη,άποψη are synonyms

John and Mary reach a consensus = John and Mary agree → consensus has no corresponding verb or adjective, but agreement is a synonym
John has a chance to do something = John is likely to do something → chance has no corresponding verb or adjective, but likelihood is a synonym

Anek min eman dio Joni = Anek Jon mindu du Ane pain given has to-Jon = Ane Jon hurt has Ane has hurt Jon

Radnici i uprava postigli su konsenzus workers and managment reached consensus = Radnici i uprava su se dogovorili workers and managment agreed→ konsenzus consensus has no corresponding verb or adjective, but dogovor agreement is a synonym

mieć 190 cm wzrostu to have 190 cm of height to be 190 cm tall = mierzyć 190 cm tp measure 190 cm to be 190 cm tall
dokonać inwazji to perform an invasion = wtargnąć to invade

da voie=permite

Маја има шансе да нешто уради Maja ima šanse da nešto uradi = Маја може нешто да уради Maja može nešto da uradi → шанса šasna has no corresponding verb or adjective, but моћи/могућност moći/mogućnost is a synonym

The existence of a related verb is not a definitive tests, but a hint that the noun is probably predicative. Since determining whether a noun is predicative is tricky, we advise language teams to provide additional documentation and examples for borderline cases.

Checking if the subject is an argument with syntactic tests

The previous version of the guidelines had a syntactic test which you can still use to verify if the verb's subject is an argument of the noun. However, this test was considered hard to apply in the previous guidelines, and is not mandatory anymore.

The syntactic test consists in trying to add the semantic argument as a complement of the noun in the presence of the verb. In other words, does the noun n, in the presence of v, prohibit at least one syntactic argument a which it normally licensed in the absence of v?

An alternative formulation for this test is the following: Let s be the subject of v, and let r be the semantic role that s plays with respect to the noun n. Is it prohibited for r to be realized both by s and by a syntactic argument a of n, except when a is in the whole–part relation with s?

الميزانية قرار الوزير أخذ + قرار الحكومة في الميزانية → في الميزانية قرارالحكومة أخذ الوزير — الوزير the decider cannot be a modifier of decision قرار

Петър Стоянов взе решението да подпише договора Ivan made the decision to sign the contract + решението на президента да подпише договора → *Петър Стоянов взе решението на президента да подпише договора — the noun cannot be modified by the person performing the act/event (which is the subject)

Die Königin hat dem Premierminister einen Besuch abgestattet the Queen has paid a visit to the Prime Minister + ein Besuch der Dame beim Premierminister a visit of the Lady to the Prime Minister *Die Königin hat einen Besuch der Dame beim Premierminister abgestattet*The Queen paid a visit of the Lady to the Prime Minister — the visitor cannot be a modifier of visit
Paul hat eine Entscheidung über das Budget getroffen Paul made a decision on the budget + die Entscheidung des Rates über das Budget the council's decision on the budget → *Paul traf die Entscheidung des Rates über das Budget *Paul made the committee's decision on the budget — the decision maker cannot modify decision

ο πρωθυπουργός έκανε επίσημη επίσκεψη στον Αμερικανό πρόεδροo proθypurgos ekane episimi episkepsi ston amerikano proedro + η επίσκεψη του πρωθυπουργού στον Αμερικανό πρόεδρο
ο πρωθυπουργός έκανε επίσημη επίσκεψη του υπουργού στον Αμερικανό πρόεδρo proθypurgos ekane episimi episkepsi tu ypurgu ston amerikano proedro — the visitor cannot be a modifier of επίσκεψη

The Queen paid a visit to the Prime Minister + a visit of the Lady to the Prime Minister → *The Queen paid a visit of the Lady to the Prime Minister — the visitor cannot be a modifier of visit
Paul made a decision on the budget + the committee's decision on the budget → *Paul made the committee's decision on the budget — the decision maker cannot modify decision
Paul had a discussion with Mary+ Peter's discussion → *Paul had Peter's discussion with Mary
Bjarnson scored a goal + Arnason's goal → *Paul scored Arnason's goal but Paul scored the goal of Iceland — the scoring entity can only modify goal in the last case, when they are part of the Iceland team

La reina hizo una visita al primer ministro The Queen paid a visit to the prime minister + una visita de la primera dama al primer ministro a visit of the first Lady to the prime minister→ *La reina hizo una visita de la primera dama al primer ministro The Queen paid a visit of the first lady to the first minister— the visitor cannot be a modifier of visita
Pablo tomó una decisión con respecto al presupuesto Pablo made a decision on the budget + la decisión del comité con respecto al presupuesto the committee's decision on the budget→ *Pablo tomó la decisión del comité con respecto al presupuesto Pablo made the committee's decision on the budget— the decision maker cannot modify decisión

Ikasleek arreta jarri zioten irakasleari +lagunen arreta The-students attention put to-the-teacher + friends' attention The students paid attention to the teacher + their friends' attention → *Ikasleek lagunen arreta jarri zioten irakasleari The students paid their friends' attention to the teacher — the person paying attention cannot be a modifier of arreta

La ministre a rendu une visite aux victimes + la visite de la ministre aux victimes → *La ministre a rendu une visite du président aux victimes — the visitor cannot be a modifier of visite
Bjarnson a marqué un but + le but d'Arnason → *Paul a marqué le but d'Arnason but Paul a marqué le but de l'Islande — the scoring entity can only modify but (goal) in the last case, when they are part of the Iceland team

Učiteljica je donijela odluku u vezi s izletom The teacher made a decision regarding the excursion + učenikova odluka u vezi s izletom pupil's decision regarding the excursion → *učiteljica je donijela učenikovu odluku u vezi s izletom — the decision maker cannot modify decision

Il primo ministro ha preso la decisione di dimettersi the Prime Minister decided to resign + le dimissioni del governo the resignation of the government → *Il primo ministro ha preso la decisione del governo di dimettersi — the resigner cannot be a modifier of resignation

De koningin heeft de premier een bezoek gebracht the Queen has paid a visit to the Prime Minister + een bezoek van de dame aan de premier a visit of the Lady to the Prime Minister *De koningin heeft een bezoek van de dame aan de premier gebracht*The Queen paid a visit of the Lady to the Prime Minister — the visitor cannot be a modifier of visit

Paweł złożył rezygnację ze stanowiska dyrektora Paweł submitted a resignation from the position of the director Paweł tendered his resignation from the director position + rezygnacja Piotra→ *Paweł złożył rezygnację Piotra ze stanowiska dyrektora Paweł tendered Piotr's resignation from the director position - the resignation cannot be modified by the resigning person
Paweł prowadzi rozmowy → *Paweł prowadzi rozmowy Piotra Paweł leads Piotr's talks , Paweł prowadzi rozmowy komisji Paweł leads the talks of the commission - the discussing entity komisjacommission can only modify rozmowytalks if Paweł belongs to the commission.
Jan otrzymał wymówienieJan received a dismissal + wymówienie dla Pawła dismissal for Paweł → *Jan otrzymał wymówienie dla Piotra

João está tomando banho John is taking shower + o banho do Pedro Pedro's shower → *João está tomando o banho do Pedro — the bath cannot be modified by a bath taker
Pedro sofreu prejuízo com a compra Pedro suffered finantial loss with the purchase + o prejuízo do José José's finantial loss → *Pedro sofreu o prejuízo do José com a compra — the financial loss cannot be modified by the affected entity
A Maria fez um aborto Maria made an abortion + o aborto da Joana Joana's abortion → #A Maria fez o aborto da Joana — the noun cannot be modified by another patient
O médico realizou o parto com sucesso The doctor performed the childbirth with success + o parto do Dr. Pedro Dr. Smith's childbirth → *O médico realizou o parto do Dr. Pedro com sucesso — the childbirth could be modified by the mother (patient) but not by another doctor (agent).

Paul a dat sfaturi surorii salePaul gave advice to his sister + sfatul lui Petre Peter's advice → Paul a dat sfatul lui Petre surorii sale Paul gave Peter's advice to his sister — sfatul the advice cannot be modified by its author

Aleš si dela skrbi Aleš makes worries Aleš has worries = Aleš je zaskrbljen Aleš is worried → and, more generally, feelings and emotions

Борко је водио расправу с Маријом Borko je vodio raspravu s Marijom Borko led a discussion with Marija Borko had a discussion with Marija + Петрова расправа +Petrova rasprava Borko's discussion → *Борко је водио Петрову расправу с Маријом *Borko je vodio Petrovu raspravu s Marijom Borko had Peter's discussion with Marija

The rationale for this tests is that a semantic argument n cannot be realized as its syntactic dependent, since it is already realized as v's syntactic dependent instead (usually as v's subject). For instance the noun visit takes two semantic arguments, the visitor and the visited entity, as in the visit of the Queen to the Prime Minister. When used in to pay a visit, the visitor semantic argument is realized as the subject of to pay (The Queen paid a visit to the Prime Minister), and cannot be realized at the same time within the NP headed by visit (*The Queen paid a visit of the Lady to the Prime Minister).

Note that the syntactic formulation may be tricky to apply. It is sometimes possible to add the semantic argument as a complement of the noun in the presence of the verb, if we change the interpretation of the argument (and thus its thematic role). For instance, even though the construction John took Luke's decision may be acceptable, the interpretation would be comparative (John took a decision that Luke should have taken). Therefore, the test passes since the verb is still connecting a predicate (decision) to its argument (John, the decider).

Section 5.3

Verbal idioms (VID)

Verbal idioms constitute a universal category. A verbal idiom (VID) has at least two lexicalized components including a head verb and at least one of its dependents. The dependent can be of different types. Here are some examples:

Subject

أسهم ال ارتفعت stock soared

броят му се ребрата be counted someone's (possessive pronoun) ribs (someone) to be very thin and skinny

ein kleines Vöglein hat mir gezwitschert a little bird told me

(OEG) 𓄫 𓄣 𓎡 𓆓𓏏𓇿 ꜣw ꞽb ⸗k č̣.t Your heart (ꞽb) shall-be-long (ꜣw) eternally (č̣.t). You shall be glad eternally. (Borchardt 1907: 80, fig. 55)

μου είπε ένα πουλάκιmu ipe ena pulaki me told a little-bird a little bird told me
κόβει το μάτι μου kovi to mati mu cut the eye my to notice

a little bird told someone

tu hora ha llegado your time has arrived your time has come

ἐὰν θεὸς ἐθέλῃean theos ethelē if god want.3SG if possible

un uccellino disse a qualcuno

気がつく mind.nom touch notice/realise
気分が晴れる feeling.nom clear feel better

galva kūp the head is steaming knowsto do something with great mental effort

boontje komt om zijn loontje he that mischief hatches, mischief catches

licho wie devil knowsI have no idea

a sua hora chegou your time has arrived your time has come

a șoptit o păsăricăwhispered a bird little a little bird told someone

srce pade v hlače komu (someone's) heart drops into the pants one is lacking courage to do something , sekira pade v med komu (someone's) hatchet falls in honey one gets lucky

ђаво да некога носи đavo da nekoga nosi may the Devil carry someone to hell with someone
Бог некога погледао Bog nekoga pogledao God looked at someone to be lucky
ђаво је умешао прсте đavo je umešao prste the Devil mixed in his fingers an unfavorable outcome
пао некоме мрак на очи pao nekome mrak na oči darkness fell on someone's eyes to blow a fuse

Direct object

إجتماع أحيى revived a meeting to lead a meeting

гушна букета hug the bunch of flowers to die

er hat den Schuss nicht gehört he did the shoot not hear it takes him a long(er) time to understand sth

(OEG) 𓐣𓂝𓏝 𓃹𓈖𓇋𓋴 𓌃𓅱𓏝 𓈖 𓋹𓈖𓐍𓅱 wč̣ꜥ Wnꞽś mṭw n ꜥnḫ.w Unas (Wnꞽś) shall-separate (wč̣ꜥ) the word (mṭw) for (n) the living (ꜥnḫ.w). Unas shall judge the living (PT 273b, W)

κάνω σεφτέkano sefte
λαμβάνω μέροςtake part
κρατάω τα μπόσικαkratao ta bosika

to kick the bucket

estirar la pata to strech the leg kick the bucket

δίκην λαμβάνωdikēn lambanо̄ justice.ACC take.1SG I punish

tirare le cuoia

空気を読む atmosphere.acc read read the situation

atstiept kājas to strech one's legs to die

het ijzer smeden als het heet is iron forge while hot make hay while the sun shines; strike while the iron is hot

udać Greka to pretend to be a Greekto pretend not to understand

bater as botas to hit the boots to die, abrir mão de algo to open hand (of something) to give up (on something)

ustreliti kozla to shoot the goat to say or do something stupid

дизати нос dizati nos to raise one's nose to be haughty
добити ногу dobiti nogu to get a leg to get dumped
држати банку držati banku to hold a bank to dominate the conversation

Circumstantial or adverbial complement

الحديد وهو ساخن ضرب hit the iron and it is hot strike while the iron is hot

удрям в гръб hit in the back to stab in the back
правя сам да си говори make (someone) to talk to himself to drive (someone) crazy

etwas wie warme Semmeln verkaufen sth. like warm bread rolls to sell sth. fast and easy

(OEG) 𓁹 𓂋 𓄣 𓎡 ꞽr (⸗ꞽ) r ꞽb ⸗k (I) (⸗ꞽ) shall-do (ꞽr) according-to (r) your (⸗k) heart (ꞽb). I will do what you want. (Duell 1938: pl. 162)

φέρω βαρέωςfero vareos bring heavily resent

to take something with a pinch of salt, to sell like hotcakes, to strike while the iron is hot, to come off with flying colors

coger algo con pinzas to hang something with pegs take something with a pinch of salt

εἰς χεῖρας ἐλθεῖνeis kheiras elthein into hand.PL go.INF to surrender

prendere qualcosa con le pinze
battere il ferro finché è caldo

気になる mind.dat become be on one's mind

palaist vējā to let go in the windto waste

iets met een korreltje zout nemen to take something with a pinch of salt

wiercić komuś dziurę w brzuchu to drill a hole in one's bellyto intrusively solicit someone, to insist too much

levar em conta to bring in account to take into account
ir ao ar go to the air to go on air

a lua în considerare to bring in account to take into account

spati kot ubit to sleep like dead to sleep soundly

продаје се као алва prodaje se kao alva to sell like halva to sell well
ударити на велика звона udariti na velika zvona to bang on big bells to spread the news
бити као запета пушка biti kao zapeta puška to be like a tense rifle to be ready for action

It is often challenging to distinguish VIDs from other VMWE categories if only one dependent of the head verb is lexicalized. The VMWE categorization depends on the category of this dependent:

Reflexive clitic or particle: the VMWE is either an IRV (reflexive pronoun) or a VPC (particle), never a VID.
Verb with no lexicalized dependent: fine-grained tests need to be applied in order to discriminate between a MVC and a VID. See the section on Structural tests.
Extended nominal phrase: fine-grained tests need to be applied in order to discriminate between an LVC and a VID. See the section on Structural tests.

With a dependent of any other category, the VMWE is always a VID, including the following:

Adjectival phrase

постигам своето to achieve one's ownto have it my way

schwarz fahren to drive black to take a ride without a ticket

κάνω αρπαχτή
κρατάω πισινή

to come clean, to stand firm

jugar sucio to play dirty to play dirty

uscirne puliti

うまくいく good.ly go go well

panākt savu to achieve one's ownto have it my way

zwartrijden to drive black to take a ride without a ticket

zrobić swoje to do one's ownto do what one is supposed to do
tykać cudze to touch someone else'sto take something that does not belong to you
dopiąć swego to button up one's ownto fulfill one's plans

to jogar sujo to play dirty

a juca murdar to play dirty

biti zelen od zavisti to be green with envy

бити зелен biti zelen to be green to be a greenhorn/to be inexperienced

Verb with lexicalized dependents

не мога две думи на кръст да кажа I cannot say two words crossing each other to be unable to speak or express oneself → две думи на кръст да кажа is a clause
правя сам да си говори make someone talk to himself to drive someone crazy → сам да си говори is a clause

έπεσε να πεθάνει

to make ends meet

far quadrare i conti

de handen ineenslaan hands joined hit join forces

састављати крај с крајем sastavljati kraj s krajem to join one end to another to make ends meet → крај са крајем kraj sa krajem is a clause

Relative clause

ще видиш откъде изгрява слънцето you will see where the sun rises from(angrily) you will get what you deserve, you will be punished

wissen wo es langgeht to know where things are heading to know on which side one's bread is buttered

δεν ξέρω πούν παν τα τέσσερα

to know on which side the bread is buttered

saber de qué pie cojea to know of which foot (he/she) limps to know someone inside out

non sapere da quale parte stare

parādīt, kur vēži ziemo to show where crayfish hibernateto cause someone the unpleasantness he deserves

de klok horen luiden, maar niet weten waar de klepel hangt to hear the bell ring, but not know where the clapper hangs ≈to not know the details of something

wiedzieć, skąd wieje wiatr to know where wind blows fromto know on which side your bread is buttered, to know how to take advantage of the situation

saber onde pisar know where to-step to know the way to succeed in something
mostrar com quantos paus se faz uma canoa show with how many sticks one makes a canoe to punish or take revenge

a ști cu ce se mănâncă to know with what CL.Refl. eats to knwo what it is about

vedeti koliko je ura to know what time it is to realize the truth

знати у ком грму лежи зец znati u kom grmu leži zec to know in which bush the rabbit lies to know what the main problem is
не знати где је некоме глава ne znati gde je nekome glava not to know where one's head is to be out of one's mind
дај шта даш дај šta daš give what you give be satisfied with anything that is given to you

Non-reflexive pronoun

втасахме я we proved it.FEM (as in bread: raise in volume due to yeast) to fall into a difficult situation

es gibt it gives there is

τα καταφέρνωta kataferno
την πατάωtin patao

to make it

l'emporter to take it away to win

le ha prese

Ej tu galīgi!Go you ultimately! Go to hell!

het eens zijn it agreed be to agree

Polish does not seem to have this type of VMWEs

dá-lhe João! give to him/her, João! show them what you got, João!

a o șterge to her delete to fly the coop
a o întinde to her extend to fly the coop synonymous expressions with the non-anaphoric feminine ACC personal clitic 'o' functioning as an expletive

ucvreti jo to escape her to escape something/someone by running

n.a.

Sentential expressions with no open slots, such as proverbs and conventionalized sentences, are included in the scope of VIDs.

تجري الرياح بما لا تشتهي السفن Winds blow counter to what ships desire

краставите магарета се надушват отдалече the itchy donkeys smell each other from afaralike people are attracted to each other

Rom wurde nicht an einem Tag erbaut Rome was not build in a day wer A sagt muss auch B sagen who says A must also say B you must finish what you start

στο σπίτι του κρεμασμένου δεν μιλάνε για σχοινίin-the house the.GEN hunged-man.GEN not speak.03.PL about rope

Rome was not built in a day
Fortune favors the bold
The pleasure is mine
I beg your pardon!

Roma no se construyó en un día Rome was not build in a day donde dije digo, digo Diego where said.I said, say.I Diego to do or give something and then take it back, to retract oneself

συνῄδη οὐδὲν ἐπισταμένῳsunēdē ouden epistamenо̄ know.PLP.1SG nothing know.PTC I know that I know nothing

Roma non è stata costruita in un giorno
La fortuna aiuta gli audaci
Il piacere è mio

Rīga nekad nebūs gatava Riga will never be ready (made)

de klok horen luiden, maar niet weten waar de klepel hangt to hear the bell ring, but not know where the clapper hangs ≈to not know the details of something

trafiła kosa na kamień met the scythe a stonesomeone rude/dishonest came across someone else who used similar methods against him/her

quem vê cara não vê coração who sees face doesn't see heart a person can lie/omit his/her feelings

Urciorul nu merge de multe ori la apă Pitcher-the not goes of many times at water The pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last

Počasi se daleč pride more haste less speed
Po toči zvoniti je prepozno there is no use ringing the bells after hail it is to late

нашла крпа закрпу našla krpa zakrpu a rag found a patch to find one's other half
било па прошло bilo pa prošlo happened and it's done let bygones be bygones
рекла казала rekla kazala said and told hearsay

If more than one dependent of the head verb is lexicalized, then the candidate VMWE is always classified as a VID.

لسانه القط أكل the cat ate his tongue

заравям глава в пясъка to hide head in sandto pretend not to see a problem

die Katze aus dem Sack lassen to let the cat out of the bag

βάζω λάδι στη φωτιά vazo ladi sti fotia put oil to-the firemake things worse
κάνω τη ζωή ποδήλατοkano ti zoi poδilato make.1SG the life bicycle to torture

to let the cat out of the bag, to cut a long story short, to call it a day

hacer de tripas corazón make of intestines heart to pluck up the courage
dejar con la miel en los labios to_leave with the honey in the lips leave (sb) wanting more
dar gato por liebre to_give cat for hare to rip off, to take for a ride

se faire des idées to make SELF ideas to imagine something false,s'en aller to go SELF from there to leave,il y a it has there there is

話を大きくする story.acc big make exaggerate

pirkt kaķi maisā to buy a cat in a bagto agree to something without knowing the necessary information

een kat in de zak kopen to buy a pig in a poke → two dependents kat and in de zak

chować głowę w piasek to hide head in sandto pretend not to see a problem

tapar o sol com a peneira to hide the sun with a sieve to sugar-coat

a da bir cu fugiții to give tribute with fugitives.the to back away

beseda mi je ostala v grlu word got stuck in my throat I am speechless

бежати главом без обзира bežati glavom bez obzira to run away mindlessly to bolt
бежати као ђаво од крста bežati kao đavo od krsta to run away like Satan from a cross to run like a bat out of hell
забити главу у песак zabiti glavu u pesak to stick your head in the sand to bury your head in the sand
ићи линијом мањег отпора ići linijom manjeg otpora to go with the line of least resistance to take the path of least resistance

att sätta sig upp mot någon to sit oneself up against someone to defy someone
att dra sitt strå till stacken to draw one's straw to stack.the to contribute (in a small way)

Cases when there is no single clearly identifiable head verb, because of coordinated verbs or of an irregular syntactic structure, are also covered by the VID category.

اصبر تنل be patient you get be patient

цъфна и вържа to blossom and give fruit (usually sarcastically) to prosper

leben und leben lassen live and let live

έδωσε πήρε

to drink and drive

coser y cantarto_sew and to_singeasy as pie, a piece of cake

ἠντεβόλει καὶ ἱκετεύεēntebolei kai hiketeue supplicate.3SG and beseech.3SG he begged and beseeched

leven en laten leven live and let live

pluć i łapać spit and catch to be lazy, to do nothing useful
coś kogoś ani ziębi, ani grzeje something neither cools nor warms someonesomeone is indifferent to something
badż tak dobry i zrób cośbe so good and do somenthingbe so good as to do something

pintar e bordar paint and knit to abuse

a tunat și i-a adunatit.has thundered and CL.ACC-it.has gatheredbirds of a feather flock together
seamănă, dar nu răsaresow.3SG (homonym of resemble), but not sprout.3SGnot to resemble

živi in pusti živeti live and let live

ни лук јео ни лук мирисао ni luk jeo ni luk mirisao neither ate nor smelled an onion to be innocent
нити смрди нити мирише niti smrdi niti miriše neither stinks nor has a nice scent neither good nor bad

n.a.

to voice act
to pretty-print
to short-circuit
to tumble dry

n.a.

court-circuiter to short-circuit

n.a. there are no cases of compound hyphenated verbs in RO

n.a. there are no cases of compound hyphenated verbs in SL

рекла-казала rekla-kazala said and told hearsay

In case of several lexicalized dependents, special care must be taken to identify and also annotate embedded VMWEs.

страхувам се от собствената си сянка to fear SELF from one's own shadowto get easily scared → contains the IRV страхувам се to fear SELFto be afraid

einen Plan aufstellen to set up a plan to draw up a plan → contains the VPC aufstellen to set up

to let the cat out of the bag → contains the VPC to let out

hacerse ilusiones make.self hopes to get your hopes up → contains the IRV hacerse

se faire des idées to make SELF ideas to imagine something false → contains the non-VMWEs se faire and faire des idées

een plan opstellen to set up a plan to draw up a plan → contains the VPC opstellen to set up

bać się własnego cienia to fear SELF one's own shadowto be very timid → contains the IRV bać się to fear SELFto be afraid

virar-se nos trinta turn-RCLI in-the thirty to get by contains the synonymous IRV virar-se to get by ≠ virar to turn/become

a da cărțile pe față to give cards.the on face to reaveal one's true intentions → contains the ID a da pe față to reveal
a-și da arama pe față to give his/her copper.the on face to reveal his/her true (evil) nature → this is even more complicated since, besides the ID a da pe față, the IRV has to be annotated as well - a three-level embedding

delati se norca iz koga to make RCLI fool of someone to make fun of someone → contains the IRV delati se to make oneself to pretend

бојати се сопствене сенке bojati se sopstvene senke to fear SELF one's own shadow to be afraid of one's own shadow → contains the IRV бојати се to fear SELF to be afraid

Idioms whose head verb is the copula (to be) can pose special challenges because their complements may be (nominal, adjectival, etc.) MWEs themselves. In this task, we consider constructions with a copula to be VMWEs only if the complement does not retain the idiomatic meaning when used without the verb.

съм с единия крак в гроба be with one leg in the graveto be close to death→ idiom because #с единия крак в гроба with one leg in the grave loses the meaning
съм на червено be on redto be in debt → non-VMWE because the copula can be omitted, as in в края на месеца винаги оставам на червеноat the end of the month I always get into debt

sei kein Frosch be no frog be no chicken → idiom because #kein Frosch no frog loses the meaning

to be dying for → idiom because #dying loses the meaning of wanting something
to be somebody → idiom because #somebody loses the meaning of being important or successful
it is double Dutch to me → non-VMWE because the copula can be omitted, as in he seems to speak double Dutch

ser un pelota to be a ball to suck/butter up → idiom because un pelota a ball loses its original meaning

οἷον τ`ἦνhoion t’ēn of.what.sort and was.3SG it was possible

??? sprake zijn van there is some talk

być jedną nogą na tamtym świecie to be with one leg in the other worldto be close to death→ idiom because #jedna noga na tamtym świecie one leg in the other world loses the meaning
być do rzeczy to be to the thingto be relevant → non-VMWE because the copula can be omitted, as in dał parę argumentów całkiem do rzeczyhe gave a couple of quite relevant arguments
być w trakcie (czegoś) to be in the road (of sth)to be doing sth → non-VMWE because the copula can be omitted, as in wyszedł w trakciezebraniahe went out during the meeting

ser alguém na vida to be somebody in life to be somebody → idiom because #alguém na vida loses the meaning
não ser flor que se cheire to not be a flower that one may smell to be an untrustworthy person → idiom because #flor que se cheire loses the meaning
isso é grego pra mim that's greek to me → non-VMWE because the copula can be omitted, as in você está falando grego

a fi ușă de biserică to be door of church to be honest → idiom because #ușă de biserică loses the meaning
a fi un papă-lapte to be a eat-milk to be a piker → idiom because #un papă-lapte preserves the meaning

biti trn v peti komu to be a thorn in somebody's heel to be a big problem, obstacle → idiom because #trn v peti loses the meaning

бити неко и нешто biti neko i nešto to be someone and something to be a somebody →idiom because #некоsomebody and #нештоsomething loses its meaning of being important or succesful
бити једном ногом у гробу biti jednom nogom u grobu to be with one leg in the grave to be close to death →idiom because #једном ногом у гробу with one leg in the grave loses its meaning
бити зелен biti zelen to be green to be a greenhorn/to be inexperienced → idiom because #зелен green loses its meaning

Note that special care must be taken in languages in which the copula omission is a regular or even a compulsory phenomenon (e.g. in Russian). In those cases, language-specific tests are required to distinguish a copula-based idiom from a non-verbal MWE.

Idioms typically have both a literal and an idiomatic reading. Thus, they are closely connected to the phenomenon of a metaphor (see also the section on VMWEs versus metaphors). This often makes them semantically totally non-compositional, i.e. none of their lexicalized components retains any of their original meanings. Some authors argue though that partial semantic compositionality can be obtained via decomposability, e.g. to spill the beans is compositional provided that to spill is paraphrased as to reveal and the beans as a secret

VID-specific decision tree:

In this tree, a single YES to one of the tests is sufficient to decide that a candidate is a VID. Note however that this tree is to be applied only after it was referred to by the generic decision tree containing structural tests.

Apply test VID.1 - [CRAN: Candidate contains cranberry word?]

It is a VID, exit.
Apply test VID.2 - [LEX: Regular replacement of a component ⇒ unexpected meaning shift?]

It is a VID, exit.
Apply test VID.3 - [MORPH: Regular morphological change ⇒ unexpected meaning shift?]

It is a VID, exit.
Apply test VID.4 - [MORPHSYNT: Regular morphosyntactic change ⇒ unexpected meaning shift?]

It is a VID, exit.
Apply test VID.5 - [SYNT: Regular syntactic change ⇒ unexpected meaning shift?]

It is a VID, exit.
It is not a VID, exit

Test VID.1 - [CRAN] - Cranberry word

Does the candidate expression contain a cranberry word?

it is a VID

хващам натясно catch in a tight place to coerce, to pressure → натясно is only used in MWEs
правя на бъзе и коприва to turn into elder and nettle to scold, to tell off → бъзе is an old word, very rarely used independently
вземам предвид, имам предвид to → предвид (as adverb) is only used in MWEs
стоя диван чапраз to stay upright as in Osman council to stay ready to serve → чапраз is an old word, very rarely used independently

sich um etw. scharen to gather around something → scharen is not a stand-alone word

μάλλιασε η γλώσσα μου maliase i glosa mu is-full-of-hair-3SG the-SG.NOM tongue-SG.NOM my-SG.GEN.POSS to repeat the same thing again and again → μάλλιασε is not a stand-alone word

to go astray → astray is not a stand-alone word

sin decir ni chus ni mus → chus is not a stand-alone word without to_say neither chus nor mus without saying a word
no decir ni chus ni mus → chus is not a stand-alone word not to_say neither chus nor mus not to say a word, to remain silent
hacer algo a troche y moche → troche is not a stand-alone word to do something at troche and dulled to do something in a nonsensical way, willy-nilly, haphazardly

txintik ere ez esan 'txint' neither no say not even say a word →the word 'txint' is not used out of this expression

prendre la poudre d'escampette to escape → escampette is not a stand-alone word

μηδεμίαν ὤρην ἔχεινmēdemian о̄rēn ekhein no worry have.INF not to be worried

mangiare a ufo to eat without paying → a ufo is not a stand-alone word
fare lo gnorri to play dumb → gnorri is not a stand-alone word
scendere in lizza to enter the lists → lizza is not a stand-alone word

一矢を報いるone.arrow.ACC repayto retaliate → 一矢 is not a stand-alone word
矢面に立つ arrow.face.LOC standto face direct attack → 矢面 is not a stand-alone word

op apegapen liggenbe at one's last gasp → apegapen is not a stand-alone word

odsądzić kogoś od czci i wiary to refuse honor and faith to someone to drag sb's name through the mire/mud, to damage someone's reputation by saying insulting things about them
wyjść na jaw to come-out to light to transpire, to become known

ir para as cucuias to go wrong → cucuias is not a stand-alone word

a nu avea habar to have no idea → habar is not a stand-alone word

biti si kvit to pay up a debt, owe nothing to somebody → kvit is not a stand-alone word

не би било згорег ne bi bilo zgoreg it wouldn't be for the worse it wouldn't be a bad idea → згорег zgoreg is not a stand-alone word
читати (некоме) вакелу čitati (nekome) vakelu to read somebody a scolding to scold somebody → вакела vakela is not a stand-alone word
имати на претек imati na pretek to have an abundance → претек pretek is not a stand-alone word
не часити ne časiti don't jump the gun → часити časiti is not a stand-alone word

att komma ihåg to remember → ihåg is not a stand-alone word

further tests are required

правя на сос → правя and сос are stand-alone words

sich um etw. herum stellen to stand around something → all words are stand-alone words

to go away → go and away are stand-alone words

ir a la universidad to go to university → ir, a, la and universidad are stand-alone words

unibertsitatera joan university-to go to go to university →both words are stand-alone

andare giù to go down → andare and giù are stand-alone words

hij gaat weg he goes away → gaan and weg are stand-alone words

wyznać tajemnicę to reveal a secret → wyznać and tajemnica are standalone words

ir para a escola to go to school → ir, para, a and escola are stand-alone words

a nu avea idee to have no idea → all words are stand-alone words

biti si v sorodu to be related to each other → biti si and sorod are stand-alone words

бити квит biti kvit to be even → бити biti and квит kvitare stand-alone words

att komma på to figure out → komma and på are stand-alone words

Test VID.2 - [LEX] - Lexical inflexibility

Does a regular replacement of one of the components by related words taken from a relatively large semantic class lead to ungrammaticality or to an unexpected change in meaning?

it is a VID

وضعه على الرَّف put it on the shelf ـ→ وضعه على الطاولة # to put it on table

бълвам змии и гущери to spew snakes and lizards → #бълвам влечуги (to spew reptiles)
всяка жаба да си знае гьола every frog to know its own puddle → #всяка жаба да си знае локвата

die Katze aus dem Sack lassen to let the cat out of the bag → #den Hund aus dem Karton lassen #to let the dog out of the box
eine Entscheidung treffen to meet a decision to make a decision → #eine Entscheidung machen/herstellen a decision make/produce #to make/produce a decision

(OEG) 𓎕𓏝 𓎠𓅆 𓄣 𓆑 𓇋𓅓 mḥ nb (⸗ꞽ) ꞽb ⸗f ꞽm (⸗ꞽ) (My) (⸗ꞽ) lord (nb) filled (mḥ) his (⸗f) heart (ꞽb) with (ꞽm) (me) (⸗ꞽ) My lord trusted me (Urk. I 134, 1) → *mḥ nb (⸗ꞽ) ṭp ⸗f ꞽm (⸗ꞽ) (My) lord filled his head with (me).

κάνω την πάπια → #κάνω τη χήναkano tin papia --> kano tin china make.1SG the duck play dumb
φέρω βαρέως → #φέρω ελαφρώς
μπαίνει το νερό στ' αυλάκι → #μπαίνει το νερό στο ποτάμι

to let the cat out of the bag → #to allow the feline out of the container
to go on → *to go upon
to stand firm/fast → *to stand hard/rigid/solid

meterse en la boca del lobo to_get_into.self in the mouth from_the wolf venture into the lion's den → #meterse en el ojo del gato
tomar una decisiónto_take a decision to make a decision → #hacer/coger/producir una decisión to_make/grab/produce a decision #to make/grab/produce a decision

erabakia hartu decision take to make a decision →erabakia #sortu/jaso/egin create/receive/do

περὶ πολλοῦ ποιέομαιperi pollou poieomai above much.GEN do.1SG I hold in high esteem → o # περὶ καλοῦ ποιέομαι

non dire gatto se non ce l'hai nel sacco don't say cat if it is not in the sack don't count on something before it happens→ #non dire cane se non ce l'hai nel sacco#don't say dog if it is not in the sack
sputare il rospo spit the toad spit it out → #sputare la rana#spit the frog

空気を読む atmosphere.acc read read the situation →*大気を読む
生計を立てる means.of.living.acc stand earn an income →生計を*起こす

een kat in de zak kopen to buy a pig in a poke → #een hond in de zak kopen #to buy a dog in the bag
een beslissing nemen to meet a decision to make a decision → #een beslissing produceren a decision make/produce #to make/produce a decision

wiedzieć, co w trawie piszczy to know what in grass squeals to be well informed → #wiedzieć, co w trawniku popiskuje
nie wchodzić w rachubę not to come into count to be out of question → #wchodzić w liczenie/rachunek
wodzić kogoś za nos to lead someone by the nose to cheat on someone → #wodzić za nozdrza/ucho/wargi

quebrar um galho break a branch to help → #danificar um ramo to damage a stem

a da cu bâta în baltă to give with bat-the in pond to say sth embarrassing → *a da cu bățul în baltă to give with stick-the in pond, *a da cu bâta în lac to give with bat-the in lake

imeti mačka to have a cat to have a hangover → #imeti psa to have a dog
iti rakom žvižgat to go whistling to crabs to fail, to die → #iti jastogom pet to go singing to the lobsters

знати у ком грму лежи зец znati u kom grmu leži zec to know in which bush the rabbit lies to know what the main problem is → #знати у ком жбуну лежи кунић #znati u kom žbunu leži kunić to know in which shrub the hare lies
пустити буву pustiti buvu to let go of the fly to start a rumour/to spread news → #пустити вашку #pustiti vašku to let go of the lice
отети се контроли oteti se kontroli to break away from control to lose control → #отети се провери #oteti se proveri to break away from the examination

att Plocka russinen ur kakan to pick the raisins out of the cake to choose only the best things → #att välja ut nötterna från kakan

further tests are required

الطائرة أخذ take the plane → أخذ الحافلة take a bus

изнасям доклад present a report → изнасям урок/лекция/презентация и т.н.

den Bus nehmen to take the bus → den Zug/ das Flugzeug, etc nehmen to take the train/plain/etc

παίρνω το λεωφορείοperno to leoforio take the bus to take the bus

to take a plane → to take a bus/car/boat, etc.

coger el autobús to_take the busto take the bus → coger el avión/tren, etc. to take the plain/train/etc.

autobusa hartu bus take to take the bus → trena/taxia/hegazkina hartu to take a train/taxi/plane

prendere il trenoto take the bus → prendere il bus/aereo/etc to take the bus/plain/etc

jqum u joqgħod always moving about

de bus nemen to take the bus → de trein, het vliegtuig, enz. nemen to take the train, plane, etc

sprawić kłopot to make a trouble→ sprawić przykrość/trudność/niedogodność/problem/zawikłanie/nieprzyjemnośćto make a(n) nuisance/difficulty/inconvenience/problem/complication

quebrar um braço to break an arm → quebrar uma perna/costela/falange to break a leg/rib/phalanx

a lua o decizieto take a decision to make a decision → a lua o hotărâre to take a decree to make a decision

delati težave to make a trouble→ delati preglavice/probleme/ to make a(n) nuisance/problem

изазвати проблеме izazvati probleme to cause problems → изазвати бриге/невоље izazvati brige/nevolje to cause worries/afflictions

att ta bussen to take the bus → att ta tåget/flyget, etc to take the train/plain/etc

Usual modifications for [LEX] include replacing content words in the candidate by synonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms, antonyms, troponyms, meronyms, and related words in general.

Test VID.3 - [MORPH] - Morphological inflexibility

Does a regular morphological change that would normally be allowed by general grammar rules lead to ungrammaticality or to an unexpected change in meaning?

it is a VID

أخذ الثور من قرنيه to take the bull by his horns → أخذ الثور من قرنه# take the bull by one horn

хвърлям око throw an eye to throw a glance → #хвърлям очи.PLURAL
хващам бика.DEF за рогата take the bull by the horns → #хващам бик.INDEF за рогата
не мога да си намеря място cannot find a place for myself to be extremely nervous → only exists in negative form

ins Gras beißen to bite into the grass to die → #in ein Gras beißento bite into a grass #in die Gräser beißen to bite into the grasses, in Kraft treten into force step to come into effect → #in Kräfte treten into forces step

(OEG) 𓎕𓏝 𓎠𓅆 𓄣 𓆑 𓇋𓅓 mḥ nb (⸗ꞽ) ꞽb ⸗f ꞽm (⸗ꞽ) (My) (⸗ꞽ) lord (nb) filled (mḥ) his (⸗f) heart (ꞽb) with (ꞽm) (me) (⸗ꞽ) My lord trusted me. (Urk. I 134, 1) → *mḥ nb (⸗ꞽ) ꞽb.w ⸗f ꞽm (⸗ꞽ) (My) lord filled his hearts with (me).

κάνω του αλατιούkano tu alatiu do the salt → #κάνω των αλατιών

to kick the bucket → #to kick the buckets
to pretty-print → *to prettier-print
to take turns → #to take a turn

coger el toro por los cuernos to_take the bull by the horns to take the bull by the horns → #coger el toro por el cuernoto_take the bull by the horn #to take the bulls by the horns to_take the bulls by the horns #to take the bulls by the horns
entrar en vigor to_enter in vigor to come into effect → #entrar en vigores to_enter in vigors #to come into effects

prendre le taureau par les cornes to_take the bull by the horns → #prendre le taureau par une corne to_take the bull by a horn

περὶ πολλοῦ ποιέομαιperi pollou poieomai above much.GEN do.1SG I hold in high esteem → #περὶ πολλῶν ποιέομαι

andare a letto con le gallineto go to bed with the hens to go to bed early → #andare a letto con la gallina to_go to bed with the hen
cercare il pelo nell'uovo to look for the hair in the egg to be pedantic → #cercare i peli nell'uovo

in de gaten houden keep an eye on → #in het gat houden

budować zamki na lodzie to build castles on ice to rely on unstable foundations → #budować zamek na lodzie to build a castle on ice
mucha kogoś ugryzła a fly bit someone someone is in a bad temper→ #mucha kogoś ugryzie a fly will bite someone
wyciągnąć nogito stretch.PERF legsto die→ #wyciągać nogi to stretch.IMPERF legs (imperfective aspectual variant prohibited)

bater perna hit leg to walk around → bater a/uma/essas perna/pernas/perninha/pernona to hit the/one/these leg/legs/leg.SMALL/leg.BIG

a da colțul to give corner.the to die → *a da colţurileto give corners.the

klicati jelene to call cerfs to vomit → #klicati jelena to call a cerf

обећавати куле и градове obećavati kule i gradove to promise towers and towns to promise somebody the moon → #обећавати кулу и град obećavati kulu i grad to promise a tower and a town
бити у свакој чорби мирођија biti u svakoj čorbi mirođija to be the dil in every broth to meddle → #бивај у свакој чорби мирођија bivaj u svakoj čorbi mirođija be the dil in every broth
дође као кец на једанаест dođe kao kec na jedanaest comes as an ace on an eleven an unfavorable outcome → #дође као кечеви на једанаест dođe kao kečevi na jedanaest comes as aces on an eleven

träda i kraft step in force to come into effect → #träda i krafter step into forces

further tests are required

لعبة صنع to make a toy → صنع ألعاب to make many toys

хвърлям топка to throw a ball → хвърлям топка/топката/топки/топките

einen Kuchen backen to bake a cake → viele/keine/den Kuchen backen/machen many/no/the cake bake/make

κάνω κουλούρια → κάνω νόστιμα κουλούρια

to make a cake → to make a/many/those/no cake/cakes

mover el brazo to_move the arm to move the arm → mover/agitar/levantar/estirar el brazo/la pierna/las manos/las piernas to_move/shake/raise/stretch the arm/the leg/the hands/the legs to move/shake/raise/stretch the arm/the leg/the hands/the legs

ἐπιστολὴν πέμπωepistolēn pempо̄ letter.ACC send.1SG I send a letter → ἐπιστολὰς πέμπω

fare un dolce → fare un/molti/dei/quei/nessun dolce/dolci

een taart bakken to bake a cake → veel/geen/de taarten bakken/maken many/no/the cakes bake/make

kształtować opinię to form an opinion→ kształtować opinie to form opinions

bater o braço to hit the arm→ bater o/os/um/esse braço/braços/bracinho hit the/the.PL/a/this arm/arms/arm.SMALL

a face o prăjiturăto make a cake → a face multe/aceste prăjiturito make many/these cakes

vzeti taksi to take a cab → ne vzeti nobenega taksija/en taksi/dva taksija to take no/one/two/… cab(s)

обећавати улагање obećavati ulaganje to promise an investment → обећавати улагања obećavati ulaganja to promise investments

att baka en kaka to bake a cake → att baka flera/den där/några/ingen kaka/kakor to bake several/that/some/no cake(s)

Usual modifications for [MORPH] include inflecting content words in the candidate for gender, number, case, tense, mood, aspect, etc. - depending on the target language's morphology.

Test VID.4 - [MORPHSYNT] - Morpho-syntactic inflexibility

Does a regular morpho-syntactic change that would normally be allowed by general grammar rules lead to ungrammaticality or to an unexpected change in meaning?

it is a VID

یده ب أخذ take with his hand to give a hand → يده في أخذ# to take in his hand

аз ти давам думата си I give you my word → #аз ти давам неговата дума (I give you HIS word)
аз си продавам душата I sell my soul → #аз продавам неговата душа (I sell his soul)

Ichwerde mein Bestes tun I will my best do I will do my best → *Ich werde dein Bestes tun I will do your best, Ich gebe dir mein Wort I give you my word → *Ich gebe dir ihr Wort I give you her word

(OEG) 𓎕𓏝 𓎠𓅆 𓄣 𓆑 𓇋𓅓 mḥ nb (⸗ꞽ) ꞽb ⸗f ꞽm (⸗ꞽ) (My) (⸗ꞽ) lord (nb) filled (mḥ) his (⸗f) heart (ꞽb) with (ꞽm) (me) (⸗ꞽ) My lord trusted me. (Urk. I 134, 1) → *mḥ nb (⸗ꞽ) ꞽb ⸗k ꞽm (⸗ꞽ) (My) lord filled your heart with (me). The suffix pronoun attached to ꞽb should agree in gender and number with the subject of this MWE.

Ο Γιάννης παίζει τα ρέστα του → #Ο Γιάννης παίζει τα ρέστα μας
Ο Γιάννης έριξε μαύρη πέτρα πίσω του → #Ο Γιάννης έριξε μαύρη πέτρα πίσω μας

I will do my best → *I will do your best
I give you my word for that → #I give you his word for that
he was pulling my leg → #I was pulling my leg

te doy mi palabra to_you give_I my word I give you my word → #te doy su palabra to_you give_I his/her word I give you his/her word

il vide son sac he empties his bag he reveals his secret thoughts → #il vide mon sac he empties my bag

περὶ πολλοῦ ποιέομαιperi pollou poieomai above much.GEN do.1SG I hold in high esteem → #περὶ τοῦ πολλοῦ ποιέομαι

Iofarò del mio meglio → *Io farò del tuo meglio
Io ti do la mia parola→ #Io ti do la sua parola

腹を立てるstomach.acc raiseget angry → *明日、腹を立てよう cf.明日、旗を立てよう
帰らぬ人となる return.NEG person become die → *帰らない人となる, *帰らぬ人とな(らない、ろう、る？…) 　

Ik zal mijn best doen I will my best do I will do my best → *Ik zal jouw best doen I will do your best

Polish VMWEs do not seem to exhibit this kind of inflexibility

ele se suicidou he self.3P.SG suicided → *ele me suicidou
eu perdi meu tempo I wasted my time → eu perdi teu/seu/nosso tempo English allows this, Portuguese doesn't. We say I made you waste your time instead.

Îți dau cuvântul meu CL.DAT give.1SG word.the my I give you my word → #Îți dau cuvântul luiCL.DAT give.1SG word.the his I give you his word

Vlečeš me za nos you are pulling my nose you're pulling my leg → *Vlečeš se za nos you're pulling your nose
Pojdi se solit! to go salt oneself Get lost! → *Pojdi ga solit go salt him

дати све од себе dati sve odsebe to give one's all → #дати све од тебе dati sve od tebe to give everything from you

Jag gör mitt bästa I do my best I do my best → *Jag gör ditt bästa I do your best

further tests are required

копая си гроба to dig my grave → копая ти/му/й/им гроба (to dig your/his/her/their grave)

er traf seine Entscheidung he made his decision → er traf meine/ihre/unsere/eure Entscheidung he made my/her/our/your decision

he did his job → he did my/her/our/your job

Ha hecho su trabajo Has_he/she done his/her work He/She has done his/her work → Ha hecho mi/tu/nuestro trabajo Has_he/she done my/your/our work He/She has done my/your/our work

ἐπιστολὴν πέμπωepistolēn pempо̄ letter.ACC send.1SG I send a letter → τὴν ἐπιστολὴν πέμπω

hafatto il suo lavoro → ha fatto il mio/tuo/nostro/vostro/loro lavoro

hij deed zijn werk → he did my/her/our/your job

Polish VMWEs do not seem to exhibit this kind of inflexibility

Eu fiz meu trabalho I did my job → Tu/ele/nós fizeste/fez/fizemos meu trabalho You/he/we made my job

el își face tema he his does homework.the he does his homework → el îmi/ne/le face tema he my/our/their does homework.the he does my/our/their homework

opravil je svojo nalogo he did his job → opravil je mojo/njeno/našo/tvojo nalogo he did my/her/our/your job

урадио је свој посао uradio je svojposao he did his job → урадио је мој посао uradio je moj posao he did my job

han gör sitt jobb he does his job → han gör mitt/hennes/vårt jobb he does my/her/our job

Usual modifications for [MORPHSYNT] involve agreement or loss of agreement between some components in the candidate.

Test VID.5 - [SYNT] - Syntactic inflexibility

Does a regular syntactic change that would normally be allowed by general grammar rules lead to ungrammaticality or to an unexpected change in meaning?

it is a VID

на стар краставичар краставици продавам to an old cucumber seller cucumbers to sell to try to cheat a more experienced person → #продавам краставици на стар краставичар, #краставиците са продадени
бълвам змии и гущери → #бълвам гущери и змии

Noun phrase (NP) or prepositional phrase (PP)

(OEG) 𓎕𓏝 𓎠𓅆 𓄣 𓆑 𓇋𓅓 mḥ nb (⸗ꞽ) ꞽb ⸗f ꞽm (⸗ꞽ) (My) (⸗ꞽ) lord (nb) filled (mḥ) his (⸗f) heart (ꞽb) with (ꞽm) (me) (⸗ꞽ) My lord trusted me. (Urk. I 134, 1) → ꞽb ⸗f mḥ.w ꞽm (⸗ꞽ) (Urk. I 99, 4) 'His heart was filled with (me)', i.e. 'His trust was earned by me'.

speak of the devil the person one is talking about shows up → #he was speaking of the devil
to go bananas to get crazy → #bananas are gone
to drink and drive → #drive and drink
to kick the bucket → #the bucket was kicked

coser y cantar to_sew and to_sing easy as pie, a piece of cake → #cantar y coser to sing and to sew
perder la cabeza to_loose the head to go bananas → #perder las cabezas to_loose the heads

περὶ πολλοῦ ποιέομαιperi pollou poieomai above much.GEN do.1SG I hold in high esteem → #ποιέομαι περὶ πολλοῦ

alzare la cresta to lift the crest become cocky → #la cresta è stata alzata the crest has been lifted
andare in malora go to ruin go to ruin → #nella malora è andata in ruin was gone
vivi e lascia vivere live and let live → #lascia vivere e vivi let live and live

満足がいくsatisfaction.nom gobe satisfied → *満足にいかせる cf. 太郎がいく→太郎にいかせる

kleine bedrijven leggen het loodje small companies lay the lead get the short end of the stick → #het loodje wordt gelegd

kogoś krew zalewa blood foods someone someone gets furious→ #ktoś jest zalewany przez krew someone is flooded by blood (passive blocked)
robić bokami to do with-sidesto have serious financial problems→#robić swoją robotę bokami to do one's job with sides (regular modification blocked)
dobrze komuś z oczu patrzy well someone.DAT from eyes lookssomeone looks like a good person → #uprzejmość dobrze komuś z oczu patrzy kindness well someone.DAT from eyes looks (subject prohibited)
nie zagrzać miejsca w pracy not to warm a place at worknot to stay long at one work → #zagrzać miejsce w pracy to warm a place at work (negation is compulsory)
zdechł pies! died the dog!it is a lost cause→ #pies zdechł the dog died (a regular word order variability is blocked)
wziąć w łebto take into headto fail → #wziąć porażkę w łeb to take failure into head(direct object prohibited for the normally transitive verb wziąćto take)

pisar na bola step on the ball make a mistake → #a bola na qual ele pisou the ball on which he stepped

a da colțul to give corner.the to die → *colțul a fost dat corner.the has been given

delati se Francoza to pretend to be French to pretend to be indifferent → *delan Francoz made French

коцка је бачена kocka je bačena the die has been thrown the die has been cast → #коцка се бацила kocka se bacila (blocked passive) the die cast itself
ведрити и облачити vedriti i oblačiti to brighten and to cloud to call the shots → #облачити и ведрити oblačiti i vedriti (regular word order variability is blocked) to cloud and to brighten
не вредети пишљивог боба ne vredeti pišljivog boba to not be worth a single bean to be worthless → #вредети пишљивог боба vredeti pišljivog boba (negation is compulsory) to be worth a single bean
носити на души nositi na duši to carry something on one's soul to carry the burden of guilt → #ношење на души nošenje na duši (nominalization blocked) carrying on a soul

det knallar och går it trots and walks it is OK/as usual → #det går och knallar

It is not a VID, exit

продавам неговата кола I sell his car → колата му беше продадена (his car was sold), неговата кола, която тя продаде (his car which she sold), т.н.

jemandes Auto waschen to wash one's car → ihr Auto wurde gewaschen her car was washed, das Auto, welches sie wusch the car that she washed, Autowaschen car-washing, etc

to wash one's car → her car was washed, the car that she washed, car washing, etc.

pisar la arena to step on the sand → la arena que pisaste The sand on which you stepped

ἐπιστολὴν πέμπωepistolēn pempо̄ letter.ACC send.1SG I send a letter → πέμπω ἐπιστολὴν

lavare la macchina →la sua macchina è stata lavata, la macchina che ha lavato, il lavaggio della macchina, etc.

iemands auto wassen to wash one's car → haar auto werd gewassen her car was washed , de auto, die zij waste the car that she washed, autowassen car-washing, etc.

kształtować opinię to form an opinion → opinia jest kształtowana the opinion is formed

pisar na areia to step on the sand → a areia na qual você pisou the sand on which you stepped
jogar futebol to play football → ?futebol é jogado football is played One may argue that this is a VMWE because passive sounds strange. However, we assume that this sense of jogar does not accept passive. Since this construction is very productive, we do not annotate it as VMWE.

a spăla maşinato wash the car→ maşina a fost spălată, maşina pe care a spălat-o, spălarea maşinii etc.the car was washed, the car that he/she washed, car washing

narediti film to make a movie → Film, narejen po knjigi a movie based on a book

написати књигу napisati knjigu to write a book → књига је написана knjiga je napisana the book is written

att tvätta bilen to wash one's car → min bil tvättades my car was washed, bilen som hon tvättade the car that she washed, biltvätt car-wash etc.

Section 5.4

Inherently reflexive verbs (IRV)

Reflexive clitics (RCLI) are clitic pronouns that refer to the subject of the verb, like oneself in English. They are very common in many languages and play several semantic roles depending on the context, as detailed below.

Reflexive verbs (REFLV), sometimes also called pronominal verbs, are formed by a full verb combined with a RCLI, although the clitic does not always have a reflexive meaning. REFLV can be categorized into different classes, some of which should be annotated as verbal MWEs.

Namely, we will only annotate a REFLV as an inherently reflexive verb (IRV) when (a) it never occurs without the clitic, or (b) the REFLV and non-reflexive versions have clearly different senses or subcategorization frames. Inherently reflexive verbs constitute a quasi-universal category.

IReflVs are a difficult category to annotate due to various problematic cases. Note in particular that in some languages, e.g. Slavic, the reflexive clitics inflect and should be considered not only in their most frequent case, i.e. accusative.

We start by listing the various categories of REFLV before providing tests to decide whether to annotate a given occurrence as IRV.

Inherently reflexive ⇒ ANNOTATE as IRV
- The verb without the RCLI does not exist
- The verb without the RCLI does exist, but has a very different meaning
Reciprocal ⇒ NOT ANNOTATED
- The RCLI has a sense of mutually:
Reflexive ⇒ NOT ANNOTATED
- The RCLI marks the reflexive or reciprocal construction, that is, the clitic plays the role of self in English
Body part, also called possessive reflexive ⇒ NOT ANNOTATED
- Specific type of reflexive use in which the direct object is a body part or, more generally, an inalienable part of the subject
Middle with preverbal subject, also called synthetic passive ⇒ NOT ANNOTATED
- The clitic marks a regular syntactic alternation for transitive verbs. Just like in regular passive alternation, the direct object of the transitive version appears as the subject of the REFLV version, and thus the verb agrees with the subject.
- Differently from inchoative (see below), the subject of the transitive version is absent in the REFLV version but it exists necessarily, though it is underspecified
Middle with postverbal subject, also called synthetic passive ⇒ NOT ANNOTATED
- In some languages, middle alternation with preverbal subject sounds unnatural and middle alternation with postverbal subject is preferred. Depending on the languages, it is viewed as a postverbal subject (ES, PL, PT, RO) or as an object which agrees with the unaccusative verb form (IT). Middle alternation with postverbal subject is impossible in FR and DE.
Impersonal ⇒ NOT ANNOTATED
- The RCLI marks an impersonal verb alternation possible for various transitivity classes, depending on the language: only transitive verbs (FR), only intransitive verbs with manner adjuncts (DE), preferably intransitive but tolerated for transitive verbs (PT), either transitive or intransitive verbs (IT, ES, RO, PL)
- There is no noun phrase before the verb (empty subject slot), the presence of the RCLI indicates a verb interpreted with a generic and underspecified subject
- The verb is in third person singular, even when the object is plural
Inchoative ⇒ NOT ANNOTATED
- Similar to middle, but the RCLI marks a less productive syntactic alternation:
  - the direct object of the transitive version appears as subject of the REFLV
  - the subject of the transitive version is not only absent, it is also semantically unclear or nonexistent

IRV-specific decision tree

Apply test IRV.1 - [INHERENT]
- Annotate as IRV
- Apply test IRV.2 - [DIFF-SENSE]
  - Annotate as IRV
  - Apply test IRV.3 - [DIFF-SUBCAT]
    - Annotate as IRV
    - - verb has no subject ⇒ Apply test IRV.4 - [IMPERS]
        
        It is not a VMWE, exit
        
        Annotate as IRV
      - verb has a subject ⇒ Apply test IRV.5 - [MIDDLE-INCHO]
        
        It is not a VMWE, exit
        
        Apply test IRV.6 - [REFL]
        
        It is not a VMWE, exit
        
        subject is SINGULAR ⇒ Apply test IRV.7 - [REFL-MUTUAL]
        
        It is not a VMWE, exit
        
        Annotate as IRV
        
        subject is PLURAL ⇒ Apply test IRV.8 - [RECIPRO]
        
        It is not a VMWE, exit
        
        Annotate as IRV

Test IRV.1 - [INHERENT] Inherent clitic

Does the verb only exist with the RCLI and never occurs without it?

annotate as IRV
next test

Test IRV.2 - [DIFF-SENSE] - Different sense

Given the same verb without the RCLI, are all of its meanings clearly different from the REFLV form?

annotate as IRV
next test

Test IRV.3 - [DIFF-SUBCAT] - Different subcategorization frame

Is the subcategorization frame of the simple verb without the RCLI different from the subcategorization frame of the REFLV, except for the addition of a direct or indirect object corresponding to the same syntactic argument as the RCLI in the REFLV version?

annotate as IRV
next test

Test IRV.4 - [IMPERS] - Impersonal

When you replace the RCLI by an underspecified subject such as one or people, does the sentence keep its meaning?

do NOT annotate as verbal MWE
annotate as IRV

Test IRV.5 - [MIDDLE-INCHO] - Middle or Inchoative

When you move the subject to the object position, remove the RCLI and add a generic subject (people, somebody), thus building a transitive version, does it imply the REFLV version? In other words, people/somebody V [to] X ⇒ X REFLV?

do NOT annotate as verbal MWE
next test

Test IRV.6 - [REFL] - Reflexive

When you replace the RCLI by oneself only or to oneself only, does it imply the REFLV version? In other words, X V [to] himself only ⇒ X REFLV?

do NOT annotate as verbal MWE
next test
- The subject is singular: test REFL-MUTUAL
- The subject is plural or coordinated (Bob and Alice): test RECIPRO

Test IRV.7 - [REFL-MUTUAL] - Reflexive-mutual

Is a reciprocal version possible? Namely: Is it acceptable to replace the singular subject by a plural and add each other to the REFLV form without changing the REFLV's meaning?

do NOT annotate as verbal MWE The test applies only if test 15 has failed. For example, for "X se marie" 'X gets married' in French, it is odd though possible to say 'X and Y marry each other', but this does not mean 'X gets married', because it is only possible if X and Y are marriage officiants
annotate as IRV

Test IRV.8 - [RECIPRO] - Reciprocal

Is it possible to remove the RCLI and replace the coordinated subject (A and B) or plural subject (A.PL) by a singular subject (A or A.PL) and a singular object, often introduced by to/with (B or A.PL), without changing the REFLV's meaning? That is:

Coordinated subject: A and B PronV ⇔ A V [to/with] B and B V [to/with] A?
Plural subject: A.PL PronV ⇔ A.PL V [to/with] A.PL?

do NOT annotate as verbal MWE
annotate as IRV

Problematic cases and remarks

Polysemy

Keep in mind that both simple and reflexive verbs can have several senses. In test 15, we ask that ALL senses you can think of are different from the REFLV form in the given context. For example, French verb trouver can mean to find something, to have an opinion about something, discover something, etc. But it has a totally different and unrelated meaning of to be (located at) in the sentence L'église se trouve à Paris the church is located in Paris . It should thus be annotated as a MWE. As the REFLV is polysemous itself, it should NOT be annotated as IRV in sentences like Elle se trouve grosse she finds herself fat where it means have an opinion about (herself), equivalent to the non-reflexive version.

Clitics position and concatenation

In some languages the clitics are joint with the verb, sometimes using a hyphen but not always. When there is no hyphen, the REFLV will probably be tokenized as a single token in the corpus.

In French, orthography and pronunciation rules require the clitic to be concatenated with the verb and its last vowel to be replaced by an apostrophe (liaison):
- s'abstenir to abstain
In Spanish and Italian, the clitic can appear concatenated after the verb in some verbal forms (e.g. infinitives, gerunds):
- enamorarse to fall in love
- alzarsi to get up
In Portuguese, there are always hyphens for postponed clitics (enclisis), but in conditional tense the clitic is in the middle of the verb (mesoclisis), separating the root from the suffix:
- queixar-se-ia would complain
In Romanian the clitic and the verb are either separate or have a hyphen between them:
- se aude un clopot RCLI hears a bell a bell is heard
  s-aude un clopot RCLI-hears a bell a bell is heard

The current annotation format allows annotating a single token as a MWE if it is a multiword token. Therefore, it should be annotated as an MWE.

Overlap VID - IRV

Some idiomatic constructions include reflexive clitics. Two cases are possible:

If a syntactically comparable literal construction is impossible or the REFLV would not be annotated in syntactically comparable literal constructions, annotate only the VID:
If the REFLV would be annotated as IRV in syntactically comparable literal constructions, annotate both the IRV and the VID as embedded MWEs (rare):

Overlap LVC - IRV

It is rare, although possible, to find light verb constructions in which a reflexive clitic changes the original meaning significantly, thus characterizing an IRV:

Fragen stellen to ask questions ⇒ sich Fragen stellen to doubt/hesitate

hacer preguntas to ask questions ⇒ hacerse preguntas to doubt/hesitate

n.a.

poser des questions to ask questions ⇒ se poser des questions to doubt/hesitate

[No example yet]

no examples found for RO

In this case, the whole construction, including the verb, the noun and the reflexive clitic, must be annotated as VID, since there are two syntactic arguments:

sich Fragen stellen to doubt/hesitate

hacerse preguntas to doubt/hesitate

n.a.

se poser des questions

no examples found for RO

Notice that annotating only the verb and the RCLI as IRV would be wrong, since it will have a completely different meaning without the noun, sometimes even coinciding with another IRV:

sich stellen to surrender

hacerse get used to

n.a.

se poser to sit/lay down

Dative clitics and double clitics

In some languages, e.g. Polish, clitics inflect for case. Most cases of IRV seem to be restricted to the accusative case:

страхувам се to be afraid

bát se to be afraid

n.a.

bać się to be afraid

a se sinchisito RCLI.ACC care to care
a se sfiito RCLI.ACC be.shy to be shy
a se căito RCLI.ACC repent to repent

bati se to be afraid

бојати се bojati se to be afraid

However, other cases can appear in IRV:

отивам си to go oneself.DAT to go away

poradit si to advise oneself.DAT to manage

n.a.

radzić sobie to advise oneself.DAT to manage

a-și însuși to-RCLI.DAT appropriateto appropriate - with a Dative clitic
a-și apropriato-RCLI.DAT appropriateto appropriate - with a Dative clitic

drzniti si to dare oneself.DAT to dare

Some expressions can have double clitics. Only the first two words belong to the IRV:

надсмивам се над себе си to laugh RCLI.acc at RCLI.DAT to laugh at myself

n.a.

przyglądać się sobie to observe RCLI.acc RCLI.DAT to observe each other
radzić sobie z sobą to advise RCLI.DAT with RCLI.INST to manage with oneself

n.a.

nasmehniti se sebi to smile at oneself

подсмевати се сам себи podsmevati se sam sebi to make fun of oneself

Non-reflexive clitics

This category does not cover other types of pronouns and clitics. They are covered by regular VID tests and should be annotated as such. Examples of constructions that should be annotated as VID rather than IRV include:

es gibt it gives there is

n.a.

l'emporter to take it away to win
s'en aller to self from-it go to leave
en avoir marre to have from-it enough to be fed up
il y avoir it at-it haveto exist

prender-ci to take to-it to make the right choice
prender-le to take it to be beaten

dá-lhe João! give to-him/her, João! show them what you got, João!

a-i arde to CL.DAT burn to have a desire
a o lua pe jos to take CL.ACC on footto walkaccording to the current guidelines, such examples pass the ID tests (see also 6.3_B5); both have literal correspondents that are not characterized by an obligatory non-reflexive clitic: a arde to burn and a lua to take
a-i repugnato CL.DAT loathe to loathe
a-i priito CL.DATto be favourable to sb.

ucvreti jo to escape her to escape something/someone by running

мрзи ме/мрзи те/мрзи га/... mrzi ме/mrzi те/mrzi га/... to bother me/to bother you/to bother him/... I cannot be bother/you cannot be bothered/he cannot be bothered/...

Section 5.5

Verb-particle constructions (VPC)

Verb-particle constructions (VPCs), sometimes called phrasal verbs or phrasal-prepositional verbs, like

n.a.

to put off, to blow up, to do in

n.a.

buttare giùn throw down to swallow

voor|bereiden before|prepare to prepare

n.a.

constitute another quasi-universal category. They have the following general characteristics:

They are formed by a lexicalized head verb v and a lexicalized particle p dependent on v.
The meaning of the VPC is fully or partly non-compositional.
- In fully non-compositional VPC (VPC.full) the change in the meaning of v goes significantly beyond adding the meaning of p:
- In semi-non-compositional VPCs (VPC.semi), p adds a partly predictable but non-spatial meaning to v

Annotation guidelines corpora annotated for multiword expressions

Authors and contributors (alphabetical order)

Developers (alphabetical order)

Table of contents

Section 1

Definitions and scope

Section 1.1

Notation

Section 1.2

Words and tokens

Section 1.3

Verbal Multiword expressions

Section 1.4

Syntactic variants of VMWEs

Prototypical forms

Meaning-preserving variants

Canonical form

Non-verbal variants (not annotated)

Section 1.5

Lexicalized components and open slots

Special cases

Section 1.6

Verbal multiword expressions versus collocations

Section 1.7

Verbal multiword expressions versus metaphor

Section 2

Textual annotation scope

Section 3

Categories of verbal MWEs

Section 4

Annotation process and decision tree

Generic decision tree

Section 5

Specific tests for categorizing verbal MWEs

Section 5.1

Structural tests (S)

Test S.1 - [HEAD] - Syntactic head

Test S.2 - [1DEP] - Single dependent

Test S.3 - [LEX-SUBJ] - Lexicalized subject

Test S.4 - [CATEG] - Category of the dependent

Section 5.2

Light verb constructions (LVC)

LVC-specific decision tree:

Test LVC.0 - [N-ABS] Noun is abstract

Test LVC.1 - [N-PRED] Noun is predicative

Test LVC.2 - [N-SUBJ-N-ARG] Verb's subject is noun's semantic argument

Test LVC.3 - [V-LIGHT] Verb with light semantics

Test LVC.4 - [V-REDUC] - Verb reduction

Test LVC.5 - [V-SUBJ-N-CAUSE] Verb's subject is noun's cause

Problematic cases and remarks

Section 5.3

Verbal idioms (VID)

VID-specific decision tree:

Test VID.1 - [CRAN] - Cranberry word

Test VID.2 - [LEX] - Lexical inflexibility

Test VID.3 - [MORPH] - Morphological inflexibility

Test VID.4 - [MORPHSYNT] - Morpho-syntactic inflexibility

Test VID.5 - [SYNT] - Syntactic inflexibility

Section 5.4

Inherently reflexive verbs (IRV)

IRV-specific decision tree

Test IRV.1 - [INHERENT] Inherent clitic

Test IRV.2 - [DIFF-SENSE] - Different sense

Test IRV.3 - [DIFF-SUBCAT] - Different subcategorization frame

Test IRV.4 - [IMPERS] - Impersonal

Test IRV.5 - [MIDDLE-INCHO] - Middle or Inchoative

Test IRV.6 - [REFL] - Reflexive

Test IRV.7 - [REFL-MUTUAL] - Reflexive-mutual

Test IRV.8 - [RECIPRO] - Reciprocal

Problematic cases and remarks

Section 5.5

Verb-particle constructions (VPC)

Annotation guidelines
corpora annotated for multiword expressions