Eesti keele verbide semantilisest liigitamisest
Semantic Classification of Estonian Verbs

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, the methodology of verb classification is addressed. The main aim is to provide an overview of the possible ways verbs and sentence patterns could be analysed for the purpose of verb classification, and to reveal the possible shortcomings of different methods and problems of verb classification in general. For that purpose, the rare verb classifications available for the languages of the world (mainly English) are introduced focusing on the methodological aspect. In addition, an overview is given of the treatment of verbs as belonging to several semantic classes in Estonian linguistic tradition. Finally, the possible research paths that lead to verb classification are discussed. The two main points of the discussion are as follows. (1) There are two main alternatives to reach a semantic classification of verbs. One is classifying verbs based on their core meaning and disregarding contextual information as much as possible. Such a classification can be based either on the intuition of a (single) researcher or on experiments. The other is classifying verbs based on their sentence patterns, assuming that this is where the semantic differences between verbs are ultimately reflected. Such an approach needs massive (corpus) data and the application of multivariate statistics. (2) The main problems associated with verb categorisation are related to the semantic complexity of the verbs (incl. polysemy), the multifactorial nature of language, disadvantages of particular methods that could be used for verb classification, and difficulties with data coding (e.g., coding non-discrete units as discrete). In summary, we propose that a blend of different approaches to verb meaning – including intuition based approaches, experiments, and corpus analysis – is needed for categorising verbs into semantic classes. Thus, the paper advocates methodological pluralism and triangulation.

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