Classifier Assignment by Corpus-Based Approach

CLASSIFIER ASSIGNMENT BY CORPUS-BASED APPROACH Virach Sornlertlamvanich Wantanee Pantachat Surapant Meknavin Linguistics and Knowledge Science Laboratory National Electronics and Computer Technology Center National Science and Technology Development Agency Ministry of Science Technology and Environment 22nd Gypsum Metropolitan Tower, 539/2 Sriayudbya Rd., Bangkok 10400, Thailand { virach,wantanee,surapan } @nwg.nectee.or.th Abstract This paper presents an algorithm for selecting an appropriate classifier word for a noun. In Thai language, it frequently happens that there is fluctuation in the choice of classifier for a given concrete noun, both from the point of view of the whole speech community and individual speakers. Basically, there is no exact rule for classifier selection. As far as we can do in the rule~based approach is to give a default rule to pick up a corresponding classifier of each noun. Registration of classifier for each noun is limited to the type of unit classifier because other types ,are open due to the meaning of representation. We propose a corpus-based method (Biber,1993; Nagao,1993; Smadja,1993) which generates Noun Classifier Associations (NCA) to overcome the problems in classifier assignment and semantic construction of noun phrase. The NCA is created statistically from a large corpus and recomposed under concept hierarchy constraints and frequency of occurrences. Keywords: Thai language, classifier, corpus-based method, Noun Classifier Associations (NCA) 1. Introduction A classifier has a significant use in Thai language tbr construction of noun or verb to express quantity, determination, pronoun, etc. By far the most common use of classifiers, however, is in enumerations, where the classifiers follow numerals and precede demonstratives (Noss,1964). Not all types of classifier have a relationship with noun or verb as a unit classifier does. A unit classifier is any classifier which has a special relationship with one or more concrete nouns. For example, to enumerate members of the class of /rya/ 'boats', tile unit classifier/lain/ is selected as in the phrase below: /rya nung lain/ boat one <boat> 'one boat'. Other than tile unit classifier, there are collective classifier, metric classifier, frequency classifier and verbal classifier. A collective classifier is ,any classifier which shows general group or set of mass nouns, un a~ ~ /nok soong lung/ 'two flocks of bird'. A metric classifier is any classifier which occurs in enumerations that modify predicates as well as nouns, v lh l~1~ ,u~/nam saam kaew/ 'three glasses of water'. A frequency classifier is any classifier which is used to express the frequency of event that occurs, ~u ~ ~mJ /bin sii roob/ 'fly four rounds'. A verbal classifier is any classifier which is derived from a verb and usually used in construction with mass nouns, n~z~q~a #a ~ 11")11 /kradaad haa muan/ 'five rolls of paper'. The unit classifier has a special relationship with concrete noun. The member of this class of classifier is closed for each noun. Most of the unit classifiers m'e used with a great many concrete nouns of very different meaning, but few are restricted to a single noun. Except for the unit classifier, the members of classifier …

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