Language resources > Lexicon-grammars > Free sentences

The Lexicon-Grammar lists in real size elementary syntactic structures. Senses are carefully distinguished. The elementary sentence is the minimal unit of study. A set of syntactic transformations provides a framework for describing variations between structures.

The free sentences with distributional verb were studied first. In those sentences, the verb assumes the role of predicate of the sentence, and selects a subject and possibly essential complements. The subject and essential complements have a free distribution, i.e. they can be occupied by a large number of nouns. Example: Luc monte les archives au grenier 'Luc carries the files up to the attic'.

In French, free sentences with distributional verbs are described in about 60 tables. Example of the lexical entries of the verb apprendre :

• Max a appris à Luc qu'il avait réussi (Table 9) 'Max told Luc he had succeeded'
• Max a appris (par + de) Luc qu'il avait réussi (Table 10) 'Max knew from Luc that he had succeeded'
• Max a appris à Luc à lire (Table 16) 'Max taught Luc to read'
• Max apprend ce métier (Table 7)  'Max is learning this profession' = Max fait l'apprentissage de ce métier (Table DR2)

View tables of French distributional verbs

View examples illustrating entries of the lexicon-grammar of French distributional verbs


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