Studying the Recursive Behaviour of Adjectival Modification with Compositional Distributional Semantics

Eva Maria Vecchi, Roberto Zamparelli, Marco Baroni

Abstract: In this study, we use compositional distributional semantic methods to investigate restrictions in adjective ordering. Specifically, we focus on properties distinguishing AdjectiveAdjective-Noun phrases in which there is flexibility in the adjective ordering from those bound to a rigid order. We explore a number of measures extracted from the distributional representation of AAN phrases which may indicate a word order restriction. We find that we are able to distinguish the relevant classes and the correct order based primarily on the degree of modification of the adjectives. Our results offer fresh insight into the semantic properties that determine adjective ordering, building a bridge between syntax and distributional semantics.