Negation Annotation.pdf

Key Points:

1. Negation Expression: Negation can be expressed in four ways: negating the predicate, subject, object, or as part of the lexical semantics of the embedding predicate.
2. Annotation Focus: This work focuses on syntactic negation, analyzing negation on a syntactic level, and does not consider negation expressed by lexical semantics of predicates.
3. Elements to Annotate: Three distinct elements must be annotated: negation cues, scope of negation, and focus (the part most explicitly negated).
4. Negation Cues: These are elements in the sentence that express negation, including simple negation cues (e.g., non, nemmeno, neanche) and multiword negation cues (e.g., per niente, un’acca).
5. Reinforcement: In Italian, "non" can be used as reinforcement of negation with "nessuno," "niente," "nulla," etc., and is annotated separately.
6. Scope: The scope of a negation cue is the extent of the text it affects, and can be discontinuous. The "non si dà il caso che" test is used to determine the scope.
7. Annotation Rules: Specific rules are provided for annotating the scope in different sentence constructions, including coordinate and subordinate clauses, and elliptical constructions.

Negation Cues:

Simple negation cues: non, nemmeno, neanche, neppure, no, meno, nessuno, niente, nulla, mai, né... né, senza, eccetto, tranne
Multiword negation cues: per niente, un’acca

Reinforcement:

"Non" can be used as reinforcement of negation with "nessuno," "niente," "nulla," etc.

Scope:

The scope of a negation cue is the extent of the text it affects
Can be discontinuous
Determined using the "non si dà il caso che" test
* Specific rules are provided for annotating the scope in different sentence constructions.