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\title{\Large\bf 
The MULTEXT-East Slovene Lexicon\footnote{Proceedings of the 7th
  Electrotechnical Conference ERK '98, Portoro"z, Slovenia, Volume B, pp.\ 189-192.}}

%for author(s) from a single institution
\author{Toma"z Erjavec \\
Dept.~for Intelligent Systems, 
Jo"zef Stefan Institute\\
Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia \\
{\em tomaz.erjavec@ijs.si}}

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\subsection*{\centering Abstract} 
%IEEE allows italicized abstract
{\em This paper describes the lexicon of the Slovene language created
  in the scope of the EU Copernicus project MULTEXT-East.  The project
  developed a multi-lingual corpus of text and speech data, covering
  six languages, including Slovene, and lexical resources covering the
  corpus data. The Slovene lexicon contains the full inflectional
  paradigms for over 15,000 lemmas; it has over half a million
  entries, where each entry gives the word-form, its lemma and
  morphosyntactic description. These descriptions are constructed
  according to the MULTEXT-East grammar, which follows international
  recommendations and is harmonised for seven languages.
  The MULTEXT-East Slovene lexicon is freely available for research purposes.
%end italics mode
  }

\section{Introduction}

While standardised, large-scale language resources exist or are under
development for most western languages there have, so far, been few
comparable efforts for Central and Eastern European (CEE) languages.
The MULTEXT-East (Multilingual Text Tools and Corpora for Eastern and
Central European Languages, 1995--97) project \cite{coling:mte}, a
spin-off of the EU MULTEXT project \cite{mt94}, was intended to fill
this gap by developing language resources for six CEE languages
(Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovene) and
adapting existing tools and standards to them.  MULTEXT-East produced
the following results:
\begin{enumerate}
\item test and adaptation of language standards;
\item an annotated multilingual corpus;
\item morpho-lexical resources;
\item adaptation of the MULTEXT corpus tools.
\end{enumerate}

In this paper we concentrate on (3), and, partially, on (1), i.e. on
the specification of the morpho-lexical encoding and on the lexica of
the project \cite{lrec:lex}; the focus is on the Slovene language
portion of these resources.

The development of the morpho-lexical resources proceeded in three
stages. First, harmonised \emph{morphosyntactic descriptions} (MSDs)
were developed for the languages of the project. These are used to
describe a word as being, say, a proper inanimate masculine noun in
singular accusative. The second stage was in building the actual
lexica which cover lexical stock of the corpus collected in the
project.  Finally, the developed lexica were used to MSD annotate a
portion of the MULTEXT-East corpus.  This paper describes the results
of the first two of the above stages, as applied to the Slovene data.

The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2.\ describes
the structure of the (Slovene) MULTEXT-East lexicon; Section 3.\ gives
the grammar of the MSDs; Section 4.\ provides some data on the
scope and coverage of the Slovene lexicon; and Section 5.\ concludes with the
utility and availability of the developed lexicon.


\section{The structure of the lexicon}

A MULTEXT-East lexicon contains lexical entries, one entry per line.
A lexical entry has three fields, separated by the tabulator character:

\begin{center}
\textbf{word-form} $\langle$TAB$\rangle$ 
\textbf{lemma} $\langle$TAB$\rangle$ 
\textbf{MSD}
\end{center}

The \emph{word-form} is the word, as it appears in the running text,
modulo sentence initial capitalisation, e.g.\ 
`\textsl{diskreditirajmo}', `\textsl{Moloha}',
`\textsl{dvomi"sljenja}'. A special case arises when more than one
running word is taken as one word-form, e.g.  `\textsl{"cemer
  koli}', `\textsl{New York}'. Here the underscore is used to join
the words into the word-form. In the word-forms, as in the lemmas, SGML
entities are used for the representation of non-ASCII characters,
e.g. \texttt{\&ccaron;emer\_koli}.

The \emph{lemma} is the unmarked form of the word, i.e.\ what would
correspond to the headword in a dictionary, e.g.
`\textsl{diskreditirati}', `\textsl{Moloh}',
`\textsl{dvomi"sljenje}'. In cases where the word-form is the lemma
itself, the lemma is entered as `\texttt{=}'.

The \emph{MSD} is the morphosyntactic description of the word-form.
The MSDs are provided as strings, using a linear encoding. In this
notation, the first character denotes the part-of-speech, and, for the
other characters in the string, the position corresponds to the
part-of-speech determined attribute, and specific characters in each
position indicate the value for that attribute. So, for example, the
MSD \texttt{Vmmp1p} expands to \texttt{PoS:Verb, Type:main,
  VForm:imperative, Tense:present, Person:first, Number:plural}. If a
certain attribute does not apply, either to a language, to a
combinations of attribute-values, or the the specific lexical item,
then the value of that attribute is a hyphen.  So, for example, the
\texttt{Person} attribute of \texttt{Verb} is not relevant for
\texttt{Type:participle}, hence \texttt{Vmps-sma} for \texttt{Verb
  main participle past (no Person) singular masculine active}.  By
convention, trailing hyphens are not included in the lexical MSDs.  

To illustrate these points we give, in Figure~\ref{fig:lex-sl}, a part
of the lexical paradigm for the verb '\textsl{to be}',
i.e.~'\textsl{biti}'.

\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \begin{center}
    \leavevmode
    \begin{small}
\begin{tabular}{lll}
\texttt{bi}      &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcc}\\
\texttt{bil}     &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcps-sma}\\
\texttt{bila}    &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcps-dma}\\
\texttt{bila}    &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcps-pna}\\
\texttt{bila}    &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcps-sfa}\\
\texttt{bile}    &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcps-pfa}\\
\texttt{bili}    &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcps-dfa}\\
\texttt{bili}    &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcps-dna}\\
\texttt{bili}    &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcps-pma}\\
\texttt{bilo}    &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcps-sna}\\
\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{=}       &\texttt{Vcn}\\
\texttt{bo}      &\texttt{biti}    &\texttt{Vcif3s}\\
\end{tabular}
\end{small}
  \end{center}
\vspace*{-2ex}
  \caption{Sample lexical entries}
  \label{fig:lex-sl}
\end{figure}



\section{The Morphosyntactic Specifications}

The syntax and semantics of the MULTEXT-East MSDs are given in the
\emph{morphosyntactic specifications} of the project \cite{mte:D11F}.
These specifications have been developed in the formalism and on the
basis of specifications for six Western European languages of the EU
MULTEXT project \cite{mt:D161B}; the MULTEXT project produced its
specifications in cooperation with EAGLES (Expert Advisory Group on
Language Engineering Standards) \cite{Eag:morphsyn}.

The MULTEXT-East morphosyntactic specifications contain, along with
introductory matter, also:
\begin{enumerate}
\item the list of defined categories (parts-of-speech)
\item common tables of attribute-values
\item language particular tables
\end{enumerate}

Of the MULTEXT-East \emph{categories}, Slovene uses Noun (N), Verb (V),
Adjective (A), Pronoun (P), Adverb (R), Adposition
(S),\footnote{Adpositions include prepositions and postpositions;
  Slovene uses only prepositions.} Conjunction (C), Numeral (M),
Interjection (I), Residual (X),\footnote{Residual is a category
  encompassing unknown (unanalysable) lexical items. It appears only
  once in the Slovene lexicon, for \texttt{2+2=5}.}
Abbreviation (Y), and Particle (Q).
% The two categories
%that are not valid for Slovene are Determiner (D) and Article (T).

The \emph{common tables} give, for each category, a table defining the
attributes appropriate for the category, and the values defined for
these attributes. They also define which attributes/values are
appropriate for each of the MULTEXT-East languages; the tabular
structure facilitates the addition of new languages. The format of the
common tables is exemplified by the start of the Noun table, given in
Figure~\ref{fig:msd-common}.

\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \begin{center}
    \leavevmode
\begin{small}
\begin{verbatim}
  = ====== ============ =  EN RO SL CS BG ET HU
  P ATT    VAL          C  x  x  x  x  x  x  x
  = ====== ============ =                   
  1 Type   common       c  x  x  x  x  x  x  x
           proper       p  x  x  x  x  x  x  x
  - ------ -----------  -                   
  2 Gender masculine    m  x  x  x  x  x    
           feminine     f  x  x  x  x  x    
           neuter       n  x  x  x  x  x    
  - ------ -----------  -                   
  3 Number singular     s  x  x  x  x  x  x  x
           plural       p  x  x  x  x  x  x  x
           dual         d        x  x       
           count        t              x    
  - ------ -----------  -                   
  4 Case   nominative   n        x  x  x  x  x
           genitive     g        x  x     x  x
           dative       d        x  x        x
           accusative   a        x  x        x
           vocative     v     x     x  x    
           locative     l        x  x       
           instrumental i        x  x        x
           direct       r     x             
           oblique      o     x             
           partitive    1                 x 
           illative     x                 x  x
           inessive     2                 x  x
           elative      e                 x  x
  ...
\end{verbatim}
\end{small}
  \end{center}
\vspace*{-2ex}
  \caption{Example of Common MSD Table: Nouns}
  \label{fig:msd-common}
\end{figure}

The common tables have a strictly defined format, which enables the
automatic expansion and validation of MSDs.\footnote{But note that the
  table extracts given in this paper have been edited to
  conform with the formatting requirements of the paper.}

Finally, the \emph{language particular tables} are, again, organised
by category, and provide commentary and examples on the attributes and
values of the language. They also specify additional constrains on the
allowed MSDs. The Slovene section gives, for each attribute value, its
Slovene equivalent together with an example, and possible notes.
Furthermore, it gives feature coocurrence restrictions on the allowed
combinations of values. 

To exemplify, we give in Figure~\ref{fig:msd-sl} the valid
combinations of qualificative adjectives (e.g.~\textsl{lep, lepi, lepega,
  \ldots, najlep"sim}).  The table constrains the marking for
definiteness only to the nominative and non-animate accusative
masculine singular and animacy only to the accusative masculine
singular, both in the positive degree.

\vspace*{-3ex}
\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \begin{center}
    \leavevmode
    \begin{small}
\begin{verbatim}
    *** **** **** **** **** **** ---- ---- ----
    PoS Type Degr Gend Numb Case Def (Cltc)Anim
    *** **** **** **** **** **** ---- ---- ----
     A   f     p   m   s      n  [ny]    -   -
     A   f     p   m   s      a  [ny]    -   n
     A   f     p   m   s      a     -    -   y
     A   f     p   m   s    [gdli]  -    -   -
     A   f     p   m  [pd] [ngdali] -    -   -
     A   f     p  [fs][spd][ngdali] -    -   -
     A   f   [cs][mfs][spd][ngdali] -    -   -
\end{verbatim}
    \end{small}
  \end{center}
\vspace*{-2ex}
  \caption{Example of Language Specific MSD Constraints:
Slovene qualificative adjectives}
  \label{fig:msd-sl}
\end{figure}

The morphosyntactic specifications thus provide the grammars for the
MSDs of the MULTEXT-East languages. The greatest worth of these
specifications is that they provide an attempt at a morphosyntactic
encoding standardised across languages.  In addition to already
encompassing seven typologically very different languages, the
structure of the specifications and of the MSDs is readily extensible
to new languages.

As far as the Slovene specifications go, it should be noted that
another morphosyntactic encoding has been recently proposed
\cite{BizjakJakopin:SR}; in contrast to the multilingual, and, on the
meta-level, English MULTEXT-East specification, it uses Slovene terms,
and codes derived from them. For example, the equivalent of the MSD
\texttt{Vcps-sma} is the code \texttt{GLBme} (\textsl{GLagol, opisni
  dele"znik na \emph{-l} \emph{biti}, mo"ski spol, ednina}). This
makes it more acceptable to speakers of Slovene; as it accounts only
for Slovene, it can also follow more closely the grammar of Slovene,
and the codes can be shorter.

To give an impression of the information content of the Slovene MSDs
and their distribution, Table~\ref{tab:msd} gives, for each category,
the number of \emph{attributes} in the category, the total number of
\emph{values} for all attributes in the category; the number of
different MSDs in the \emph{lexicon}, and, finally, in the MSD and
lemma annotated MULTEXT-East Slovene \emph{corpus}, comprising the
Slovene translation of Orwell's ``1984''.

 \begin{table}[htbp]
   \begin{center}
     \leavevmode
\begin{tabular}{l||rr|rr}
PoS          &Att&Val&Lex&Cor\\\hline\hline
Noun         & 5&16&  99& 74\\
Verb         & 8&26& 128& 93\\
Adjective    & 7&22& 279&169\\
Pronoun      &11&36&1,335&594\\
Adverb       & 2& 4&   3&  3\\
Adposition   & 3& 8&   6&  6\\
Conjunction  & 2& 4&   3&  2\\
Numeral      & 7&23& 226& 80\\
Interjection & 0& 0&   1&  1\\
Residual     & 0& 0&   1&  1\\
Abbreviation & 0& 0&   1&  1\\
Particle     & 0& 0&   1&  1\\\hline
All          &45&139&2,083&1,025
\end{tabular}
   \end{center}
\vspace*{-2ex}
   \caption{Slovene morphosyntactic distribution}
   \label{tab:msd}
 \end{table}


\section{Lexical Coverage}

Which word-forms should go into the lexicon? MULTEXT-East adopted a
combination of an external, and an internal approach. The externally
given criterion was the corpus of the MULTEXT-East project; for the
Slovene part, it encompassed cca.~300.000 words, comprising translated
and native fiction and newspaper articles.  The words encountered in
this corpus were assigned lemmas, and these were included in the
lexicon, until the number of lemmas reached 15.000, the size required
by the project plan. This gives a lexicon of medium size, which
displays good coverage of high and medium frequency words, but gives
low-frequency words only for the Slovene corpus of the project.

Rather than including only the word-forms encountered in the corpus,
the more informative option of giving the complete inflectional
paradigms of the lemmas was chosen. As this generative approach
depends on an internally given morphological model, the paradigms are
not fully validated in practice, and, in some cases, tend to be
overgenerous. Spelling out full paradigms for a language as
inflectionally rich as Slovene also leads to a large lexicon, cca.~17
MB. However, this approach (rather than using some sort of
morphological compression) has the advantage of keeping the underlying
model as simple and explicit as possible. This makes it better for
hand-corrections, various experiments and interchange.

Table~\ref{tab:lex} gives some quantitative data on the Slovene
lexicon. For each category, we give the number of lexical entries, the
number of different word-forms, and different lemmas (\texttt{=}).
Dividing the number of entries by lemmas gives us the average paradigm
size of the category in question, while dividing by word-forms gives
the average morphosyntactic ambiguity of words in a corpus.

 \begin{table}[htbp]
   \begin{center}
     \leavevmode
\begin{tabular}{l||rrr}
PoS          &Entries&WForms&Lemmas\\\hline\hline
Noun         &127,811&61,525&7,465\\  %&99
Verb         &110,949&78,001&3,699\\ %&128
Adjective    &310,754&64,604&4,621\\ %&279
Pronoun      &  3,654&   732&105\\   %&1,335
Adverb       &  7,415& 7,395&442\\     %&3
Adposition   &   123&    109&79\\       %&6
Conjunction  &    39&     38&39\\        %&3
Numeral      &  4,401&   832&181\\    %&226
Interjection &    10&     10&10\\        %&1
Residual     &     1&1&1\\          %&1
Abbreviation &    48&48&48\\        %&1
Particle     &    76&76&76\\\hline  %&1
All          &565,281&201,011&16,766   %&2,083
\end{tabular}
   \end{center}
\vspace*{-2ex}
   \caption{Slovene lexical distribution}
   \label{tab:lex}
 \end{table}


\section{Conclusions}

The article has presented the Slovene lexical resources, i.e.~the
morphosyntactic specifications and the lexicon, that have been
developed in the MULTEXT-East project. These resources present the
first widely available standardised encoding for Slovene lexical data.
A lexicon is one of the basic language resources and a core lexicon,
such a the one presented here, can serve as the basis for the
construction of more extensive or targeted lexica, for annotating
Slovene corpora, or as a dataset for machine learning of
morphological relations.

One of the objectives of the MULTEXT-East project has been to make its
resources freely available for research purposes. In the scope of the
TELRI (Trans European Language Resources Infrastructure) concerted
action, the complete results of TELRI and MULTEXT-East have been
released on a CD-ROM \cite{telri:CD}. Extensive information and the
complete documentation of the project are also available via WWW, on
\emph{http://nl.ijs.si/ME/}. It should be noted, however, that the
results of the project, including the lexical resources, are being
maintained; the Slovene resources presented in this article have
already been updated since the finish of MULTEXT-East. To get the
latest version, interested parties should contact the author.


\section{Acknowledgements}

Many people have, directly or indirectly contributed to the results
described in this paper.  Peter Holozan and Vladim\'{\i}r Petkevi\v{c}
gave essential input for the morphosyntactic specifications for
Slovene.  Velimir Gjurin, France \v{Z}agar, David Stermole, and Lydia
Sinapova gave much appreciated comments and suggestions. All errors,
of course, remain the responsibility of the author.  The involvement
of the company Amebis d.o.o.\ in the MULTEXT-East project was
essential for the production of the Slovene resources, especially the
lexicon described in this paper; it was derived by them via their
spelling checker Besana.  Aleksandra Bizjak and Primo"z Jakopin, from
the Institute for Slovene Language ``Fran Ramov"s'', ZRC SAZU
performed the MSD tagging of the MULTEXT-East Slovene corpus.  The
work reported here was funded by the EU project Cop 106, MULTEXT-East
and by the supporting grant MS-3/95, U3-BR-273/95 of the Ministry of
Science and Technology of Slovenia.

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