Distinguishing Literal and Non-Literal Usage of German Particle Verbs

Abstract

This paper provides a binary, token-based classification of German particle verbs (PVs) into literal vs. non-literal usage. A random forest improving standard features (e.g., bagof-words; affective ratings) with PV-specific information and abstraction over common nouns significantly outperforms the majority baseline. In addition, PV-specific classification experiments demonstrate the role of shared particle semantics and semantically related base verbs in PV meaning shifts.