FrameNet’s Using relation as a source of concept-based paraphrases

Abstract

Characterizing paraphrases formally has proven to be a challenging task. Hasegawa et al. (2011) pointed out the usefulness of FrameNet for paraphrase research, focusing on paraphrases which are backed by underlying classical linguistic relationships such as synonymy or voice alternations. This article proposes that other frame-to-frame-relations, notably Using, can serve as a source for concept-based paraphrases – that is, paraphrases that are backed by common sense knowledge, as in he called him a hero – he praised him for being a hero. While the predicates in these sentences are not synonymous, we would argue that the sentences are paraphrases – albeit of a kind that involves world knowledge about the relationship between different event classes. In this article, we propose a shallow taxonomy for the frame pairs which instantiate Using, that is motivated by their ability to form concept-based paraphrases. Second, we analyze the subclass of Using instances which supports concept-based paraphrasing, and provide a formalization of some prominent types of side conditions that are necessary to produce felicitous paraphrases.