Indirect object without a direct one and with xcomp

Gist. The English guideline still says that iobj occurs only next to obj or ccomp, and never with xcomp. The universal 2.12 amendment removed this condition, and EWT 2.18 follows the amendment.

Guideline.

• 2.18:docs/_en/dep/iobj.md:10: «It occurs only when there is a obj or ccomp in the clause.»
• 2.18:docs/_en/specific-syntax.md:141: «Only when another internal argument is present can iobj occur.»
• 2.18:docs/_en/specific-syntax.md:157: with xcomp the nominal object is «uniformly labeled obj, and never iobj».
• The opposite — 2.18:docs/changes.md No. 7 (01.2023, 2.12, AMENDMENT) «Sole iobj»: the condition of an obligatory obj is «hereby removed» (#916).

EWT 2.18 data (train+dev+test, 16,622 sentences, engine, rules below):

• iobj in total — 795;
• without obj and ccomp — 243 (31%). Of them 93 are with xcomp, the remaining 150 have no other internal argument at all (reminds me, asked Bush);
• with xcomp the custom is lexical:
  • iobj — 93: ask 25, allow 21, tell 14, convince 7, urge 6, cause 6, trust 3, persuade 3, teach, remind, warn, instruct…;
  • obj — 39 with verbs of the same class: encourage 8, enable 8, order 5, invite 5, force 4, require 4, beg;
  • permit and recommend occur both with iobj and with obj;
  • ordinary obj + xcomp (let, make, get, have, keep, find, want, help) — 931.

Where the discrepancy comes from. The _en pages were not updated after the 2.12 amendment. The EWT data match the universal guideline, not the English one.

Other 2.18 treebanks. iobj is present in all manually annotated ones: GUM 482, LinES 101, ParTUT 33, GENTLE 31.

Sources. 2.18:docs/_en/dep/iobj.md; 2.18:docs/_en/specific-syntax.md; 2.18:docs/changes.md#sole-iobj; seeds Verbs that take an indirect object, Indirect object (iobj); report verbal.md, discrepancy 1.

Counters: "fired" — all iobj, "violations" — those that contradict the _en text.

rule: ud218.iobj-sole
what: iobj without obj and ccomp — _en forbids it, the 2.12 amendment allows it
match: v[]; i[rel=iobj, head=v]
require: exists o[rel=obj|ccomp, head=v]
severity: warn
source: UD 2.18 docs/_en/dep/iobj.md:10; docs/changes.md#sole-iobj (2.12)

rule: ud218.iobj-xcomp
what: iobj together with xcomp — specific-syntax.md requires obj
match: v[]; i[rel=iobj, head=v]
require: none x[rel=xcomp, head=v]
severity: warn
source: UD 2.18 docs/_en/specific-syntax.md:157

rule: ud218.iobj-alone
what: iobj without obj, ccomp and xcomp — the only internal argument
match: v[]; i[rel=iobj, head=v]
require: exists o[rel=obj|ccomp|xcomp, head=v]
severity: warn
source: UD 2.18 docs/_en/dep/iobj.md:10; docs/changes.md#sole-iobj (2.12)

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/dialects/ud-2.18/seeds/iobj-sole/