Preference Optimization Improves Definition Generation: Semantic Change in EU Institutional Sustainable Finance Disclosures

Mariia Fedorova, Andrey Kutuzov, Gustavo Cadenas Delascio


Abstract
Dictionary-like definition generators are known to be useful for lexical semantic change detection (LSCD). However, they suffer from overly granular sense distribution, producing excessive number of definitions for one and the same lexical sense. In this work, we show that fine-tuning with Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) helps to overcome this problem. We test our approach both quantitatively on a curated academic LSCD benchmark and qualitatively on real-world data for a practical task of auditing diachronic changes in sustainability terminology within project documentation of EU development finance.All models, code and predictions produced in this study are publicly available at https://github.com/ltgoslo/dpo-for-definition-generation.
Anthology ID:
2026.nlp4pi-1.30
Volume:
Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on NLP for Positive Impact (NLP4PI)
Month:
October
Year:
2026
Address:
Budapest, Hungary
Editors:
Katherine Atwell, Angana Borah, Daryna Dementieva, Elisa Kreiss, Neema Kotonya, Jiarui Liu, Liz Olson, Ruyuan Wan, Jieyu Zhao
Venues:
NLP4PI | WS
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Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
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Pages:
349–359
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URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2026.nlp4pi-1.30/
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Cite (ACL):
Mariia Fedorova, Andrey Kutuzov, and Gustavo Cadenas Delascio. 2026. Preference Optimization Improves Definition Generation: Semantic Change in EU Institutional Sustainable Finance Disclosures. In Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on NLP for Positive Impact (NLP4PI), pages 349–359, Budapest, Hungary. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Preference Optimization Improves Definition Generation: Semantic Change in EU Institutional Sustainable Finance Disclosures (Fedorova et al., NLP4PI 2026)
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https://aclanthology.org/2026.nlp4pi-1.30.pdf