Nonprototypical Predication and Nonpredicational Clauses in Universal Dependencies

Joakim Nivre, William Croft, Andre Coneglian


Abstract
To assess whether the framework of Universal Dependencies (UD) is compatible with findings from linguistic typology, we need to systematically review how UD represents linguistic constructions and how it handles the range of morphosyntactic variation attested across languages. In this paper, we present such a review focusing on nonprototypical predication and nonpredicational clauses. We find that, while nonprototypical predication is generally handled well in the UD framework, nonpredicational clauses are not discussed as such in the guidelines and often have to be annotated in a way that does not reflect their special information packaging functions. We briefly discuss ways in which the UD framework could be extended in order to better capture these functions.
Anthology ID:
2026.udw-1.18
Volume:
Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop on Universal Dependencies (UDW 2026)
Month:
May
Year:
2026
Address:
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Editors:
Çağrı Çöltekin, Kaja Dobrovoljc
Venues:
UDW | WS
SIG:
Publisher:
ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA)
Note:
Pages:
208–217
Language:
External URL:
https://lrec.elra.info/lrec2026-ws-udw-18
DOI:
10.63317/5h44ewr98ssu
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Joakim Nivre, William Croft, and Andre Coneglian. 2026. Nonprototypical Predication and Nonpredicational Clauses in Universal Dependencies. In Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop on Universal Dependencies (UDW 2026), pages 208–217, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Cite (Informal):
Nonprototypical Predication and Nonpredicational Clauses in Universal Dependencies (Nivre et al., UDW 2026)
Copy Citation: