Modelling Valency Frames Using Inheritance: The Case of Czech Adjectives <i>-teln</i> <i>ý</i> ‘able’

Abstract We introduce a first step to modelling valency frames of selected types of nominals. We work on the assumption that nominals inherit – at least to some extent – valency from their base verbs. We illustrate this task in a case study focused on modelling valency frames of Czech deverbal adjectives -teln ý ‘able’. First, the valency frames of the adjectives -teln ý contained in NomVallex are compared with the valency frames of their base verbs in VALLEX. Based on this comparison, two formal rules describing valency changes in the valency frames of adjectives -teln ý are formulated. Second, for each lexical unit of a verb that satisfies the conditions imposed by some of the rules, the derived adjective -teln ý is extracted from DeriNet, if such an adjective is available. Third, the valency frame of the adjective is derived from the valency frame of the verb based on the respective rule. Lastly, the accuracy of both rules is verified in the corpus data. The experiment has shown that the valency of these adjectives can be modeled on the rule basis. However, if this task is to be accurate, it requires advanced linguistic information, namely the information on semantic class membership of verbs and on compound adjectives.