2011 Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 3-29
Some of the inappropriate co-occurrence expressions consisting of a noun n, a case particle c and a verb v (denoted as 〈n,c,v〉) used by learners of the Japanese language are caused by errors of verb selection. This paper proposes a method of providing candidates for appropriate alternative verbs to replace the v in learners’ co-occurrence input 〈n,c,v〉. We assume that a verb of inappropriate co-occurrence (an erroneous verb) tends to have an occurring environment similar to an appropriate verb (a possible correction of the erroneous verb). Based on this hypothesis and using statistical information from a large-scale Japanese corpus, the method produces candidates for appropriate alternative verbs that are estimated to comprise appropriate co-occurrences with the 〈n,c〉 portion of learners’ co-occurrence input in descending order of occurring environment similarity with the original verb. We examine the hypothesis using data of erroneous verbs and their corrections, and further, using the same data, we discuss the usefulness of a composition support system for co-occurring expressions based on the proposed method.
