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<Paper uid="P80-1030">
  <Title>PHRAN - A Knowledge-Based Nature\] Language Understender</Title>
  <Section position="3" start_page="0" end_page="117" type="intro">
    <SectionTitle>
2.0 pHRASAL LANGUAGE CONSTRUCTS
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> By the term &amp;quot;phrasal language constructs&amp;quot; we refer to those language units of which the language user has s~ecific knowledge. We cannot present our entire classification oF these constructs here. However, our phrasal constructs range greatly in flexibility. For example, fixed expressions like &amp;quot;by and large , the Big Apple (meaning N.Y.C.), and lexical collocations such as &amp;quot;eye dro~per&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;weak safety&amp;quot; allow little or no modificatxonA idioms like &amp;quot;kick the bucket&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;bury the hatchet allow the verb in them to s~pear in various forms- discontinuous dependencies like look ... up&amp;quot; permi~ varying positional relationships of their constituents. All these constructs are phrasal in that the language user must know the meaning of the construct as a whole In order to use it correctly.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> In the most general case, a phrase may express the usage of a word sense. For example, to express one usage of the verb kick, the phrase &amp;quot;&lt;person&gt; &lt;kick-form&gt; &lt;object&gt;&amp;quot; is used. This denotes a person followed by some verb form inyolving kick (e.g., kick, kicked, would ~ave kicked&amp;quot;) followe~&amp;quot;~ some utterance ueno~ing an oojec~. Our notion of a phrasal language construct is similar to a structural formula (Fillmore, 1979)- However, our criterion for dlr~trl'F/~ing whether a set of forms should  be accomodated by the same phrasal pattern is essentially a conceptual one. Since each phrasal pattern in PHRAN is associated with a concept, if the msenlngs of phrases are different, they should be matched by different patterns. If the surface structure of the phrases is similar and they seem to mean the same thing, %hen they should be accomodated by one pattern.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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