Decomposition of terms

The base method for representing multi-word lexical entries is by decomposing them into their component words, this is done through the usage of RDF lists of component objects. This works as follows.

:siamese_cat lemon:decomposition ( 
   [ lemon:element :siamese ]
   [ lemon:element :cat ] ) .

Example 31

Note that the above example uses the RDF list mechanism, which, while relatively compact in Turtle syntax, can get quite large in N-Triples form, e.g.,

:siamese_cat lemon:decomposition :siamese_cat_LoC .
:siamese_cat_LoC rdf:first :siamese_cat_C1 .
:siamese_cat_LoC rdf:rest :cat_LoC .
:siamese_cat_C1 lemon:element :siamese .
:cat_LoC rdf:first :siamese_cat_C2 .
:cat_LoC rdf:rest rdf:nil .
:siamese_cat_C2 lemon:element :cat .

Example 32

Compound words may also be broken up by the use of components for example, the German word “Schweineschnitzel” is composed of “Schwein” and “Schnitzel”.⁸

:schweineschnitzel lemon:decomposition (
   [ lemon:element :schwein ]
   [ lemon:element :schnitzel ] ) .

Example 33

lemon indicates the difference between compound words and phrases by the use of the classes Word and Phrase. As such it is possible to indicate that the composition is a separation of a multi-word expression into words, by adding type statements for the elements.

:siamese_cat a lemon:Phrase ;
   lemon:decomposition (
      [ lemon:element :siamese ]
      [ lemon:element :cat ] ) .
      
:siamese a lemon:Word .
:cat a lemon:Word .

Example 34

A third subclass of lexical entry, Part, is provided for “part of words”, e.g., affices, which cannot be realised by themselves but may be stored in the lexicon. For example:

:preordain lemon:decomposition (
   [ lemon:element :pre ]
   [ lemon:element :ordain ] ) .
   
:pre a lemon:Part .
:ordain a lemon:Word .

Example 35

We must note here the decomposition property is not intended for modelling phrase structure, lemon contains a separate mechanism for modelling this described in sections 2 and 4.