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# The Derivation of a Grammatically Indexed Lexicon from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

**Authors:** Bran Boguraev, [Ted Briscoe](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/ted-briscoe/), [John Carroll](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/john-carroll/), [David Carter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/david-carter/), Claire Grover · **Year:** 1987 · **Venue:** 25th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics **Link:** [aclanthology.org/P87-1027](https://aclanthology.org/P87-1027/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) (ACL Anthology, before 2016) — summary only

[**65** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2161349060) openalex · 2026-10-19[**20** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/boguraev-1987-derivation-grammatically-indexed-lexicon-longman/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[25th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/P87-1/)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/P87-1027/)
- [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/P87-1027.pdf)
- [DOI 10.3115/981175.981202](https://doi.org/10.3115/981175.981202)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2161349060)

**Authors (5)**

1. [Bran Boguraev](https://openalex.org/A5109855171) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2241629221) · h 19 · 1334 citations · 38 works
2. [Ted Briscoe](https://openalex.org/A5030189297) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/145693410) · h 42 · 7666 citations · 222 works
3. [John Carroll](https://openalex.org/A5101474712) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3744-4919) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/144708726) · h 24 · 2447 citations · 120 works
4. David Carter [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/35408831)
5. [Claire Grover](https://openalex.org/A5108653041) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7019-1250) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/144003169) · h 34 · 3815 citations · 190 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-19); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

The authors build a large lexicon with grammatical feature entries for a morphological and syntactic analyser (GPSG-based, from the Alvey toolkit project) by deriving it from the machine-readable Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE). LDOCE's grammar codes (for example T5 for a transitive verb with a that-clause, or V3 for an object plus infinitive with "to") are mapped by rules into feature-structure templates. Verb senses are then given a semantic type (subject raising, object raising, or equi) from the set of codes in the same sense. The software supports an interactive cycle: a morphological generator produces the surface forms of a base entry, and the user accepts or edits them. The dictionary's codes are hand-made and contain errors, such as a missing sentential-complement code for "consider" and senses split in the wrong place for "acknowledge". On a list of 139 hand-classified verbs the overall error rate of the code-to-entry process is about 14% (read from an OCR text), and most errors come from the rule for raising verbs. Over the 7,965 LDOCE verb entries, 719 senses are classed as possible predicate complements.

## Ideas

- I1. Sense-level frames in `world/src/dictionary.rs`: store the complement frame per word sense, not per entry, because the paper shows that frames in one entry are often split across senses. Check each sense with its own frame when the pupil dictionary gives the sense.
- I2. Rule-based verb classes with a measured error rate: write the raising and equi rules over Mova's own curated verb list (about 140 verbs), report the error rate and the verbs misclassified, and fix rules only with a written reason. The paper's 14% and its main error source (raising read as equi) are the baseline to beat.
- I3. Interactive generation as a test: for each new base entry, generate the surface forms with `en/src/morph.rs` and show them for review, so that a wrong inflection is caught when the entry is made, not in a parse.
- I4. Negative control: shuffle the complement codes across verb senses and check that the class error rate rises well above the unshuffled value; a rule that does not depend on the codes is not classifying anything.

## For Mova

The chapters are [13. Verbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/13-verbs/) (verb complementation) and [23. Complementation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/23-complementation/) (equi and raising). The code is `world/src/dictionary.rs` (sense-level frames), `en/src/morph.rs` (surface forms) and `en/src/dict.rs`. Measure: class error rate on the hand-classified verb list, run twice. The paper's licence is NC: use the design only, and build the verb classes from Mova's own rules and the public UD data.

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.3115/981175.981202](https://doi.org/10.3115/981175.981202)

```
@inproceedings{boguraev1987derivation,
  title = {{The Derivation of a Grammatically Indexed Lexicon from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English}},
  author = {Boguraev, Bran and Briscoe, Ted and Carroll, John and Carter, David and Grover, Claire},
  booktitle = {25th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics},
  year = {1987},
  doi = {10.3115/981175.981202},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3115/981175.981202}
}
```

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- [↑ back to English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/en/)

## References

5 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. Alshawi, Hiyan; Boguraev, Bran and Brlscoe, Ted (1985) 'Towards a dictionary support environment for a real-time parsing system', Proceeding8 of the ~nd Buropean Conference of the Asseciaitlon /or Corn-putational Linguistics, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 171-Bogursev, Bran; Carter, David and Briscoe, Ted (1987) A m~iti-purpoee inter~ace to an on-llne dictionary, Third Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Copenhagen, Denmark Boguraev, Bran and Briscoe, Ted (1987) Large lexicons for natural language processing - - exploring the grammar coding system of LDOCE, Computational Linguistics, vol.13 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Alshawi%2C+Hiyan%3B+Boguraev%2C+Bran+and+Brlscoe%2C+Ted+%281985%29+%27Towards+a+dictionary+support+environment+for+a+real%2Dtime+parsing+system%27%2C+Proceeding8+of+the+%7End+Buropean+Conference+of+the+Asseciaitlon+%2For+Cor)
2. Briscoe, Ted; Grover, Claire; Boguraev, Bran and Carroll, John (1987) A formalism and en~ronmerd for Me development of a large grammar of English, Tenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Milan, Italy G~dsr, Gerald; Klein, Ewan; Pullum, Geoffrey K.; and Sag, Ivan A. (1985) Gener~ized phr~e Rruc-furs grammar, Oxford: Blackwell and Cambridge: Harvard University Press Grover, Chire; Briscoe, Ted; Carroll, John and Bogu-rasv, Bran (1987, forthcoming) The Alvev natural language toola pro~eet grammar large computationa~ grammar of Engliah, Lanc~ter Papers in Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, University of Lancaster l~vfichieis, A.rchibal (1982) Ezploiting a large dictionarv da~abaae, Ph.D. Thesis, Unlversit~ de Liege, Bel--- a zium Procter, Paul (1978) Longman ~ctionary of cordempo-vary Engliah, Lonfs~man Group Limited, Harlow and London, England l~tchie, Gr~eme; Pulman, Stephen; Black, Alan and l:tuuel], Graham (1987) A computational framework for lexlcal description, C o m p i o n a i Linguia-tics, vol.13 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Briscoe%2C+Ted%3B+Grover%2C+Claire%3B+Boguraev%2C+Bran+and+Carroll%2C+John+%281987%29+A+formalism+and+en%7Eronmerd+for+Me+development+of+a+large+grammar+of+English%2C+Tenth+International+Conference+on+Artificial+Intellig)
3. Russell, Graham; Pulman, Steve; R~tchie, Graeme; and Black, Alan (1986) 'A dlctionaa~/and morphological analyser for english', Procsedinga of the llth International Congreu on Computationag Linguis-tiea, Bonn, Germany, pp. 277-279 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Russell%2C+Graham%3B+Pulman%2C+Steve%3B+R%7Etchie%2C+Graeme%3B+and+Black%2C+Alan+%281986%29+%27A+dlctionaa%7E%2Fand+morphological+analyser+for+english%27%2C+Procsedinga+of+the+llth+International+Congreu+on+Computationag+Linguis%2Dti)
4. Shieber, Stuart (1984) 'The design of a computer language for linguistic information', Proceedings of the IO~h International Congreaa on Computationa~ Lingu~tica, Stanford, California, pp. 362-366 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Shieber%2C+Stuart+%281984%29+%27The+design+of+a+computer+language+for+linguistic+information%27%2C+Proceedings+of+the+IO%7Eh+International+Congreaa+on+Computationa%7E+Lingu%7Etica%2C+Stanford%2C+California%2C+pp%2E+362%2D366)
5. Stockwell, Robert; Schschter, Paul and P~-tee, Bar-bsra (1973) The major 8zmtaetic ~tructure8 of English, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, NY [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Stockwell%2C+Robert%3B+Schschter%2C+Paul+and+P%7E%2Dtee%2C+Bar%2Dbsra+%281973%29+The+major+8zmtaetic+%7Etructure8+of+English%2C+Holt%2C+Rinehart+and+Winston%2C+New+York%2C+NY)