SIMPLE Linguistic Specifications

The SIMPLE project represents - at our knowledge - the first attempt to tackle encoding of semantic (argument) frames on a large scale, i.e. for so many languages and with rather wide coverage. Even though it is a real lexicon building project, it must also be seen as having challenging research aspects and will provide a framework for testing and evaluating the maturity of the current state-of-the-art in the realm of lexical semantics grounded on, and connected to, a syntactic foundation. The availability of rather large, uniformly structured lexical resources in so many EU languages will offer the users the benefits of a standardized base. According to the subsidiarity concept, which is at the basis of many EU initiatives, the process started at the EU level will be continued at the national level. This is already happening for a number of languages. The fact that all these LRs will be based on the existing models and standards defined at the European level will create a really large infrastructure of harmonized LR throughout all Europe. This achievement is of major importance in a multilingual country like Europe, where all the difficulties connected with the task of LRs building are multiplied by the language factor. This would have been absolutely impossible without the fundamental role played by the EC LRs and standards projects.