This thesis is an investigation of the representation of lexical semantic information from a computational linguistic perspective. An implemented representation language is described which is not specic to lexical semantics, but is based on the use of typed feature structures augmented with default operations. This language, which is formally specied, allows the lexical semantic representations to be tightly integrated with the syntactic component of the lexical sign, capturing generalisations by use of inheritance, while allowing for exceptions with the default mechanism. Default inheritance and default unication are discussed in detail. Grammar rules and lexical rules can be specied in the same formalism and thus the paradigmatic treatment of lexical semantics can be integrated with an account at the syntagmatic level. The use of the language is illustrated with some examples of the representation of verbs, the treatment of logical metonymy and of sense extension. This is followe...

We present a method for individuating dependencies between the semantic class of predicates and their associated subcategorization frames, and describe an implementation which allows the cquisition of such dependencies from bracketed texts.