Semantic and Syntactic Restrictions of Urdu Conjunct Predicate and its Mapping onto English WordNet

This study focuses to identify conjunct predicate (N+V) in Urdu language which is a type of complex predicate. In conjunct predicate, a noun is followed by a light verb and the resulting constituent collectively behaves as a complex verb. Conjunct predicates are frequently used in many languages of Indo-Aryan origin including Urdu. In the present study, argument structure, case marking and semantic roles are discussed related to the semantic and syntactically compatible Urdu Noun and light verbs. Levin (1993)’s theory of correlation between semantics and syntactic context is used as a main theoretical framework.  After selecting 280 Urdu nouns from Universal Dependency Stanford Urdu corpus (Bhat et al., 2017) and Urdu Digest Corpus (Urooj et al.,2012)), the semantic and syntactic compatibility of each noun with the light verb is verified through finding the N+V instances in the former corpora. For the combination not found in it, and native intuition is applied to further list down the probable combinations.  This research yields a sizeable repository of Urdu conjunct predicate along a range of semantic and syntactics constraints on N+V collocation as a constituent. The correlation of semantic and syntactic context has been established by an in-depth analysis of Urdu conjunct predicate(N+V). In addition to this, compatible Urdu conjunct predicates (N+V) are mapped onto resultant verb in English WordNet.   Research yields a useful tool to identify real conjunct predicate needed to develop natural language processing tool and contribute towards making Urdu a technically enabled language. 

• PhD Exchange Program: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• PhD Scholar Linguistics: Air University, Islamabad
• MPhil Applied Linguistics: Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore
• Summer Institute of Collaborative Language Research (2016):  University of Fairbanks, USA

Ms. Farhat Abdullah has an active career in teaching and research spanning over a decade. She has served higher education institutions in teaching and research positions.  She believes in learning and professional development. Participation in DAAD funded project of Urdu WordNet has been a great learning experience for her.  She has presented her research papers in a number of international conferences both in Pakistan and internationally. She has been awarded HEC International Travel Grant twice for this purpose. For her higher education, HEC Pakistan has awarded her Faculty Development Program PhD Scholarship. As a member of Linguistic Society of America, she has got the privilege to participate in SALT31 and FASL 30 organized by Brown University and MIT, USA which is followed by Pop-up Mentoring Program of one to one sessions with professors of linguistics from University of South Carolina  and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, USA. She calls herself a student of linguistics with a special focus on Semantics-Syntax interface.

Joined UCP in 2013 as a permanent faculty member, since then, she is teaching courses of linguistics including Intro to Language Studies, Sociolinguistics, Semantics, TESOL and Forensic Linguistics.  She gets positive evaluation for her teaching abilities, discipline and innovative pedagogical skills.  She frequently practices her leadership and managerial skills to organize poster presentations, seminars and study tours in the English department. As a founder of a Printing start-up, AnarkaliStore.com, Farhat is testing her entrepreneurial skills.