obl: oblique nominal
The obl relation is used for a nominal (noun, pronoun, noun phrase) functioning as a non-core (oblique) argument or
adjunct. This means that it functionally corresponds to an adverbial attaching to a verb, adjective or other adverb.
The obl relation can be further specified by the case. In conjunction with the case relation, it provides a uniform
analysis for:
- variant forms with case, a preposition or a postposition, as in Finnish for example:
etsiä ilman johtolankaa \n to_search without clue.PARTITIVE
obl(etsiä, johtolankaa)
case(johtolankaa, ilman)
etsiä taskulampun kanssa \n to_search torch.GENITIVE with
obl(etsiä, taskulampun)
case(taskulampun, kanssa)
etsiä johtolangatta \n to_search clue.ABESSIVE
obl(etsiä, johtolangatta)
- the dative alternation where the prepositional construction gets a similar analysis to the double object construction:
give the children the toys
obj(give, toys)
iobj(give, children)
give the toys to the children
obj(give, toys)
obl(give, children)
case(children, to)
# give the toys to the children
1 donner donner VERB _ VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ give
2 les le DET _ Definite=Def|Number=Plur 3 det _ the
3 jouets jouet NOUN _ Gender=Masc|Number=Plur 1 obj _ toys
4-5 aux _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4 à à ADP _ _ 6 case _ to
5 les le DET _ Definite=Def|Number=Plur 6 det _ the
6 enfants enfant NOUN _ Gender=Masc|Number=Plur 1 obl _ children
obl is also used for temporal and locational nominal modifiers:
Last night , I swam in the pool
obl(swam, night)
obl(swam, pool)
and for the agent of a passive verb (with the optional subtype obl:agent):
the cat was chased by the dog
nsubj:pass(chased, cat)
obl:agent(chased, dog)
obl in other languages: [bg] [bm] [cop] [cs] [de] [en] [ess] [fr] [fro] [ga] [gd] [gsw] [gub] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [ky] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [swl] [tr] [u] [uz] [vi] [yue] [zh]