orphan: connecting orphaned arguments of elided predicate
Ellipsis is a missing part of a sentence (such as a predicate or a nominal). This relation is used in cases of head ellipsis where simple promotion would result in an unnatural and misleading dependency relation.
If an ellipsis does not change the structure, it is not annotated.
If an ellipsis changes the structure, i.e., a word is omitted on which other words would depend, then those dependent words inherit the syntactic function of the missing word.
If the omitted word is a nominal, its function is inherited by other words in the following priority order: amod > nummod > det > nmod > case. Remaining words attach according to their usual dependency relations.
Aš norėčiau oranžinių . \n I would-like some-orange-ones .
obj(norėčiau, oranžinių)
obj(would-like, some-orange-ones)
Mama slepiasi už stalo , sūnus slepiasi po . \n Mom is-hiding behind the-table , the-son is-hiding underneath .
obl(slepiasi, po)
obl(is-hiding, underneath)
If the main predicate is elided, we use simple promotion only if there is an aux, aux:pass or cop.
Jis buvo jaunas , o ji nebuvo . \n He was young , and she was-not .
conj(jaunas, nebuvo)
nsubj(nebuvo, ji)
conj(young, was-not)
nsubj(was-not, she)
When the predicate is omitted but the sentence does not contain aux, aux:pass or cop, transferring the syntactic function of the predicate to
other words without using the orphan relation can appear unnatural. To show
syntactically that the dependency structure of the sentence is incomplete, the relation orphan is used. This indicates that a predicate was omitted in the sentence.
Words inherit the syntactic function of an omitted predicate according to the following priority
order: nsubj / nsubj:pass > obj > iobj > obl / obl:arg > advmod > csubj / csubj:pass > xcomp >
ccomp > advcl > dislocated > vocative. The relation orphan is used for words that
would normally be attached to the missing predicate.
Aš mėgstu šunis , o tu kates . \n I like dogs , and you cats .
conj(mėgstu, tu)
orphan(tu, kates)
conj(like, you)
orphan(you, cats)
Tomas nori dainuoti , o Ona šokti . \n Tom wants to-sing , and Ann to-dance .
conj(dainuoti, Ona)
orphan(Ona, šokti)
conj(to-sing, Ann)
orphan(Ann, to-dance)
Vieni moka brangiai , nes kiti pigiai . \n Some pay dearly , because others cheaply .
advcl(moka, kiti)
orphan(kiti, pigiai)
advcl(pay, others)
orphan(others, cheaply)
orphan in other languages: [bm] [cop] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [fi] [fr] [fro] [ga] [gsw] [hy] [it] [kk] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ro] [ru] [sl] [sv] [swl] [tr] [u] [vi] [xcl] [yue] [zh]