Computational valency lexica for Latin and Greek in use: a case study of syntactic ambiguity

Abstract We have built a corpus-driven valency lexicon for Greek verbs by following an approach devised for Latin data. We have then used the lexicon to detect a specific type of potentially ambiguous syntactic patterns in Latin and Greek hexametric poetry, which can consistently be disambiguated by prosodic breaks. Such disambiguating breaks were then mapped onto the metrical structure of the lines containing the ambiguous patterns, in order to assess their correspondence to metrical boundaries and to gather independent evidence on the phonetic nature of the boundaries themselves in view of further investigation. From a methodological point of view, the lexica have enabled us to draw on a relatively large set of texts to study a rare phenomenon and to establish a semi-automatic procedure that can be replicated on larger and compatible corpora.