This one seems to already have been accounted for in many instances; though only about 5% of all examples
:prep-as is omitted in AMR, but instead replaced with :cause
Example 5: “As we're going to Turkey and Syria at the end of this month, and expect to have a wonderful trip as independent travellers, I am definitely making a political statement”
Can be replaced by “since,” “because,” or “as a result of” without meaning change
2. “Analogy”
This use of :prep-as expresses some sort of equivalence/analogy relationship between two entities compared
Majority of examples (~60%)
For example:
“God Jesus as their Savior” (ex. 15)
“British women as racist” (ex. 17)
“HIV as an example” (ex. 22)
“Opinion as truth” (ex. 18)
“grow as a....well weed” (ex. 30)
“China as a heartless country” (ex. 31)
“The country as a whole” (ex. 24)
“Islamic teachings as their rule of law” (ex. 25)
It should be noted that the two entities do not need to be immediately adjacent to each other relative to the “as”, which is the case with example 8 and 10
To test for “analogy” role, replace “as” with “as if it were” and assess resulting grammaticality
A specific form of the “analogy” role is encountered with “as though” (see example 1)
We propose to amend the AMR for this
Instead of :prep-as, use :analogous-as is same place
3. “Clarification/elaboration”
This use of :prep-as contributes additional information to the sentence that helps specify the primary meaning
Second-most used for :prep-as constructions (~30% of examples)
Examples:
“As Scots…” (ex. 16)
“As citizens” (ex. 14)
“As a right wing person…” (ex. 21)
“As a matter of common sense…” (ex. 23)
“Left as they are” (ex. 13 second ‘as’, debatable)
“3D as it has been realised today” (ex. 12)
“As a massive fan” (ex. 13 first ‘as’)
“As for lumping all Islamic countries together” (ex. 4)
“As a general rule” (ex. 11)
To test for this role, move “as” phrase to beginning of sentence and assess resulting grammaticality
When there is ambiguity, it is important to test for “analogy” first given that some “analogy” phrases also pass this test, however the same is generally not true of the reverse
A less rigorous test is to drop the “as” phrase and see if the sentence still make sense
We propose to amend the AMR for this
Instead of :prep-as, use :clarification-as
This could potentially have subcategories, such as time, person
4. Other/miscellaneous/needs further discussion
How do we deal with idiomatic expressions?
“Take things as they come” (ex. 9)
“As good as it gets” (own example)
“As a means”
Could this be coded as :purpose? (see ex. 27)
“As much as”
In example 12, expression entirely omitted
“As to be”
Translates roughly to “that they are” in (see ex. 2). It is similar to “cause”, but not quite
Three primary roles observed for :prep-as: Note: examples are listed in order when searching for all instances of :prep-as
1. “Cause”
This one seems to already have been accounted for in many instances; though only about 5% of all examples
2. “Analogy”
3. “Clarification/elaboration”
4. Other/miscellaneous/needs further discussion
(Max Kim and Lucia Donatelli)