Werkwoordssense

Werkwoordssense (verb sense) is a term used in linguistics to refer to the semantic meaning associated with a verb in a specific usage. A single verb can have multiple senses, which may be related by extension (polysemy) or be distinct senses that share form without related meaning (homonymy). Senses are abstract units that lexicographers and natural language processing (NLP) systems use to organize the information that dictionaries assign to verbs and to support interpretation in context.

In dictionaries, senses are numbered and defined with examples. In corpus-based lexicography, senses can be identified by analyzing usage patterns and contextual cues. WordNet-style resources and frame-based inventories provide structured representations of verb senses and their relationships, often including subcategorization frames or valency patterns. In Dutch-language resources, werkwoordssense is the term used to discuss the senses of Dutch verbs, and Dutch sense inventories may be aligned with general lexical databases or developed specifically for Dutch.

Applications of the concept include NLP tasks such as word-sense disambiguation, where the goal is to determine the intended sense of a verb in a sentence, and lexicography, education, and translation. Disambiguation relies on context, syntax, and sometimes argument structure, since different senses of a verb may require different subjects, objects, or prepositions.

Examples of senses for the English verb run include: (1) to move swiftly on foot, as in He runs every morning; (2) to operate or function, as in The car runs smoothly; (3) to manage or operate something, as in She runs a small cafe.