Annotating "Anti" and "pro" prefixes > oppose and favor? about amr-guidelines

[cbonial]

Can you be more specific as to how exactly you use "oppose" with the entity modified (e.g. "program")? Would you say that "program" is Arg0-of oppose, and virus is arg1, correct? Although I like the notion of verbalizing this to get a less superficial analysis, it seems like the thing modified is usually an instrument-of the opposition, not necessarily the actual opposer. I've tried to think of another predicate, but the exact semantics of "anti" seem a bit tricky...maybe "counter" would be preferable? Where "programs counter viruses". I'll keep an eye on this and make an attempt to update our Proxy sets if necessary, we've just treated these superficially as "mods" or "topics" in some cases like "anti-terrorism pact".

[nschneid]

I am in favor of favor-01 for "pro-" and oppose-01 for "anti-"—in the political sense, at least.

What about "anticoagulant", which really means something that counteracts coagulation? counteract-01, or would that be subsumed by oppose-01? "anti-virus", "anti-submarine", and "anti-missile" are similar, except it is a thing rather than a process being counteracted/defended against.

[uhermjakob]

The sole consensus precedent on this is a shallow annotation:
"the pro-road position"

(p / position
  :mod (p1 / pro-road))

For deeper annotations, I checked the Cobuild dictionary, which uses these verbs to define pro- and anti-:

• pro-: to support, to admire
• anti-: [sense 1:] to oppose
• anti-: [sense 2:] to destroy, to prevent

The verb "to favor" tends to imply an existing alternative (to favor X over Y). "To support" is more neutral in this respect. For example, everybody in a small town might be pro-Rogers and support Mr. Rogers as mayor, but it might be slightly odd to say that they favor Mr. Rogers if he is the only candidate. However, in nominal uses such as "to be in favor of" there is much less of an implied presence of a (positive) alternative (e.g. "all in favor of the motion say aye; all opposed say nay"). So I'm fine with either favor-01 or support-01.

"To oppose" seems to capture "anti-" fairly well for some contexts, but not for others, as Claire and Nathan have already pointed out. You might have to decide case by case:

• an anti-Syrian journalist: a journalist who opposes Syria
• an anti-tank missile: a missile to destroy tanks

For some verbs, there is a core :ARGx role that works well:

• an anti-Assad fighter: person :ARG0-of fight-01 :ARG1 Assad
• anti-Japanese protests: protest-01 :ARG1 Japanese

Often, the meaning is a bit more fuzzy:

• an anti-virus program: a program to prevent/detect/remove viruses
• an anti-submarine aircraft: an aircraft to find/track/deter/damage/destroy submarines
• an anti-missile system: a system to detect/track/intercept/destroy missiles
• an anti-drug policy: a policy to prevent/curb/eliminate drugs
• an anti-aging cream: a cream to prevent/slow aging

in which case a more generic verb frame such as the previously proposed counter-01 or counteract-01 would seem more appropriate.

[nschneid]

The verb "to favor" tends to imply an existing alternative (to favor X over Y). "To support" is more neutral in this respect.

Perhaps, but "support" has a different problem: it is ambiguous between holding a favorable opinion, and actually doing something to lend/bolster support (which is not generally entailed by "pro-"): To support Mr. Rogers' candidacy, we distributed leaflets to our neighbors. So I think "favor" is actually a better fit in terms of the core semantics that we want.

[nschneid]

"To oppose" seems to capture "anti-" fairly well for some contexts, but not for others,....in which case a more generic verb frame such as the previously proposed counter-01 or counteract-01 would seem more appropriate.

I like oppose-01 for the political/opinion use of "anti-" (anti-Syrian journalist, anti-gun lobby), and counter-01 when there is an implied action/force:

• anti-virus program: program :ARG0-of [counter-01 :ARG1 virus]
• anti-submarine aircraft: aircraft :ARG0-of [counter-01 :ARG1 submarine]
• anti-aging cream: cream :ARG0-of [counter-01 :ARG1 age-01]
• anticoagulants: drug :ARG0-of [counter-01 :ARG1 coagulate-01]

[mgeorgescu]

Thank you all for you feedback. I tried to integrate it in the initial release.

[kevincrawfordknight]

favor-01, counter-01, oppose-01 into guidelines.

[uhermjakob]

Added 4 searchable examples for pro- and anti- to consensus guidelines workset.
Updated consensus AMR for pro-road.