ASC analyzer: A Python package for measuring argument structure construction usage in English texts

Hakyung Sung, Kristopher Kyle


Abstract
Argument structure constructions (ASCs) offer a theoretically grounded lens for analyzing second language (L2) proficiency, yet scalable and systematic tools for measuring their usage remain limited. This paper introduces the ASC analyzer, a publicly available Python package designed to address this gap. The analyzer automatically tags ASCs and computes 50 indices that capture diversity, proportion, frequency, and ASC-verb lemma association strength. To demonstrate its utility, we conduct both bivariate and multivariate analyses that examine the relationship between ASC-based indices and L2 writing scores.
Anthology ID:
2025.cxgsnlp-1.5
Volume:
Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Construction Grammars and NLP
Month:
September
Year:
2025
Address:
Düsseldorf, Germany
Editors:
Claire Bonial, Melissa Torgbi, Leonie Weissweiler, Austin Blodgett, Katrien Beuls, Paul Van Eecke, Harish Tayyar Madabushi
Venues:
CxGsNLP | WS
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
41–49
Language:
URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/iwcs-25-ingestion/2025.cxgsnlp-1.5/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Hakyung Sung and Kristopher Kyle. 2025. ASC analyzer: A Python package for measuring argument structure construction usage in English texts. In Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Construction Grammars and NLP, pages 41–49, Düsseldorf, Germany. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
ASC analyzer: A Python package for measuring argument structure construction usage in English texts (Sung & Kyle, CxGsNLP 2025)
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PDF:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/iwcs-25-ingestion/2025.cxgsnlp-1.5.pdf