Towards new information resources for public health: From WordNet to MedicalWordNet

In the last two decades, WORDNET has evolved as the most comprehensive computational lexicon of general English. In this article, we discuss its potential for supporting the creation of an entirely new kind of information resource for public health, viz. MEDICAL WORDNET. This resource is not to be conceived merely as a lexical extension of the original WORDNET to medical terminology; indeed, there is already a considerable degree of overlap between WORDNET and the vocabulary of medicine. Instead, we propose a new type of repository, consisting of three large collections of (1) medically relevant word forms, structured along the lines of the existing Princeton WORDNET; (2) medically validated propositions, referred to here as medical facts, which will constitute what we shall call MEDICAL FACTNET; and (3) propositions reflecting laypersons’ medical beliefs, which will constitute what we shall call the MEDICAL BELIEFNET. We introduce a methodology for setting up the MEDICAL WORDNET. We then turn to the discussion of research challenges that have to be met in order to build this new type of information resource

A minimal transfer conception for Verbmobil

In this paper we introduce the transfer conception MinT that is currently being developed for the prototype of the face-to-face translation system verbmobil. The acronym MinT stands for Minimal Transfer. MinT is a semantic-oriented transfer model that is based on some central ideas of the MRS-based approach outlined in [Copestake et al., 1995], and the Shake-and-Bake approach to machine translation sketched in [Whitelock, 1992]. The central idea of minimal transfer is to relate the source and target language semantic descriptions on a maximal abstract level, without falling back into the well-known problems of the Interlingua approach. Minimal transfer results in simultaneously decreasing the number of transfer rules and leaving a maximal set of options for lexicalization and grammaticalization up to the generator. In sum, MinT can be characterized as a semantic-oriented, unification-based and lexicalist transfer model. Its main knowledge base are transfer statements which provide the correspondences between underspecied semantic predicates of the source and target language. Transfer statements comprise both bilingual and monolingual correspondences. Bilingual correspondences, on the one hand, establish the equivalence between sets of semantic predicates of the source and target languages. They are formulated in a strictly declarative way and can be applied bidirectionally. In order to solve translational ambiguities, the roles and instances of a predicate are typed with fine-grained sorts that are supplied by an elaborated sort hierarchy. Monolingual correspondences, on the other hand, provide a solution to divergences in the logical structure of the languages involved. The idea is to allow the transfer component to initiate further compositional processes if this is motivated by the contrastive situation. Thus, the input structure is transformed into a logically equivalent semantic representation that is shared by the target language. This way, all contrastive knowledge is contained in the transfer component, which allows strict modularity of analysis and generation

Research: A Requirements Search Engine: Progress Report 2

Sponsored Report (for Acquisition Research Program)This research addresses three closely related problems. (1) Most current search technology is based on a popularity metric (e.g., PageRank or ExpertRank), but not on the semantic content of the searched document. (2) When building components in a service-oriented architecture (SOA), developers must investigate whether components that meet certain requirements already exist. (3) There is no easy way for writers of requirements documents to formally specify the meaning and domain of their requirements. Our goal in the research presented here is to address these concerns by designing a search engine that searches over the ''meanings" of requirements documents. In this paper, we present the current state of the Research project.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research ProgramApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Conceptual Control: On the feasibility of conceptual engineering

This paper empirically raises and examines the question of ‘conceptual control’: To what extent are competent thinkers able to reason properly with new senses of words? This question is crucial for conceptual engineering. This prominently discussed philosophical project seeks to improve our representational devices to help us reason better. It frequently involves giving new senses to familiar words, through normative explanations. Such efforts enhance, rather than reduce, our ability to reason properly, only if competent language users are able to abide by the relevant explanations, in language comprehension and verbal reasoning. This paper examines to what extent we have such ‘conceptual control’ in reasoning with new senses. The paper draws on psycholinguistic findings about polysemy processing to render this question empirically tractable and builds on recent findings from experimental philosophy to address it. The paper identifies a philosophically important gap in thinkers’ control over the key process of stereotypical enrichment and discusses how conceptual engineers can use empirical methods to work around this gap in conceptual control. The paper thus empirically demonstrates the urgency of the question of conceptual control and explains how experimental philosophy can empirically address the question, to render conceptual engineering feasible as an ameliorative enterprise

A Cognitive Grammar Analysis of the Semantics of the Russian Verbal Prefix na-

The Russian verbal prefix na- is one of a set of aspectual prefixes that exhibit characteristics of both derivational and inflectional morphemes. In addition to forming aspectual pairs as a grammatical marker of Perfective aspect, na-, in many cases, also carries lexical meaning; in these cases, na-prefixation changes the lexical/semantic meaning of the verbal stem, resulting in a distinct lexical item. I examine a sample of 40 verbs to compare the frequencies of na- as a lexicalized prefix and as a grammaticalized prefix. I then propose a radial category model to account for the polysemous functions of na-, with several metonymically and metaphorically related functions branching out from a single spatial prototype

Causativisation and Applicativisation with the Grammaticalised Verb De in Akan

The thesis investigates a grammaticalised verb de, reanalysed as a semi/functional element which is involved in valency changing operations such as causativisation and applicativisation in Akan. The causative and applicative use of the morpheme points to a polysemous syncretism (Franco 2019) in the language. De is realised as three different heads with different functions: as a causer, an applicative, and a DOM licensing head that is involved in theta role assignment. Following Plykannen’s (2000, 2002, 2008) bipartite characterisation of applicative heads into high or low in natural languages, de is majorly a high applicative that introduces non-causers such as comitatives and instrument/means in the language. The causative shows a sensitivity to the kind of predicate it combines with: with intransitives, locatives and unaccusatives, de introduces an external argument. With transitive verbs, de introduces a comitative and an instrument/means. In ditransitive constructions, de introduces an argument position licensed through the presence of a clitic that is co-indexed with the theme, and this has implications for DOM and theta role assignment. A tentative analysis combining the causative and the applicative head as a common functor is proffered following Ramchand (2019)

Introducing MultilingProfiler: An adaptable tool for analysing the vocabulary in French, German, and Spanish texts

Vocabulary profiling with computational tools and word lists is an established step in the development of pedagogical materials for learners of English. However, existing tools and word lists lack sensitivity to the orthographical, morphological, and grammatical systems of highly inflected and declined languages. This limits the degree to which lexical profiling can be usefully implemented in the creation of materials intended for use with beginner/low-intermediate learners of such languages who have only partial knowledge of these systems. In this article, we present MultilingProfiler, a vocabulary profiling tool designed to support nuanced profiling of texts in French, German, and Spanish. We introduce the concept of ‘bespoke’ word families tailored to the needs of learners at various stages of development, and outline key features of the tool that operationalise this concept (the functionality to select which inflected, derived, and multiword forms of headwords are included in the profile; sensitivity to orthographical systems; embedded word lists aligning with specific programs of study; and cumulative word lists that grow with learner knowledge). We present two case studies that find MultilingProfiler’s features to be effective in highlighting potential mismatches between the lexical demands of texts and the expected knowledge of learners, and consider applications of the tool in research methods

The VERBMOBIL domain model version 1.0

This report describes the domain model used in the German Machine Translation project VERBMOBIL. In order make the design principles underlying the modeling explicit, we begin with a brief sketch of the VERBMOBIL demonstrator architecture from the perspective of the domain model. We then present some rather general considerations on the nature of domain modeling and its relationship to semantics. We claim that the semantic information contained in the model mainly serves two tasks. For one thing, it provides the basis for a conceptual transfer from German to English; on the other hand, it provides information needed for disambiguation. We argue that these tasks pose different requirements, and that domain modeling in general is highly task-dependent. A brief overview of domain models or ontologies used in existing NLP systems confirms this position. We finally describe the different parts of the domain model, explain our design decisions, and present examples of how the information contained in the model can be actually used in the VERBMOBIL demonstrator. In doing so, we also point out the main functionality of FLEX, the Description Logic system used for the modeling