Benefits of Ontologies to Multilingual Needs

The way in which multilingual information is organized and presented, accounts for its usefulness or adequacy for a specific purpose. As globalization becomes more pervasive, people all over the world need to make use of information in different languages in their everyday work. Bilingual or multilingual dictionaries have been, and still are, relevant resources for facing up multilingual issues. However, the multilingual information collected in dictionaries remains insufficient for those people who need to gain a general view of a specific parcel of knowledge in two or more languages. In LSP (Language for Specific Purposes) this issue becomes even more relevant. In the case of translation of specialized texts, specialization on source and target subject matter becomes imperative in order to get a complete understanding of the source text and transfer that knowledge to the target reader. Ontologies may come to solve this knowledge acquisition problem, since they offer a multilingual conceptualization of a specific parcel of knowledge by organizing the information according to the different and various relations between concepts. In this way, translators are able to gain the required domain knowledge, as well as the type of equivalence relations between concepts in the different languages, and their context of use. Thus, pursue of this paper is to give an overview of the benefits of multilingual ontologies to the multilingual information retrieval

Uma visão geral sobre ontologias: pesquisa sobre definições, tipos, aplicações, métodos de avaliação e de construção

Os estudos sobre a organização da informação tem recebido cada vez mais importância à medida que o número crescente de fontes de dados disponíveis dificulta a recuperação da informação. Nos últimos anos, vários trabalhos têm destacado o uso de ontologias como alternativa para a organização da informação. Encontram-se na literatura abordagens das mais variadas sobre o assunto. Esse artigo objetiva proporcionar uma visão geral sobre o estado-da-arte no estudo de ontologias. Apresentam-se definições para o termo, uma breve discussão sobre seu significado, tipos de ontologias, propostas para aplicações em diferentes domínios de conhecimento e propostas para a construção de ontologias (metodologias, ferramentas e linguagens)

Ontologías para la terminología : por qué, cuándo, cómo

Aquest article tracta sobre la utilitat que pot tenir per a un terminòleg la integració d'una ontologia en la seva feina, els criteris que cal considerar en el cas de plantejar-se fer-ho, les pautes que cal seguir i les eines que té a la seva disposició. Ofereix una visió actualitzada de l'àmbit d'aplicació de les ontologies, des de la perspectiva del Web Semàntic.Este artículo discute la utilidad que puede tener para el terminólogo la integración de una ontología en su trabajo, los criterios a considerar en el caso de plantearse hacerlo, las pautas a seguir y las herramientas a su disposición. Se ofrece una visión actualizada del ámbito de aplicación de las ontologías, desde la perspectiva de la Web Semántica.This article discusses the usefulness of integrating an ontology in one's work when dealing with terminology, the criteria to take into consideration if this is a consideration, the guidelines to follow and the tools available. This article offers an updated review of the application of ontologies from the perspective of Web Semántica

Framing Terminology: A Process-Oriented Approach

The frame notion used in Frame Semantics can be traced to case frames, which were said to characterize a small abstract situation in such a way that if one wished to understand the semantic structure of a verb it was necessary to understand the properties of the entire scene that it activated. A frame has been more broadly defined as any system of concepts related in such a way that one concept evokes the entire system. In this sense, it bears an obvious affinity with terminology, which is also based on such conceptual organization. However, despite the fact that Frame Semantics has been usefully applied to lexicology and syntax, so far it has not been systematically applied to terminology.This paper argues for a frame-based organization of specialized fields in which a dynamic process-oriented frame provides the conceptual underpinnings for the location of sub-hierarchies of concepts within a specialized domain event, and the elaboration of a definition template, thus opening the door to a more adequate representation of specialized fields as well as supplying a better way of linking terms to concepts. The domain of coastal engineering is used as an example because the entities in play take part in processes that are difficult to describe only by means of conceptual trees. Through the use of corpus data we demonstrate how it is possible to represent such an event and create a dynamic frame which enriches and enhances the understanding of specialized field concepts.La notion de schéma utilisée dans la Sémantique des schémas est dérivée des grammaires des cas, qui étaient censées caractériser une petite situation abstraite de telle sorte que, si on souhaitait comprendre la structure sémantique d’un verbe, il était nécessaire de comprendre les propriétés de la scène entière qu’il activait. Un schéma a été défini plus amplement comme tout système de concepts mis en rapport de telle sorte qu’un concept évoque le système entier. Dans ce sens, il a une affinité évidente avec la terminologie, qui est également basée sur cette organisation conceptuelle. Néanmoins, bien que la Sémantique des schémas ait été appliquée à la lexicologie et à la syntaxe, jusqu’ici elle n’a pas été systématiquement appliquée à la terminologie.Ce document présente des arguments en faveur d’une organisation de domaines spécialisés s’appuyant sur des schémas, où un schéma dynamique et orienté sur les processus fournit le soutien conceptuel pour la localisation de sous-hiérarchies de concepts dans un événement de domaine spécialisé; l’élaboration d’un modèle de définition, permettant une représentation plus appropriée des domaines spécialisés et fournissant une meilleure façon de lier les termes avec les concepts. Le domaine de l’ingénierie côtière est utilisé comme exemple parce que les entités en jeu participent dans des processus qui sont difficiles à décrire au seul moyen des arbres conceptuels. Par l’utilisation des données de corpus nous démontrons comment il est possible de représenter cet événement et de créer un cadre dynamique qui enrichit et améliore le sens de la compréhension des concepts des domaines spécialisés

Overview of Knowledge Sharing and Reuse Components: Ontologies and Problem-Solving Methods

Ontologies and problem-solving methods are promising candidates for reuse in Knowledge Engineering. Ontologies define domain knowledge at a generic level, while problem-solving methods specify generic reasoning knowledge. Both type of components can be viewed as complementary entities that can be used to configure new knowledge systems from existing, reusable components. In this paper, we give an overview of approaches for ontologies and problem-solving methods

Knowledge-based terminology for medical translation and journalism: the interdisciplinary Oncoterm project

Oncoterm es un proyecto de investigación interdisciplinar sobre terminología médica cuyo objetivo principal es la elaboración de un sistema de información sobre el subdominio biomédico de la oncología en el que los conceptos están vinculados a una ontología. Dicha estructura conceptual subyace a los demás componentes del sistema y constituye el vínculo entre términos en diferentes lenguas (inglés, español y alemán). Asimismo, la identificación de un marco conceptual facilita la comprensión de textos sobre el cáncer en diferentes lenguas, no sólo por parte de los profesionales de la salud, sino también por parte de los traductores, los periodistas y los pacientes.Oncoterm is an interdisciplinary research project on medical terminology whose main objective is the elaboration of an information system on the biomedical subdomain of oncology in which the concepts are linked to an ontology or a hierarchy of concepts. This conceptual structure underlies the other components of the system and is the link between terms in different languages (English, Spanish, and German). Accordingly, the identification of a conceptual framework facilitates the comprehension of oncology texts in different languages not only for health professionals, but also for translators, journalists, and patients

An ontology for human-like interaction systems

This report proposes and describes the development of a Ph.D. Thesis aimed at building an ontological knowledge model supporting Human-Like Interaction systems. The main function of such knowledge model in a human-like interaction system is to unify the representation of each concept, relating it to the appropriate terms, as well as to other concepts with which it shares semantic relations. When developing human-like interactive systems, the inclusion of an ontological module can be valuable for both supporting interaction between participants and enabling accurate cooperation of the diverse components of such an interaction system. On one hand, during human communication, the relation between cognition and messages relies in formalization of concepts, linked to terms (or words) in a language that will enable its utterance (at the expressive layer). Moreover, each participant has a unique conceptualization (ontology), different from other individual’s. Through interaction, is the intersection of both part’s conceptualization what enables communication. Therefore, for human-like interaction is crucial to have a strong conceptualization, backed by a vast net of terms linked to its concepts, and the ability of mapping it with any interlocutor’s ontology to support denotation. On the other hand, the diverse knowledge models comprising a human-like interaction system (situation model, user model, dialogue model, etc.) and its interface components (natural language processor, voice recognizer, gesture processor, etc.) will be continuously exchanging information during their operation. It is also required for them to share a solid base of references to concepts, providing consistency, completeness and quality to their processing. Besides, humans usually handle a certain range of similar concepts they can use when building messages. The subject of similarity has been and continues to be widely studied in the fields and literature of computer science, psychology and sociolinguistics. Good similarity measures are necessary for several techniques from these fields such as information retrieval, clustering, data-mining, sense disambiguation, ontology translation and automatic schema matching. Furthermore, the ontological component should also be able to perform certain inferential processes, such as the calculation of semantic similarity between concepts. The principal benefit gained from this procedure is the ability to substitute one concept for another based on a calculation of the similarity of the two, given specific circumstances. From the human’s perspective, the procedure enables referring to a given concept in cases where the interlocutor either does not know the term(s) initially applied to refer that concept, or does not know the concept itself. In the first case, the use of synonyms can do, while in the second one it will be necessary to refer the concept from some other similar (semantically-related) concepts...Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología InformáticaSecretario: Inés María Galván León.- Secretario: José María Cavero Barca.- Vocal: Yolanda García Rui

Terminological Equivalence and Variation in the EU Multi-level Jurisdiction: A Case Study on Victims of Crime

2011/2012Il progetto di ricerca ha lo scopo di analizzare la terminologia giuridica in lingua inglese e italiana relativa alla figura della vittima di reato e radicata nello spazio giuridico europeo, caratterizzato dalla coesistenza dell’ordinamento giuridico sovranazionale dell’Unione europea (UE) e degli ordinamenti giuridici nazionali del Regno Unito e dell’Italia. Secondo l’ipotesi principale alla base del progetto, il linguaggio giuridico è intrinsecamente caratterizzato da un certo grado di dinamismo terminologico, che si esprime sia a livello linguistico, con una serie di termini utilizzati per riferirsi a uno stesso concetto, sia a livello concettuale, dove si riflettono le diverse concettualizzazioni della stessa area del diritto. Poiché la terminologia giuridica analizzata nella presente tesi si colloca in uno spazio giuridico che vede il sovrapporsi di vari ordinamenti, si presume che detto dinamismo si manifesti in due diversi contesti linguistici. Nel primo contesto, che è di tipo intralinguistico, viene presa in considerazione la terminologia utilizzata nelle varianti nazionale e sovranazionale della stessa lingua, mentre nel secondo contesto, di tipo interlinguistico, la terminologia è esaminata da una prospettiva multilingue. Al fine di verificare la veridicità di tale ipotesi, è stata sviluppata una metodologia per l’analisi della terminologia giuridica in cui la distinzione tra genotipi e fenotipi introdotta da Sacco (1991) si unisce ai principi metodologici proposti da Cabré (1999a) per il lavoro terminografico. Per poter applicare detta metodologia è stato necessario costruire un corpus bilingue di testi dell’Unione europea e una collezione di testi di origine nazionale, entrambi incentrati sulla figura della vittima di reato. L’analisi della terminologia estratta ha rivelato che, nel primo contesto linguistico, il dinamismo intralinguistico si riflette nella variazione terminologica, che può interessare sia la sfera linguistica della terminologia (variazione denominativa) sia la sfera concettuale (variazione concettuale). La variazione denominativa consiste nell’esistenza di più unità terminologiche per designare uno stesso concetto, che però non comporta modifiche sostanziali nei relativi fenotipi. Nel caso della variazione concettuale, invece, è possibile riscontrare un certo anisomorfismo nei fenotipi. In entrambi i casi, tuttavia, tutti i termini interessati dal fenomeno della variazione terminologica mantengono la relazione con uno stesso genotipo. Si è proposta una classificazione della variazione denominativa prendendo in considerazione quattro variabili, ossia il livello di specializzazione, il periodo temporale, l’ordinamento giuridico e la valenza giuridica. Visto l’approccio metodologico adottato nel presente progetto di ricerca, in cui la terminologia giuridica dell’Unione europea è presa come punto di partenza ai fini dell’analisi terminologica e della strutturazione preliminare del sistema concettuale relativo al dominio, la variazione concettuale è stata riscontrata con minor frequenza rispetto alla variazione denominativa. Nell’analisi del secondo tipo di variazione terminologica, ossia della variazione concettuale, è stata presa in considerazione un’unica variabile, ovvero l’ordinamento giuridico. In base a tale variabile, la variazione concettuale è stata classificata come intra-sistemica, qualora sia riscontrata nell’ambito dello stesso ordinamento giuridico, ed inter-sistemica, qualora l’ordinamento sovranazionale e quello nazionale elaborino due fenotipi concettualmente diversi che, a prescindere dalle divergenze concettuali, possono essere ricondotti allo stesso genotipo. Nel secondo contesto linguistico, ovvero quello multilingue, la terminologia giuridica si è dimostrata caratterizzata da diversi gradi di equivalenza interlinguistica. Essendo la terminologia esaminata radicata in tre sistemi giuridici diversi, sono stati individuati due diversi tipi di equivalenza terminologica, ossia l’equivalenza intra- e inter-sistemica, e tre diversi gradi di equivalenza terminologica, ovvero l’equivalenza assoluta, l’equivalenza relativa e la non equivalenza. Altro scopo della presente tesi era quello di registrare le informazioni terminologiche raccolte in una base di conoscenza terminologica orientata alla traduzione giuridica. Giacché la terminologia esaminata è caratterizzata da un alto tasso di dipendenza dall’ordinamento giuridico a cui fa riferimento, la base di conoscenza terminologica MuLex è stata concepita specificamente come ausilio alla traduzione giuridica. MuLex ha quindi lo scopo di esplicitare le differenze riscontrate tra i sistemi giuridici esaminati e spiegare le peculiarità dell’uso di tale terminologia giuridica agli utenti finali. Al fine di ottimizzare la rappresentazione della conoscenza soggiacente la terminologia giuridica, le schede terminografiche in MuLex sono dotate di uno strumento di visualizzazione che consente la rappresentazione grafica delle strutture relazionali concettuali che raffigurano i concetti analizzati registrati nella base di conoscenza stessa.The research project aims at studying the English and Italian legal terminology related to the area of law of victims of crime and embedded in the multi-level jurisdiction provided by the supranational legal system of the European Union (EU), on the one hand, and the British and Italian national legal systems, on the other. The main hypothesis is that legal language is inherently characterised by terminological dynamism, which emerges both at the linguistic level – with different terms used to refer to individual legal concepts – and at the conceptual level, where different conceptualisations of the same legal domain are reflected. Since the bilingual legal terminology that has been examined occurs within a judicial space in which several legal systems are interconnected, such dynamism is expected to manifest itself in two different linguistic settings. In the first, the terminology in a national and an EU variety of the same language is taken into consideration, while in the second setting, terminology is studied from a multilingual perspective. In order to verify the main hypothesis, a methodological framework has been set out, on the basis of both the methodological premises for terminological analysis proposed by Cabré (1999a) and the distinction between genotypes and phenotypes introduced by Sacco (1991). Such a methodology required the compilation of a bilingual corpus of EU legal texts and a collection of national legal texts focusing on the figure of the victim of crime. The examination of the terminology extracted has shown that in the first linguistic setting envisaged, intralingual dynamism is reflected in terminological variation, which can affect either the linguistic layer (denominative variation) or the conceptual layer (conceptual variation) of terminology, with denominative variation consisting in the co-existence of several terminological units in which no substantial difference in the phenotypes involved is produced, while in conceptual variation anisomorphism among the phenotypes can be observed. In both cases, all the terms affected by the phenomenon of terminological variation are related to the same genotype. A classification of denominative variation has been proposed based on four variables, i.e. degree of specialisation, time span, legal system, and legal force. Due to the methodology adopted in this research project, in which the EU legal terminology has been taken as the starting point for both the terminological analysis and the preliminary conceptual structuring of the legal area of the study, conceptual variation has emerged to be less frequent than denominative variation. By taking the legal system as a variable in the analysis of conceptual variation, such variation has been subdivided into intra-systemic variation, occurring within a single legal system, and inter-systemic variation, when the supranational and the national legal systems elaborate two conceptually different phenotypes which, in spite of their conceptual anisomorphism, can be linked to the same genotype. In the second linguistic setting, where terminology is studied from a multilingual perspective, legal terminology has turned out to be characterised by different degrees of interlingual equivalence. On account of the embeddedness of the legal terminology examined in three different legal systems, different types and degrees of terminological equivalence have been identified and discussed: the types of terminological equivalence are intra-systemic and inter-systemic equivalence, while the degrees of equivalence are absolute equivalence, relative equivalence and non-equivalence. Another aim of this thesis was to record the collected terminological data in a legal translation-oriented terminological knowledge base (TKB). The terminology under discussion is characterised by a high degree of dependency on the legal system it refers to and the MuLex terminological knowledge base was specifically designed for helping the work of legal translators. This TKB aims at capturing the differences among the legal systems involved in the study and showing the peculiarities in the usage of legal terminology in such legal systems to its end users. For optimising the representation of the domain-specific knowledge implied by legal terminology, in MuLex terminographic entries integrate a tool enabling the graphic representation of the conceptual relational structures among the concepts analysed and recorded in the TKB.XXV Ciclo198

Using an ontology for guiding natural language interaction with knowledge based systems

Des dels anys 80, els sistemes basats en el coneixement, programes que utilitzen una gran quantitat de informació per modelar situacions i resoldre problemes, han adquirit gran importància en el camp industrial, financer i científic. La complexitat d'aquests sistemes fa que el seu ús presenti més dificultats que altres aplicacions informàtiques. La comunicació entre els sistemes basats en el coneixement i l'usuari presenta, doncs, nous reptes. Tot i que el llenguate natural es especialment apropiat per comunicar-se amb aquests sistemes, són pocs els que incorporen interfícies en llenguatge natural. Els motius principals són els problemes d'eficiència que presenta el processament del llenguatge natural i l'elevat cost de desenvolupar les bases de coneixement (conceptual i lingüístic) necessàries per a cada aplicació. L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és millorar la comunicació en llenguatge natural amb els sistemes basats en el coneixement. Aquesta recerca s'ha centrat en el disseny d'una representació reutilitzable dels diferents tipus de coneixement involucrats en aquesta comunicació, que permetir de generar de forma automàtica la interfície més adequada per a cada aplicació. S'ha desenvolupat un sistema, GISE (Generador de Interfaces a Sistemas Expertos), que genera interfícies en llenguatge natural per diferents tipus d'aplicacions. Aquest sistema adapta automàticament les bases de coneixement lingüístic generals als requeriments d'una aplicació concreta, obtenint la gramàtica més apropiada. El disseny del sistema està basat en una representació reutilitzable i modular dels diferents tipus de coneixement necessaris en la comunicació en llenguatge natural. Aquesta informació consisteix en els conceptes de l'aplicació, les tasques de comunicació, el coneixement lingüístic i les relacions generals entre el coneixement conceptual i la seva realització lingüística. Tres bases de coneixement s'han dissenyat per representar aquesta informació: la ontologia conceptual, la ontologia lingüística i un conjunt de relges de producció. El coneixement conceptual s'ha representat en la ontologia conceptual. Aquest coneixement inclou aspectes sobre el domini i la funcionalitat. Tota la informació necessària per modelar l'aplicació i tots els possibles actes de comunicació estan representats en la ontologia conceptual. La complexitat dels sistemes basats en el coneixement fa necessària una representació formal i explícita de la seva funcionalitat i domini.El coneixement lingüístic general necessari per expressar en llenguatge natural les possibles tasques del sistema es representen en la ontologia lingüística.La informació que permet relacionar el coneixement lingüístic general a una aplicació concreta per tal d'obtenir la gramàtica més adequada es representada mitjançant un conjunt de regles de producció.L'organització modular dels diferents tipus de coneixement que intervenen en la comunicació facilita l'adaptació del sistema a diferents tipus d'aplicacions i usuaris.Les gramàtiques generades pel sistema GISE utilitzen un llenguatge alhora ric i precís, adaptat a l'aplicació. La interfície del sistema incorpora un sistema de finestres que guia a l'usuari a introduir les opcions en llenguatge natural que el sistema reconeix.GISE s'ha aplicat a diferents sistemes: a SIREDOJ, un sistema expert en lleis i a un sistema que dóna informació sobre trens.Since the 1980's, knowledge based systems (KBSs), programs that use knowledge to model situations and solve problems, have spread throughout industry, finance and science. Human communication with these systems deals with complex concepts and relationships that are not present in other software applications. Allthough the natural language (NL) is especially appropriate for expressing these concepts, there are not many KBSs incorporating NL interfaces. The main reasons for this are problems of efficiency in NLI performance, lack of adequacy to the communication needs of the applications and the high cost of developing and maintaining them.The aim of this thesis is to study how the communication process and engineering features can be improved in NL interaction with KBSs. This study has been focused on the efficient and reusable representation of the knowledge involved in NL communication with KBSs. GISE (Generador de Interfaces a Sistemas Expertos), a system supporting NL communication with KBSs has been developed. This system adapts the general linguistic resources to application requirements in order to automatically obtain application-restricted grammars. The main issue of the system design is a separate and reusable representation of all types of knowledge involved in communication with KBSs. This knowledge consists of the application knowledge appearing in the communication, the tasks of communication, the linguistic knowledge supporting their expression and the general relationships between conceptual knowledge and its linguistic realization. Three general bases were designed to represent all this knowledge : the Conceptual Ontology (CO), the Linguistic Ontology (LO) and a set of control rules.Conceptual knowledge is represented in the CO. This conceptual knowledge includes domain and functionality issues. All knowledge required to model the applications as well as the description of all possible communication acts is provided in the CO. The CO is the skeleton for anchoring the domain and the functionality of the applications. The complexity of KBS performance makes a formal and explicit representation of their domain and functionality necessary. The general linguistic knowledge needed to cover the expression in NL of the tasks the system performs is represented by means of the LO and a set containing all possible realizations of the application terms. The LO is domain and application independent. The control information to relate the general linguistic knowledge to conceptual application knowledge in order to generate the application-restricted grammars is represented by a set of production rules. The modular organization of the relevant knowledge into separate data structures provides great flexibility for adapting the system to different types of applications and users.The grammars generated by GISE use expressive and precise language tuned to the application and adapted to the evolution of the communicative process. A menu-system to guide the user in introducing the NL is integrated into the GISE interface. GISE has been applied to a couple of applications: SIREDOJ, an ES in law and a railway communication system

Semi-Automated Development of Conceptual Models from Natural Language Text

The process of converting natural language specifications into conceptual models requires detailed analysis of natural language text, and designers frequently make mistakes when undertaking this transformation manually. Although many approaches have been used to help designers translate natural language text into conceptual models, each approach has its limitations. One of the main limitations is the lack of a domain-independent ontology that can be used as a repository for entities and relationships, thus guiding the transition from natural language processing into a conceptual model. Such an ontology is not currently available because it would be very difficult and time consuming to produce. In this thesis, a semi-automated system for mapping natural language text into conceptual models is proposed. The model, which is called SACMES, combines a linguistic approach with an ontological approach and human intervention to achieve the task. The model learns from the natural language specifications that it processes, and stores the information that is learnt in a conceptual model ontology and a user history knowledge database. It then uses the stored information to improve performance and reduce the need for human intervention. The evaluation conducted on SACMES demonstrates that (1) designers’ creation of conceptual models is improved when using the system comparing with not using any system, and that (2) the performance of the system is improved by processing more natural language requirements, and thus, the need for human intervention has decreased. However, these advantages may be improved further through development of the learning and retrieval techniques used by the system