Philipp Cimiano; Christian Chiarcos; John P. McCrae; Jorge Gracia (2020). Linguistic Linked Data. Representation, Generation and Applications. Springer International Publishing

Recensão de: Philipp Cimiano; Christian Chiarcos; John P. McCrae; Jorge Gracia (2020). Linguistic Linked Data. Representation, Generation and Applications. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-030-30225-

MultiLexBATS: multilingual dataset of lexical semantic relations

Understanding the relation between the meanings of words is an important part of comprehending natural language. Prior work has either focused on analysing lexical semantic relations in word embeddings or probing pretrained language models (PLMs), with some exceptions. Given the rarity of highly multilingual benchmarks, it is unclear to what extent PLMs capture relational knowledge and are able to transfer it across languages. To start addressing this question, we propose MultiLexBATS, a multilingual parallel dataset of lexical semantic relations adapted from BATS in 15 languages including low-resource languages, such as Bambara, Lithuanian, and Albanian. As experiment on cross-lingual transfer of relational knowledge, we test the PLMs' ability to (1) capture analogies across languages, and (2) predict translation targets. We find considerable differences across relation types and languages with a clear preference for hypernymy and antonymy as well as romance languages

ISO-DR-core plugs into ISO-dialogue acts for a cross-linguistic taxonomy of discourse markers

The present paper proposes an interoperable taxonomy to represent the meaning of discourse markers based on ISO DR-core (ISO 24617-8) but with a plug-in to ISO-dialogue acts (ISO 24617-2). The proposed taxonomy encompasses two dimensions: the semantic, with values regarding the discourse relations signalled by discourse markers, and the pragmatic, with values concerning the communicative function realized by discourse markers. We present a proof of concept for this twodimensional taxonomy in a multilingual parallel dataset in three languages, English, European Portuguese and Bulgarian, comprising 165 textual segments with multiword discourse makers obtained from publicly available TED Talk transcripts. We show that the two-dimensional taxonomy can successfully annotate cross-linguistically the meaning of discourse markers and discuss linguistic evidence where extension of the proposed taxonomy can be relevant

A semântica das frases com subordinação adverbial: o contributo das relações retóricas

This paper focuses on the temporal and rhetorical relations in complex sentences with adverbial subordinate clauses. We put forward a proposal for the semantic treatment within a theoretical framework which is grounded on Segmented Discourse Representation Theory, from Asher and Lascarides (2003), with some stipulations to deal with specificities of complex sentences related to: (i) the directionality of rhetorical and temporal relations; (ii) the rhetorical relations at the content and text-structuring levels; (iii) the combination of rhetorical relations of different nature. This proposal leads to a better semantic and discursive understanding of this type of complex sentences

Some issues on quantification in consecutive clauses

FR:Les phrases aux propositions consécutives constituent un problème complexe en raison de leur statut syntaxique et de leur interprétation sémantique, celles-ci donnant lieu à des analyses très différentes. Notre but, dans cet article, est de proposer une analyse sémantique des phrases subordonnées consécutives finies en Portugais Européen fondée sur des critères de quantification. En effet, nous conclurons que la quantification joue un rôle très important dans les phrases consécutives en ce qui concerne leur interprétation. Les données observées suggèrent l'existence de trois types différents de phrases consécutives - celles quantifiant sur des individus (objets), celles quantifiant sur des situations et celles quantifiant sur des propriétés. Cette tripartition nous aide à expliquer quelques restrictions importantes relatives aux différents marqueurs linguistiques dans les phrases consécutives. Elle peut expliquer aussi quelques restrictions sur les classes de mots, la nature des classes aspectuelles des situations de la proposition principale et le type de prédicats nominaux compris dans la quantification.The sentences with consecutive clauses have been a controversial topic because not only their syntactic status but also their semantic interpretation are confronted with many problems which give rise to different analysis. Our aim in this paper is to propose a semantic analysis of finite subordinate consecutive sentences in European Portuguese grounded on quantificational issues. In fact, quantification in consecutive sentences plays a very important role regarding their interpretation. The data suggest the existence of three different types of quantificational consecutive sentences corresponding to quantification over individuals (objects), quantification over situations and quantification over properties. This division helps to explain some relevant restrictions related to the sort of linguistic 'triggers' of consecutive structures and, in some cases, related to the classes of words that can occur with these, to the nature of aspectual classes of situations of the main clause and to the type of nominal predicates involved in the quantificatio

Sequence of tenses in complementation structures: lexical restrictions and effects on language acquisition

In this paper we discuss the combinations of tenses in main and complement clauses of European Portuguese, focusing on the issue that restrictions on the tenses allowed in complement clauses are observed with some predicates but not with others. We show that these lexical restrictions are independent of the mood occurring in the complement clause, though an integrated analysis of mood and tense may be achieved. The proposal is made that the observed lex-ical restrictions on embedded tenses have a semantic basis and fol-low from the fact that Portuguese is an SOT-language; i.e., a lan-guage where embedded tenses have semantic import. A preliminary investigation is conducted on the sequences of tenses produced at early stages of language acquisition.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O conhecimento linguístico na organização discursiva da escrita argumentativa no final do ensino secundário

The main objective of this paper is to assess students' textual and discursive awareness in the production of argumentative texts. The corpus, with texts of students from the 12th grade, was analysed according to the following phases: segmentation of the texts into smaller units, identification of rhetorical relations (Asher and Lascarides, 2003, a.o) and detection of elements and structures used to signal rhetorical relations and to organise discourse. The results allow us to conclude that students at the age of 17-19 have not achieved the degree of writing competence as required by the syllabus and the final exam

Consecutive sentences in European Portuguese: a quantificational approach

As frases com orações consecutivas têm sido um tópico controverso porque, não só o seu estatuto sintáctico, como também a sua interpretação semântica são confrontados com muitos problemas que dão origem a análises diferentes. A observação de várias gramáticas e estudos sobre este assunto em diferentes línguas românicas como o Português Europeu, o Espanhol, o Francês e o Italiano mostra claramente a ausência de uma abordagem homogénea deste fenómeno linguístico. O nosso objectivo neste artigo é propor uma análise semântica das frases consecutivas subordinadas finitas em Português Europeu baseada em critérios quantificacionais. Em primeiro lugar, debruçar-nos-emos sob o tratamento das frases consecutivas em algumas gramáticas das línguas já mencionadas. Seguidamente, focaremos a nossa atenção em alguns marcadores de estruturas consecutivas como tanto, tão, cada, um, um tal e tal e nas leituras semânticas possíveis. Por fim, apresentaremos uma proposta semântica de análise das frases consecutivas em Português Europeu. De facto, a quantificação nas frases consecutivas desempenha um papel muito importante no que diz respeito à sua interpretação. Os dados sugerem a existência de três tipos diferentes de frases consecutivas quantificacionais correspondendo à quantificação sobre indivíduos (objectos), quantificação sobre situações e quantificação sobre propriedades. Esta tripartição ajuda a explicar algumas restrições relevantes relacionadas com o tipo de marcadores linguísticos das frases consecutivas e, em alguns casos, relacionadas com classes de palavras que podem ocorrer com estes, com a natureza das classes aspectuais das situações da oração principal e com o tipo de predicados nominais envolvidos na quantificação.The sentences with consecutive clauses have been a controversial topic because not only their syntactic status but also their semantic interpretation are confronted with many problems which give rise to different analysis. The scrutiny of several grammar books and studies concerning this matter in different Romance languages such as European Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian clearly shows the absence of a unified approach to this linguistic phenomenon. Our aim in this paper is to propose a semantic analysis of finite subordinate consecutive sentences in European Portuguese grounded on quantificational issues. Firstly, we will look over the treatment of consecutive sentences in some grammar books of the languages already mentioned. Secondly, we will focus our attention on some 'triggers' of consecutive structures like tanto ('so much/ so many'), tão ('so'), cada ('such'), um ('a'), um tal ('such a') and tal ('such') and on possible semantic readings. Finally, we will present our semantic proposal of analysis for consecutive sentences in European Portuguese. As matter of fact, quantification in consecutive sentences plays a very important role regarding their interpretation. The data suggest the existence of three different types of quantificational consecutive sentences corresponding to quantification over individuals (objects), quantification over situations and quantification over properties. This tripartition helps to explain some relevant restrictions related to the sort of linguistic 'triggers' of consecutive structures and, in some cases, related to the classes of words that can occur with these, to the nature of aspectual classes of situations of the main clause and to the type of nominal predicates involved in the quantification

TELP - Text Extraction with Linguistic Patterns

Linguistic studies in under-resourced languages pose additional challenges at various levels, including the automatic collection of examples, cases, and corpora construction. Several sophisticated applications, such as GATE (Cunningham, 2002), can be configured/adjusted/programmed by experts to automatically collect examples from the Web in any language. However, these applications are too complex and intricate to be operated, requiring, in some cases, skills in computer science. In this work, we present TELP, a tool that allows for the simplified expression of linguistic patterns to extract case studies automatically from World Wide Web sites. It is a straightforward application with an intuitive GUI and a quick learning curve, facilitating its broad use by researchers from different domains. In this paper, we describe the operational and technical aspects of TELP and some relatively recent and relevant use cases in the field of linguistic studies