Polysemy: Theoretical and Computational Approaches - Rilegato

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0198238428 ISBN 13: 9780198238423

Casa editrice: OUP Oxford, 2000

Riassunto

This volume of newly commissioned essays examines current theoretical and computational work on polysemy, the term used in semantic analysis to describe words with more than one meaning or function, sometimes perhaps related (as in plain) and sometimes perhaps not (as in bank). Such words present few difficulties in everyday language, but pose central problems for linguists and lexicographers, especially for those involved in lexical semantics and in computational modelling. The contributors to this book–leading researchers in theoretical and computational linguistics–consider the implications of these problems for grammatical theory and how they may be addressed by computational means.

The theoretical essays in the book examine polysemy as an aspect of a broader theory of word meaning. Three theoretical approaches are presented: the Classical (or Aristotelian), the Prototypical, and the Relational. Their authors describe the nature of polysemy, the criteria for detecting it, and its manifestations across languages. They examine the issues arising from the regularity of polysemy and the theoretical principles proposed to account for the interaction of lexical meaning with the semantics and syntax of the context in which it occurs. Finally they consider the formal representations of meaning in the lexicon, and their implications for dictionary construction.

The computational essays are concerned with the challenge of polysemy to automatic sense

disambiguation–how intended meaning for a word occurrence can be identified. The approaches presented include the exploitation of lexical information in machine-readable dictionaries, machine learning based on patterns of word co-occurrence, and hybrid approaches that combine the two.

As a whole, the volume shows how on the one hand theoretical work provides the motivation and may suggest the basis for computational algorithms, while on the other computational results may validate, or reveal problems in, the principles set forth by theories.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

This volume distinguishes itself by its very catholic table of contents ... the chapters themselves stand as valuable contributions to the debate about what polysemy is and how it is to be represented in (psycho)linguistic and computational models. (Language)

Gives a good impression of the variety of opinions available. (International Journal of Lexicography)

The volume provides the readers a broad overview with a historical and issue-based background for the treatment of polysemy, examines and contrasts a range of current approaches, and highlights many unresolved problems in the theoretical understanding of polysemy and the present computational challenges. In essence, the volume will be highly useful for those who are working in the area of polysemy and word sense disambiguation. (LinguistList)

L'autore:

Yael Ravin is a research staff member at the T. J. Watson Research Center of IBM in New York, where she has been working in computational linguistics. Her current research focuses on integrating information extraction and text retrieval techniques into knowledge management applications. Claudia Leacock recently became a research scientist in the Natural Language Processing group at the Educational Testing Service. Previously she spent six years as a research staff member at Princeton University's Cognitive Science Laboratory.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: OUP Oxford
• Data di pubblicazione: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0198238428
• ISBN 13: 9780198238423
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 242
• Redattore: Ravin Yael, Leacock Claudia