A criação de recursos linguístico-computacionais de base, como é o caso dos léxicos computacionais, é um dos focos da área de Processamento de Línguas Naturais (PLN). Porém, a maioria dos recursos léxicos computacionais existentes é específica da língua inglesa. Dentre os recursos já desenvolvidos para a língua inglesa, tem-se a VerbNet, que é um léxico com informações semânticas e sintáticas dos verbos do inglês, independente de domínio, construído com base nas classes verbais de Levin, além de possuir mapeamentos para a WordNet de Princeton (WordNet). Considerando que há poucos estudos computacionais sobre as classes de Levin, que é a base da VerbNet, para línguas diferentes do inglês, e dada a carência de um léxico para o português nos moldes da VerbNet do inglês, este trabalho teve como objetivo a criação de um recurso léxico para o português do Brasil (chamado VerbNet.Br), semelhante à VerbNet. A construção manual destes recursos geralmente é inviável devido ao tempo gasto e aos erros inseridos pelo autor humano. Portanto, há um grande esforço na área para a criação destes recursos apoiada por técnicas computacionais. Uma técnica reconhecida e bastante usada é o uso de aprendizado de máquina em córpus para extrair informação linguística. A outra é o uso de recursos já existentes para outras línguas, em geral o inglês, visando à construção de um novo recurso alinhado, aproveitando-se de atributos multilíngues/cross-linguísticos (cross-linguistic) (como é o caso da classificação verbal de Levin). O método proposto neste mestrado para a construção da VerbNet.Br é genérico, porque pode ser utilizado para a construção de recursos semelhantes para outras línguas, além do português do Brasil. Além disso, futuramente, será possível estender este recurso via criação de subclasses de conceitos. O método para criação da VerbNet.Br é fundamentado em quatro etapas: três automáticas e uma manual. Porém, também foram realizados experimentos sem o uso da etapa manual, constatando-se, com isso, que ela pode ser descartada sem afetar a precisão e abrangência dos resultados. A avaliação do recurso criado foi realizada de forma intrínseca qualitativa e quantitativa. A avaliação qualitativa consistiu: (a) da análise manual de algumas classes da VerbNet, criando um gold standard para o português do Brasil; (b) da comparação do gold standard criado com os resultados da VerbNet.Br, obtendo resultados promissores, por volta de 60% de f-measure; e (c) da comparação dos resultados da VerbNet.Br com resultados de agrupamento de verbos, concluindo que ambos os métodos apresentam resultados similares. A avaliação quantitativa considerou a taxa de aceitação dos membros das classes da VerbNet.Br, apresentando resultados na faixa de 90% de aceitação dos membros em cada classe. Uma das contribuições deste mestrado é a primeira versão da VerbNet.Br, que precisa de validação linguística, mas que já contém informação para ser utilizada em tarefas de PLN, com precisão e abrangência de 44% e 92,89%, respectivamente / Building computational-linguistic base resources, like computational lexical resources (CLR), is one of the goals of Natural Language Processing (NLP). However, most computational lexicons are specific to English. One of the resources already developed for English is the VerbNet, a lexicon with domain-independent semantic and syntactic information of English verbs. It is based on Levin\'s verb classification, with mappings to Princeton\'s WordNet (WordNet). Since only a few computational studies for languages other than English have been made about Levin\'s classification, and given the lack of a Portuguese CLR similar to VerbNet, the goal of this research was to create a CLR for Brazilian Portuguese (called VerbNet.Br). The manual building of these resources is usually unfeasible because it is time consuming and it can include many human-made errors. Therefore, great efforts have been made to build such resources with the aid of computational techniques. One of these techniques is machine learning, a widely known and used method for extracting linguistic information from corpora. Another one is the use of pre-existing resources for other languages, most commonly English, to support the building of new aligned resources, taking advantage of some multilingual/cross-linguistic features (like the ones in Levin\'s verb classification). The method proposed here for the creation of VerbNet.Br is generic, therefore it may be used to build similar resources for languages other than Brazilian Portuguese. Moreover, the proposed method also allows for a future extension of the resource via subclasses of concepts. The VerbNet.Br has a four-step method: three automatic and one manual. However, experiments were also carried out without the manual step, which can be discarded without affecting precision and recall. The evaluation of the resource was intrinsic, both qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative evaluation consisted in: (a) manual analysis of some VerbNet classes, resulting in a Brazilian Portuguese gold standard; (b) comparison of this gold standard with the VerbNet.Br results, presenting promising results (almost 60% of f-measure); and (c), comparison of the VerbNet.Br results to verb clustering results, showing that both methods achieved similar results. The quantitative evaluation considered the acceptance rate of candidate members of VerbNet.Br, showing results around 90% of acceptance. One of the contributions of this research is to present the first version of VerbNet.Br. Although it still requires linguistic validation, it already provides information to be used in NLP tasks, with precision and recall of 44% and 92.89%, respectively

Cette thèse a pour objectif de proposer une approche renouvelée des verbes russes en –sja (Vsja), improprement qualifiés de « réfléchis ». Les approches existantes peinent à rendre compte des valeurs multiples et contradictoires que peuvent assumer ces verbes et notamment de celles ne pouvant en aucun cas relever de la réfléxivité stricto sensu.Le modèle proposé s’inscrit dans la théorie des opérations énonciatives (TOE) et unifie toutes les valeurs de Vsja. Tout d’abord, la comparaison de –sja, sebjá et de la particule atone sebe a permis de mieux dessiner les spécificités de Vsja. Puis l’analyse des faits diachroniques a permis de rappeler le lien ancien qui, en slave, unit –sja à la valeur de la voix moyenne. Cependant, –sja, en synchronie, ne peut être considéré comme un opérateur de voix notamment parce que certains emplois de Vsja (kusat’sja, par exemple) n’entraînent aucun changement de voix ou de diathèse. Dans notre modèle, –sja est la trace d’une opération énonciative visant à centraliser une relation – et une seule – entre Vsja et un autre actant de l’énoncé, qui n’est pas forcément le sujet grammatical, mais sans exclure obligatoirement la relation au second actant dans le cas des phrases biactancielles. Celle-ci est seulement périphérisée et, selon le sémantisme de Vsja et des actants en présence, peut/doit être maintenue ou exclue. Et si cette centralisation, qui intervient juste après l’opération d’instanciation, engendre, sur le plan sémantique, des effets de sens de type voix moyenne, ce modèle permet surtout d’envisager Vsja en dehors du système des voix verbales, tout comme il permet de résoudre l’ensemble des contradictions apparentes entre les différentes valeurs de Vsja. / The aim of this study is to propose a new approach to –sja verbs in Russian, improperly described as “reflexive”. The existing models fail to account for all the various and sometimes contradictory values assumed by –sja verbs, in particular for those Vsja which cannot be considered as having a “reflexive” meaning.The proposed model lies within the framework of the Théorie des opérations énonciatives (TOE) and unifies all the values of –sja verbs. The comparison between –sja, sebjá and the atonic particle sebe helped to understand the specificity of –sja. Then a short analysis of diachronical facts enabled us to stress the historical link in Slavic between –sja and the middle voice. Nevertheless, the marker cannot be considered synchronically as a “voice operator” notably because certain Vsja (e. g. kusat’sja) do not present a voice or diathesis shift. In our model, –sja is the sign of an enunciative operation whose aim is to centralize the relation between Vsja and one actant only, that is not necessarily the grammatical subject, and resulting in the other relation being simply peripheralized. Such an approach allows to solve all the apparent contradictions within the so-called Russian “reflexive” verbs and allows also to envisage Vsja outside the system of the verbal voices.

A criação de recursos linguístico-computacionais de base, como é o caso dos léxicos computacionais, é um dos focos da área de Processamento de Línguas Naturais (PLN). Porém, a maioria dos recursos léxicos computacionais existentes é específica da língua inglesa. Dentre os recursos já desenvolvidos para a língua inglesa, tem-se a VerbNet, que é um léxico com informações semânticas e sintáticas dos verbos do inglês, independente de domínio, construído com base nas classes verbais de Levin, além de possuir mapeamentos para a WordNet de Princeton (WordNet). Considerando que há poucos estudos computacionais sobre as classes de Levin, que é a base da VerbNet, para línguas diferentes do inglês, e dada a carência de um léxico para o português nos moldes da VerbNet do inglês, este trabalho teve como objetivo a criação de um recurso léxico para o português do Brasil (chamado VerbNet.Br), semelhante à VerbNet. A construção manual destes recursos geralmente é inviável devido ao tempo gasto e aos erros inseridos pelo autor humano. Portanto, há um grande esforço na área para a criação destes recursos apoiada por técnicas computacionais. Uma técnica reconhecida e bastante usada é o uso de aprendizado de máquina em córpus para extrair informação linguística. A outra é o uso de recursos já existentes para outras línguas, em geral o inglês, visando à construção de um novo recurso alinhado, aproveitando-se de atributos multilíngues/cross-linguísticos (cross-linguistic) (como é o caso da classificação verbal de Levin). O método proposto neste mestrado para a construção da VerbNet.Br é genérico, porque pode ser utilizado para a construção de recursos semelhantes para outras línguas, além do português do Brasil. Além disso, futuramente, será possível estender este recurso via criação de subclasses de conceitos. O método para criação da VerbNet.Br é fundamentado em quatro etapas: três automáticas e uma manual. Porém, também foram realizados experimentos sem o uso da etapa manual, constatando-se, com isso, que ela pode ser descartada sem afetar a precisão e abrangência dos resultados. A avaliação do recurso criado foi realizada de forma intrínseca qualitativa e quantitativa. A avaliação qualitativa consistiu: (a) da análise manual de algumas classes da VerbNet, criando um gold standard para o português do Brasil; (b) da comparação do gold standard criado com os resultados da VerbNet.Br, obtendo resultados promissores, por volta de 60% de f-measure; e (c) da comparação dos resultados da VerbNet.Br com resultados de agrupamento de verbos, concluindo que ambos os métodos apresentam resultados similares. A avaliação quantitativa considerou a taxa de aceitação dos membros das classes da VerbNet.Br, apresentando resultados na faixa de 90% de aceitação dos membros em cada classe. Uma das contribuições deste mestrado é a primeira versão da VerbNet.Br, que precisa de validação linguística, mas que já contém informação para ser utilizada em tarefas de PLN, com precisão e abrangência de 44% e 92,89%, respectivamente / Building computational-linguistic base resources, like computational lexical resources (CLR), is one of the goals of Natural Language Processing (NLP). However, most computational lexicons are specific to English. One of the resources already developed for English is the VerbNet, a lexicon with domain-independent semantic and syntactic information of English verbs. It is based on Levin\'s verb classification, with mappings to Princeton\'s WordNet (WordNet). Since only a few computational studies for languages other than English have been made about Levin\'s classification, and given the lack of a Portuguese CLR similar to VerbNet, the goal of this research was to create a CLR for Brazilian Portuguese (called VerbNet.Br). The manual building of these resources is usually unfeasible because it is time consuming and it can include many human-made errors. Therefore, great efforts have been made to build such resources with the aid of computational techniques. One of these techniques is machine learning, a widely known and used method for extracting linguistic information from corpora. Another one is the use of pre-existing resources for other languages, most commonly English, to support the building of new aligned resources, taking advantage of some multilingual/cross-linguistic features (like the ones in Levin\'s verb classification). The method proposed here for the creation of VerbNet.Br is generic, therefore it may be used to build similar resources for languages other than Brazilian Portuguese. Moreover, the proposed method also allows for a future extension of the resource via subclasses of concepts. The VerbNet.Br has a four-step method: three automatic and one manual. However, experiments were also carried out without the manual step, which can be discarded without affecting precision and recall. The evaluation of the resource was intrinsic, both qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative evaluation consisted in: (a) manual analysis of some VerbNet classes, resulting in a Brazilian Portuguese gold standard; (b) comparison of this gold standard with the VerbNet.Br results, presenting promising results (almost 60% of f-measure); and (c), comparison of the VerbNet.Br results to verb clustering results, showing that both methods achieved similar results. The quantitative evaluation considered the acceptance rate of candidate members of VerbNet.Br, showing results around 90% of acceptance. One of the contributions of this research is to present the first version of VerbNet.Br. Although it still requires linguistic validation, it already provides information to be used in NLP tasks, with precision and recall of 44% and 92.89%, respectively

We distinguish two types of passive voice in Swedish, namely: s-passive and periphrastic passive, the use of s-pasivum being applied much more frequently. In Czech, periphrastic passive is used as well as reflexive passive, which is traditionally considered as a type of passive voice, although various linguists may not unequivocally agree to classify it as such. Periphrastic passive is rather found in literature and is less frequent while the reflexive passive, being more common, is regarded as neutral passive structure. Swedish fictional literature employs passive voice approximately twice as much as the Czech one. When analyzing the translation options, we distinguish three types of passive structures, since both subtypes of periphrastic passive in Swedish - vara-passive and bli-passive - do differentiate in meaning. The analysis proves that there is a significant tendency to translate passive constructions into active; this is a similarity shared between s-passive and bli-passive.Vara-passive, which, on the contrary, has a rather stative meaning, is translated into verbonominal predicate in most cases. The second most used translation variant of all three types of passive is a periphrastic formulation. This is not a homogenous category, given that it comprises all the translation options that...

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Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / The outcome of child abuse, i.e. physical, emotional and/or sexual, and child neglect is multifactorial. The severity, duration and nature of abuse and the child’s vulnerabilities are all contributory factors with regards the outcome of abuse. Children who are traumatized are likely to be profoundly affected. Studies have shown and nearly every researcher agrees that early childhood traumas lie at the root of many emotional and psychological illnesses. It has been noted that drug abuse is a major problem in the Western Cape. This thesis explored the relationship between subjectively perceived childhood trauma and drug dependence in an in-patient treatment-seeking sample of adults in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area in the Western Cape. This thesis presents the results of a measure of childhood trauma, namely the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire [CTQ] and a measure of drug dependence, the Drug Use Disorder Identification Test [DUDIT]. The sample consisted of 52 participants and included both males and females. Only participants who were identified as drug dependent were included in the study. Patients who were actively psychotic and/or alcohol dependent were not included in the study. Ethical clearance was obtained from the University of the Western Cape’s higher degree ethical committee. The anonymity of the participants, the importance of responding openly and honestly and the sensitive nature of the questions were highlighted during the test administration. Questionnaires were administered in accordance with the guidelines stipulated in the respective manuals. The data was analysed through correlation. The study found a positive correlation between childhood emotional abuse and drug dependence, and childhood physical abuse and drug dependence.

The Translation of the Passive Voice in Simultaneous Interpreting Using Czech-German Material Abstract This thesis examines the transfer of passive diathesis from German to Czech in the process of simultaneous interpreting. The aim of the research in the empirical section of my thesis is to describe the main tendencies within the language transfer of the passive diathesis. The analysis is based on the records and transcripts of the European Parliament Plenary sessions. The analysis of the speeches focuses on three aspects 1) preserving or changing of the diathesis 2) expression of the agent 3) interference. The initial passive diathesis is mostly preserved. The target speech in Czech language contains more passive diathesis than common written or spoken Czech. If the agent in the original speech is expressed, in most cases it is preserved in the target speech. In case when the agent in the original speech is not stated and it is expressed only implicitly, in the target speech it is expressed directly. The occurrence of interference can be stated thanks to the overall high level of passive diathesis in the target speech compared with common written or spoken Czech. Most of the choices made by interpreters are examples of a positive language transfer.

Despite a high proportion of the population experiencing traumatic events within their lifetime, the number of individuals who go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is comparatively small; herein highlighting the importance of individual differences in imparting risk and resilience towards the development and maintenance of PTSD. Existing literature illustrates that biological and ecological factors are important in predicting PTSD development, with pathological vulnerabilities excepting their effects at pre- peri- and post trauma stages. Whilst cognitive and emotion based models of PTSD account for the role of a minority of known pre-trauma risk factors, individual differences in peri- and post trauma processes are held as critical to the development of PTSD. The broad range of risk factors implicated in the empirical literature, and necessity of traumatic exposure to PTSD, implicates the utility of a diathesis-stress conceptualisation of PTSD development. The current thesis employed an analogue VR-trauma paradigm to investigate the respective importance of vulnerability factors at each stage, in the prediction of analogue PTSD symptoms (memory problems, startle responses, re-exposure fear habituation), whilst measuring affective and electrophysiological concomitance. Findings supported the importance of peri-traumatic responses in the prediction of PTSD, where present, showing increased predictive capacities over pre- and post-trauma factors. Biological and ecological factors also illustrated important predictive associations, with genetic SNPs implicated in reflex startle and cardiac responses towards intrusive memories. Moreover, peri-traumatic HR decelerations and accelerations mediated the association between pre-trauma factors and cued recall inaccuracy and intrusion severity respectively. Results support existing cognitive and emotional models in their emphasis on peri-traumatic processes but suggest the added utility of a diathesis stress conceptualisation of the development of PTSD, in highlighting the importance of pre-trauma biological and ecological risk and resilience factors.