The treatment of multiword expressions (MWEs), like take off, bus stop and big deal, is a challenge for NLP applications. This kind of linguistic construction is not only arbitrary but also much more frequent than one would initially guess. This thesis investigates the behaviour of MWEs across different languages, domains and construction types, proposing and evaluating an integrated methodological framework for their acquisition. There have been many theoretical proposals to define, characterise and classify MWEs. We adopt generic definition stating that MWEs are word combinations which must be treated as a unit at some level of linguistic processing. They present a variable degree of institutionalisation, arbitrariness, heterogeneity and limited syntactic and semantic variability. There has been much research on automatic MWE acquisition in the recent decades, and the state of the art covers a large number of techniques and languages. Other tasks involving MWEs, namely disambiguation, interpretation, representation and applications, have received less emphasis in the field. The first main contribution of this thesis is the proposal of an original methodological framework for automatic MWE acquisition from monolingual corpora. This framework is generic, language independent, integrated and contains a freely available implementation, the mwetoolkit. It is composed of independent modules which may themselves use multiple techniques to solve a specific sub-task in MWE acquisition. The evaluation of MWE acquisition is modelled using four independent axes. We underline that the evaluation results depend on parameters of the acquisition context, e.g., nature and size of corpora, language and type of MWE, analysis depth, and existing resources. The second main contribution of this thesis is the application-oriented evaluation of our methodology proposal in two applications: computer-assisted lexicography and statistical machine translation. For the former, we evaluate the usefulness of automatic MWE acquisition with the mwetoolkit for creating three lexicons: Greek nominal expressions, Portuguese complex predicates and Portuguese sentiment expressions. For the latter, we test several integration strategies in order to improve the treatment given to English phrasal verbs when translated by a standard statistical MT system into Portuguese. Both applications can benefit from automatic MWE acquisition, as the expressions acquired automatically from corpora can both speed up and improve the quality of the results. The promising results of previous and ongoing experiments encourage further investigation about the optimal way to integrate MWE treatment into other applications. Thus, we conclude the thesis with an overview of the past, ongoing and future work.

[pt] Achados recentes sugerem que pistas sociais e contextuais podem moderar respostas a emoções alheias. O presente trabalho investigou cognição sócio-contextual em reações emocionais vicárias. Foi examinado se respostas convergentes e divergentes dependem da afiliação grupal, direção do olhar e a emoção mostrada pelo emissor; e se o grau proximidade modera respostas aversivas e compassivas ao sofrimento alheio. Essas variáveis emocionais foram analisadas por autorrelato, expressões faciais, rastreio ocular e dilatação de pupila. Os achados respaldam teorias de cognição social e seus efeitos sobre emoção e empatia. / [en] Recent findings suggest that social and contextual cues may moderate responses toward other s emotions. Therefore, the current work investigated socio-contextual cognition in vicarious emotional reactions. It was examined if convergent and divergent responses depend on group membership, gaze direction, and the emotion showed by the displayer; and if degrees of closeness moderate aversive and compassionate responses to other s suffering. These emotional variables were assessed by self-report, facial expressions, gaze behavior and pupil dilatation. Findings supports theories of social cognition and its effects on emotion and empathy.

This diploma thesis deals with french idiomatic connections that include names of human body parts. In the first theoretic part, the term "set phrase", or "idiomatic connection" is defined. Afterwards is this part also dedicated to the classification of idioms and to their internal structure and function. In the second analytic part, the selected sample of idioms is formally analyzed, i.e. according to the internal structure of an idiom and also by the semantic view (polysemy, possible interpretations, motivation). Than, the possibilities of syntactic manipulation and internal transformations of idioms are indicated. The main attention is paid to the translatological analysis of the selected sample of idioms and to the possibilities of their translation to the czech language. The aim of this diploma thesis is to observe the degree of equivalence when translating idiomatic connections, or to indicate possibilities of their translation to the czech language. The application output of this work will be the bilingual (Franco-Czech) dictionnary of corresponding idioms.

Esta dissertação apresenta uma proposta de análise dos valores semânticos e discursivos de construções com verbo-suporte e de expressões cristalizadas correntes na língua portuguesa do Brasil. O corpus analisado é constituído de textos de gêneros variados colhidos em jornais e revistas publicados desde 2003, nos quais se evidencia o aparecimento cada vez mais freqüente dos usos verbais em foco. Parte-se do pressuposto teórico de que o verbo é o nó a ser desatado, pois, ao contrário, do que muitos autores vêm relatando em relação ao verbo-suporte, não há um completo esvaziamento semântico, mas uma nova forma de dizer em que se privilegia o uso conotativo do verbo que passa de pleno a leve, segundo a nomenclatura de vários estudiosos, que lhe atribuem valor de auxiliaridade. Enquanto o uso dos verbos-suporte no Brasil vem-se fixando no léxico, outras formas cristalizam-se, enriquecendo o vocabulário, inovando falares, o que aproxima estas expressões de uma classe aberta. O verbo somado a alguns nomes ou participando de expressões, longe de se esvaziar, estendem ou modificam a significação no processo discursivo. / This dissertation presents an analysis proposal of discursive and semantic values of wordings using a support-verb and of usual crystallized expressions in the Portuguese language in Brazil. The corpus analyzed is composed by texts of different classes, collected from newspapers and magazines published since 2003, which evidence the increasing appearance of the verbal uses focused. This work starts from the theoretical presupposition that the verb is a knot to be undone; differently from what many authors have been reporting relatively to the support-verb, there is not a complete semantic emptying, what exists is a new way of speaking, in which is privileged the connotative use of the verb, which changes from heavy to slight, according to the nomenclature used by many scholars, who attribute it a value of assistance. While the use of support-verbs in Brazil has been focusing lexical aspects, other different ways have appeared, enriching the vocabulary and reforming ways of speaking. This brings these expressions closer to an open class. The verb added to some nouns or taking part in expressions, far from emptying itself, enlarges or modifies its meaning in the discursive process.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2004-09-03Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:21:22Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 carbone_mvs_dr_assis.pdf: 1183459 bytes, checksum: f4bf9b465c82e92b654f7eaaa196a307 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O desejo de estudar as correspondências dos usos da partícula que em espanhol e português foi o ponto de partida desta tese. Dado o fato de ser a referida partícula altamente empregada nas duas línguas, optamos pela pesquisa em um corpus de língua falada, por caracterizar-se esta modalidade como um reflexo mais autêntico do funcionamento da língua e, especificamente, dos usos do que. Dentro dessa modalidade de língua falada, trabalhamos com entrevistas pertencentes ao Projeto de Estudo da Norma Lingüística Culta das cidades de Bogotá (para o espanhol) e de São Paulo (para o português ). Delimitado o corpus de estudo (onze entrevistas completas do NURC colombiano), coletamos os enunciados em espanhol em que a partícula que está inserida, bem como alguns dos seus afins, preservando os contextos necessários para uma análise sintática adequada. Esses contextos sintáticos espanhóis nos quais aparece a partícula que é que nortearam a divisão dos capítulos deste trabalho. Nossa pesquisa consta de cinco capítulos. O primeiro, numa tentativa de retomar às origens para entender os auais empregos do que, trata diacronicamente do tema. O que pronome relativo, os outros pronomes relativos, os advérbios relativos, bem como os seus correspondentes portugueses e a freqüência de uso nas duas línguas é o assunto do segundo capítulo. Partindo do que interrogativo, o terceiro capítulo versa sobre os pronomes interrogativos em geral e suas correspondências em português. No quarto capítulo, abordamos o estudo do que conjuntivo, do porque e das locuções conjuntivas, bem como das equivalências portuguesas. O quinto e último capítulo trata de dois outros contextos sintáticos em que a partícula que aparece em nosso corpus de trabalho tanto em espanhol como em português: as perífrases verbais de obrigação e expletivos. / The starting point of this dissertation was our interest in studying the formal as well as the semantic correspondences between the usages of the particle QUE, both in Spanish and in Portuguese. Due to the high degree of occurrences of this particle in both languages, we chose to center our research in a corpus of spoken language. In fact the oral language reflects with more authenticity the way languages function and, in particular, the uses of THE. Therefore we analyzed samples of speech taken from interviews that were registered and transcribed by researchers belonging to the NURC (Project for the Study of the Cultivated Linguistic Norm) in Bogotá (Colombia), for Spanish language, and in São Paulo (Brazil), for the Portuguese. Once the corpus established, we gathered and classified the utterances of eleven interviews in Colombian Spanish, in which the particle QUE and other related forms appear. Necessary contextual elements were preserved to make possible an accurate syntactic analysis. The syntactic contexts of QUE detected in the Spanish corpus guided the division in five chapters of our work. The first one is a diachronic approach which constitutes an effort to reach the ancient and original usages of QUE in order to a better understanding of its present behavior. The relative pronoun QUE, other relative pronouns, relative adverbs, as well as their Portuguese counterparts and their frequency of use in both languages are the subject of our second chapter. Beginning with the interrogative QUE, the third chapter deals with the Spanish interrogative pronouns in general and their corresponding forms in Portuguese...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:29:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5148.pdf: 1458798 bytes, checksum: 0f9114d5493b43e8c4b81ed73df2d91c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-22 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The student education of youth and adults (EJA) lives in general, a history of exclusion, which limits their access to cultural goods and materials produced by the society, causing many difficulties even before elementary buildings. With schooling, he seeks to build strategies that allow you to reverse this process. On the other hand the teacher receives a special audience in a course with limited time and lack of specific teaching materials. Thus, this study brings premised contributions to assist the difficulties of elementary students EJA regarding the initial concepts of expressions and equations of the first degree, while it increases the teacher's teaching practice through teaching two pillars, the namely: a comparison between native language and mathematical language, and the use of recreational activities in the classroom. / O aluno da educação de jovens e adultos (EJA) vive, em geral, uma história de exclusão, que limita seu acesso a bens culturais e materiais produzidos pela sociedade, acarretando muitas dificuldades até mesmo diante de construções elementares. Com a escolarização, ele busca construir estratégias que lhe permitam reverter esse processo. Por outro lado o professor recebe um público especial, em um curso com limitação de tempo e falta de materiais didáticos específicos. Assim, este estudo traz como premissa contribuições para auxiliar as dificuldades elementares dos alunos da EJA no que diz respeito aos conceitos iniciais de expressões e equações do primeiro grau, ao mesmo tempo em que incrementa a prática didática do professor através de dois pilares didáticos, a saber: a comparação entre a linguagem materna e a linguagem matemática; e o uso de atividades lúdicas em sala de aula.

O alinhamento léxico automático é uma tarefa essencial para as técnicas de tradução de máquina empíricas modernas. A abordagem gerativa não-supervisionado têm sido substituída recentemente por uma abordagem discriminativa supervisionada que facilite inclusão de conhecimento linguístico de uma diversidade de fontes. Dentro deste contexto, este trabalho descreve uma série alinhadores léxicos discriminativos que incorporam heurísticas de pós-processamento com o objetivo de melhorar o desempenho dos mesmos para expressões multi-palavra, que constituem um dos desafios da área de processamento de linguagens naturais atualmente. A avaliação é realizada utilizando um gold-standard obtido a partir da anotação de um corpus paralelo de legendas de filmes. Os alinhadores propostos apresentam um desempenho superior tanto ao obtido por uma baseline quanto ao obtido por um alinhador gerativo do estado-da-arte (Giza++), tanto no caso geral quanto para as expressões foco do trabalho. / Lexical alignment is an essential task for modern empirical machine translation techniques. The unsupervised generative approach is being replaced by a supervised, discriminative one that considerably facilitates the inclusion of linguistic knowledge from several sources. Given this context, the present work describes a series of discriminative lexical aligners that incorporate post-processing heuristics with the goal of improving the quality of the alignments of multiword expressions, which is one of the major challanges in natural language processing today. The evaluation is conducted using a gold-standard obtained from a movie subtitle parallel corpus. The aligners proposed show an alignment quality that is superior both to our baseline and to a state-of-the-art generative aligner (Giza++), for the general case as well as for the expressions that are the focus of this work.

O presente trabalho trata basicamente do conteúdo expressões algébricas no ensino fundamental. Motivados pela crença de que a ausência do método de argumentação matemática e do pensamento genérico no atual ensino de Matemática têm se apresentado muito nociva ao estudo de expressões algébricas, desenvolvemos, em uma turma de sétima série, uma proposta didática onde apresentamos uma sequência de atividades que enfatizam estes dois aspectos. Tais atividades servem de pré-requisitos para o estudo de expressões algébricas. Inclui-se neste trabalho uma análise dos PCN para o ensino fundamental e uma análise crítica de livros didáticos de sétima série/oitavo ano sobre expressões algébricas. A partir destas análises, percebemos, nos livros didáticos, o inadequado emprego (no nosso ponto de vista) de polinômios neste nível de ensino, o que resultou na elaboração de um capítulo de conteúdo matemático versando sobre polinômios, dedicada a professores de Matemática da Educação Básica. / This text is closely related to the subject algebraic expressions in Fundamental School. Believing that the absence of the mathematical method and of what we call generical thought in the treatment of mathematics in the first school years causes much harm in the student’s mathematical education, mainly when one deals with algebraic expressions, we applied in a 7th grade class and present here a sequence of activities which give emphasis to those two aspects mentioned above and which prepare the students for the study of algebraic expressions. Additionally we include here an analysis of part of the PCN (Brazilian Curriculum Recommendations) and of nine 7th grade-school books, namely, the part related to algebraic expressions. Finally, we include a chapter about polynomials which was written for school teachers, motivated by the inadequate use (for this level of mathematical education, at least in our point of view) of polynomials in the school books which we have analyzed.

Submitted by Valquíria Barbieri (kikibarbi@hotmail.com) on 2017-05-26T21:30:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2014_Vanubia Sampaio dos Santos.pdf: 3262628 bytes, checksum: 7eba6b7eed042c411a37e74b9738632b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2017-05-29T12:24:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2014_Vanubia Sampaio dos Santos.pdf: 3262628 bytes, checksum: 7eba6b7eed042c411a37e74b9738632b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-29T12:24:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2014_Vanubia Sampaio dos Santos.pdf: 3262628 bytes, checksum: 7eba6b7eed042c411a37e74b9738632b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-12 / CAPES / Essa dissertação discute a atual situação de estudantes indígenas do povo Arara e Gavião no contexto de escolas públicas urbanas no município de Ji-Paraná no estado de Rondônia. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas escolas públicas urbanas da rede estadual de ensino, com sete estudantes indígenas, 05 (cinco) da etnia Arara e 02 (dois) da etnia Gavião que estão no Ensino Fundamental (anos iniciais). Tendo como foco as expressões identitárias dos estudantes indígenas (o ser indígena), a pesquisa de campo evidenciou expressão que permitem ser lidas como possíveis situações de omissão e ou afirmação do pertencimento étnico no contexto das duas escolas urbanas. Essa pesquisa fundamentou-se nos procedimentos metodológicos da pesquisa de “cunho etnográfico” segundo estudos de André (2012) e das contribuições da fonte descritiva das situações vivenciadas alinhada à abordagem interpretativa (BOGDAN e BIKLEN,1982). Utilizamos a observação participante, diário de campo e entrevistas semiestruturada como instrumentos de coleta de dados. O estudo foi desenvolvido no período de março a junho de 2013, envolveram além das crianças indígenas os familiares, docentes, gestores e gestoras das duas escolas. Os interesses teóricos que contribuíram para a ampliação e aprofundamento do estudo se ancoram em: Candau (2006; 2009; 2013); Fleuri (2009); Neves (2009; 2012); Silva e Grupioni (1987); McLaren (1997); Tadeu da Silva (2002); Oliveira (1998); Cardoso de Oliveira (1976); Poutignat e Streiff-Fenart (1998); Hall (2002); Bauman (2005); Baines (2001) e Bhabha (1998). Em relação às crianças indígenas, as observações e os relatos coletados permitem possivelmente afirmar que os estudantes Arara e Gavião ao evidenciarem expressões e comportamentos de omissão e afirmação do pertencimento étnico em função do espaço de contraste confirmam tão somente o próprio contexto de hostilidade que é o ambiente escolar, evidentemente por outro lado as falas e os comportamentos também demonstram expressões identitárias do que significa ‘ser índio’ no contexto urbano. Outras situações indicam fato ocorrido cotidianamente nas relações entre os pares (estudantes indígenas e não indígenas) que caracteriza ocorrências e situações de invisibilidade dos estudantes indígenas, violência e preconceito a que estão submetidos neste espaço e passa sob o “silêncio” da escola e das professoras. Há, no entanto, uma relação expressa por conflitos latentes e não declarados que marcam a presença dos estudantes indígenas em um contexto escolar urbano específico como é o caso de Ji-Paraná e de outras cidades da Amazônia. Essas relações conflituosas caracteriza o que Neves (2013) chamou de “a reedição do contato”. Nessa perspectiva, a pesquisa procurou discutir as implicações pedagógicas, acadêmicas e políticas que aí vicejam, com o intuito de apontar possíveis ações mitigatória e a efetivação de políticas públicas interculturais como a formação continuada na perspectiva da Lei 11.645/2008 e a construção de currículos interculturais em escolas públicas estaduais e municipais da região amazônica. / This paper discusses the current situation and everyday life experienced by indigenous children of ethnicities Arara and Gavião enrolled in urban schools in the city of Ji-Paraná, Rondônia State. The study was conducted with seven indigenous students (five were Arara, and two Gavião) studying elementary education in two public schools in the state system. This study comprises the identity expressions (the statement or omission of ethnic belonging) of Indigenous students in urban school context. This research was based on the methodological procedures of "ethnographic research type" according to studies by André (2012) and the contributions of the descriptive power of the interpretive approach similar situations experienced in accordance with recommendations (BOGDAN e BIKLEN, 1982). We used participant observation, field notebook and surveys as tools for data collection. The study was conducted in the city of Ji-Paraná between March and June 2013, and involved beyond the indigenous children, their families, teachers and administrators of the two schools participating in the research. The theoretical interests that contributed to the widening and deepening of the study were based on Candau (2006, 2009); Fleuri (2009), Neves (2009; 2012); Grupioni and Silva (1987); Mc Laren (1997); Tadeu da Silva (2002), Oliveira (1998); Cardoso de Oliveira (1976); Poutignat and Streiff-Fenart (1998), Hall (2002), Bauman (2005), Baines (2001) and Bhabha (1998). In relation to indigenous children, remarks and reports collected allow us to state that students research collaborators outline behaviors and expressions that can be read as possible omission and affirmation of ethnic belonging in the context of both the urban schools. These possible expressions by indigenous students also confirm the context of hostility school environment itself, but on the other hand, the speech and behavior also show expressions of indigenous identity in the city. Some evidence presented facts daily in relations between indigenous and non- indigenous students featuring situations of invisibility, violence and prejudice that Indians are submitted in the school environment. These events occur in the silence of the school and teachers. There is a relation expressed by latent conflicts and undeclared possibly mark the presence of indigenous students in the city schools, which brings about situations from a past filled with recent raids produced in that context of contacts, colonization and conflicts that were experienced in the Amazon. However, reflects in school, in relationships among students, attesting that Neves (2013) defines "a reissue of contact."For this reason, this study involves a series of educational, academic and political implications, beyond the need for effective public policies with ongoing training of teachers in accordance with the Federal Law number 11.645/2008 and building intercultural curriculum in public schools in the state and the municipality, in the Amazon region.

Le diagnostic de la maladie d'« Alzheimer » (MA) repose essentiellement sur des tests neuropsychologiques, démontrant d'importants déficits mnésiques en lien avec l'atrophie de l'hippocampe. Parallèlement à cela, l'existence d'une atteinte précoce de l'amygdale a très récemment été proposée dans une série d'études, suggérant que cette structure pourrait être un marqueur neuro-anatomique de l'entrée dans la maladie. Les études ayant évalué les répercussions émotionnelles de ces atteintes amygdaliennes n'ont néanmoins pas permis d'aboutir à l'identification d'un profil convergent de déficits. L'objectif de cette thèse a donc été de démontrer l'existence d'une atteinte de l'amygdale à un stade précoce de la MA entrainant des modifications des traitements émotionnels. Dans une première étude en neuroimagerie structurelle, nous avons montré des arguments robustes quant à l'existence d'atteintes anatomiques de l'amygdale chez des patients légèrement atteints par la maladie. L'amplitude de cette atrophie s'est avérée être un indicateur particulièrement sensible du niveau général d'atteintes cognitives mesurées chez nos patients. Dans les études suivantes, nous nous sommes intéressés aux répercussions de cette atteinte sur des activités cognitives sous-tendues plus directement par le fonctionnement de cette structure : les traitements émotionnels. Par l'élaboration d'une méta-analyse, nous avons pu identifier un déficit précoce de la reconnaissance des émotions. Nous avons de plus démontré que les troubles cognitifs des patients expliquaient en partie le déficit émotionnel, sans toutefois l'expliquer dans sa totalité. Enfin, une série d'études comportementales et en neuroimagerie fonctionnelle, a permis de confirmer que les atteintes anatomiques s'accompagnaient bien d'un dysfonctionnement de l'amygdale entrainant des déficits émotionnels, en particulier dans les mécanismes à l'origine de l'extraction spontanée de la saillance émotionnelle. L'ensemble de nos données convergent vers l'idée que l'atteinte amygdalienne et les altérations des mécanismes émotionnels seraient une piste prometteuse afin de préciser le diagnostic actuel de la MA. / The diagnosis of “Alzheimer's” disease (AD) relies on neuropsychological tests demonstrating massive memory decline, which is mainly associated with hippocampus lesions. In parallel, several neuroimaging studies have suggested that amygdala volume loss could be a neuroanatomical marker of AD. However, previous works dealing with behavioural indices of amygdala activity in AD have been unable to provide a converging profile of emotional impairments. The goal of this work was to corroborate data provided from various methods to demonstrate that amygdala lesions in relation to emotional disorders could be an interesting track to refine the current diagnosis of AD. In a first structural neuroimaging study, we have demonstrated that the amygdala undergoes massive atrophy in the early stage of the disease, and that volume loss predicts memory decline. In the following studies, we have shown that these lesions lead to impairments in a various set of emotional tests. Based on a meta-analytic approach, we demonstrated that emotional decoding abilities are impaired in AD, beginning in the early stage, and partly explained by the cognitive deficits characterizing the AD population. In a last set of studies we demonstrated that these emotional decoding difficulties rely on specific amygdala dysfunctions, by showing that the mechanisms behind the spontaneous extraction of emotional salience are impaired in AD. All our data converge on the idea that the amygdala damage and alteration of emotional mechanisms from the early phase of AD are a promising approach to clarify the current diagnosis of AD.