The aim of this thesis is to improve coreference resolution in Swedish by providing a hybrid approach based on combining data-driven methods and linguistic knowledge. Coreference resolution here consists in identifying all expressions in a text that have the same referent, for example, a person or an object. The linguistic knowledge is based on Accessibility Theory (Ariel 1990). This is used for guiding the  selection of likely anaphor-antecedent pairs from the set of all possible such pairs in a text. The data-driven method adopted is Memory-Based Learning (MBL), a supervised method based on the idea that learning means storing experiences in memory, and that new problems are solved by reusing solutions from similar experiences (Daelemans and Van den Bosch 2005). The referring expressions covered by the system are names, definite descriptions, and pronouns. In order to maximize performance, we use different classifiers with a specific set of linguistically motivated features for each type of expression. The great majority of features used for classification are domain- and language-independent. We demonstrate two ways of using this method of linguistically motivated selection of anaphor-antecedent pairs. First, the amount of training examples stored in memory  is reduced. We find that for coreference resolution of definite descriptions and names, the amount of training data can thereby be reduced with only a minor loss in performance, but for pronoun resolution there is a negative effect. Second, selection can be used for improving on coreference resolution results. This is the first step in our hybrid approach to coreference resolution, where the second step is the application of an MBL classifier for determining coreference between the selected pairs. Results indicate that this hybrid approach is advantageous for coreference resolution of definite descriptions and names. For pronoun resolution, there is a negative effect on recall along with a positive effect on precision. / För att köpa boken skicka en beställning till exp@ling.su.se/ To order the book send an e-mail to exp@ling.su.se

What are the representational differences between situations that do and do not map well onto previous experiences? This research offers some answers to this question by having participants compare two narratives that were either reality or fantasy-based. Fantasy-based narratives, with their deviations from reality, were considered similar to situations that do not map well onto previous experience. The concept of systematicity, where high-order relations constrain low-order relations was used to describe such situations (Bowdle & Gentner, 1997). Compared to a reality-based narrative, extra processing is required to maintain a systematic representation of a fantasy-based narrative. One can reduce the amount of processing needed by grounding that fantasy-based narrative in a reality-based or another fantasy-based narrative. Comparative judgments were used to measure processing differences. In three studies, participants read two narratives and then performed a series of comparative judgments derived from retrospective duration judgment (Block, 1992), event-structure perception (Zacks & Tversky, 2001), and structure-mapping theory (Gentner, 1983) research. For example, one of the comparative judgments adopted from structure-mapping theory was the rating of directional similarity, or the similarity rating of the second-read narrative relative to the first-read narrative. Directional similarity was proposed to increase as the amount of processing associated with maintaining a systematic representation of the first and second-read narrative decreased. For Studies 1A-E, the directional similarity was higher for the RealityFirst condition (reality read first) than the FantasyFirst condition (fantasy read first). These results are interpreted as indicated that the increase in directional similarity for the RealityFirst conditions was due to structure lending from the first-read reality-based narrative and that the decrease in directional similarity for the FantasyFirst conditions was due to representational disruption from the first-read fantasy-based narrative. Results also indicated that comparing two reality-based narratives (Studies 2A-B) was similar to comparing two fantasy-based narratives (Studies 3A-B) for the directional similarity and directional duration judgments, but differed for the listing of commonalities and differences and the segmentation of the narrative event structure. According to the systematicity principle (Gentner, 1989), people prefer mappings between two representations that form coherent and highly interconnected structures. The results from Studies 1A-E demonstrate a clear directional preference for the RealityFirst conditions. The results, therefore, indicate that it was more difficult to utilize the inherent structure of the narratives for the FantasyFirst conditions then the RealityFirst conditions. Comparing the results across the final set of studies, the increase in segmentation and increase in word count for the commonalities and differences were clear indications that participants still had difficulties in utilizing the structure of the narratives when both narratives being compared were fantasy-based (Studies 3A-B). In operationalizing systematicity with fantasy and reality-based narratives, I have been able to extend our understanding of how structure-lending can occur between these two narrative types. The results, therefore, extend our understanding of the structural alignment approach to narrative comparisons. But, since this research also involves the theoretical integration of the structure alignment approach (directional similarity and listing of commonalities and differences) with theories of time estimation (directional duration), event structure representation (segmentation), the basic findings herein should be applicable to comparisons ranging from auditory narrative structures to simple lexical units (e.g., unicorns vs. horses) to visual depicted objects (e.g., aliens vs. humans), even if the current set of studies described in this article involved only the comparison of written narrative structure. / text

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Maintaining health and quality of life into old age is a critical issue facing society today. Language, and in particular language comprehension, is vulnerable to the processes of ageing (Au, Albert, & Obler, 1989; Kynette & Kemper, 1986; Nicholas, Obler, Albert, & Goodglass, 1985; Shewan & Henderson, 1988). An improved understanding of language processing and ageing will assist in distinguishing language difficulties in normal ageing from those in pathological ageing and aphasia (Maxim & Bryan, 1994) and, potentially, optimises communication throughout life. The current thesis focuses on a specific component of language comprehension - anaphora resolution . Anaphora resolution occurs frequently in everyday discourse and has been reported to decline with ageing (Cohen, 1979; Light & Capps, 1986; Ulatowska, Hayashi, Cannito, & Fleming, 1986). This thesis explored anaphora resolution relative to two key variables: ageing and working memory. Ageing was chosen as a variable as anaphora resolution has been shown to be affected by age (Cohen, 1979; Light & Capps, 1986; Ulatowska et al., 1986). Working memory was chosen as working memory is thought to underlie key aspects of discourse comprehension such as building a mental structure of discourse and updating the information (Brébion, 2003; Hasher & Zacks, 1988; Radvansky, Copeland, & Hippel, 2010; Radvansky, Lynchard, & von Hippel, 2009). Anaphora resolution was investigated using two key paradigms. The first focussed on anaphora resolution in a reading comprehension task. Performance was assessed using accuracy of response. The second employed Gernsbacher's (1989) probe-response paradigm. The probe- response paradigm allowed examination of specific working memory processes underlying discourse comprehension, namely; a) storing and maintaining information in working memory (i.e., laying the foundation of the discourse structure); and b) updating information stored in working memory through suppressing the irrelevant discourse information. Storage and maintenance of the information was assessed by examining whether participants utilised “advantage of first mention” (Gernsbacher, 1990). Suppression was evaluated by investigating whether the accessibility of nonreferent names decreased in participants' working memory after they read anaphoric pronouns in sentences. This approach aimed to answer the following questions: 1) Do age and working memory capacity affect anaphora resolution in a comprehension task?; 2) Do age and working memory affect advantage of first mention in a probe recognition task?; and 3) Does age affect suppression of irrelevant information in an anaphora resolution task? In Chapter 3, Gernsbacher's (1989) original study was replicated. In Chapter 4 the same questions were examined, with the addition of a higher working memory load. For both studies, 30 younger and 30 older participants completed two comprehension experiments followed by an assessment of working memory capacity (reading span task). The comprehension experiments each contained a reading comprehension task and a probe recognition task. The reading comprehension task introduced two discourse characters (either a male or female name), one of which was referred to later in the text, using an anaphoric pronoun. Comprehension questions always asked about the referents of the anaphoric pronouns. Participants' accuracy in answering each comprehension question was indicative of their ability to resolve anaphora. Response times in the recognition task provided measures of the accessibility of: a) first and second mentioned names, and b) referent and nonreferent names. Chapters 3 and 4 found that, regardless of the tasks' working memory storage demands, older adults were less accurate than younger adults in the comprehension of anaphoric pronouns. Comprehension accuracy was related to working memory capacity, such that individuals with higher working memory capacity exhibited higher accuracy of response in the comprehension task. In addition, working memory capacity affected the accessibility of first and second mentioned names in the discourse suggesting that working memory capacity might influence the process of laying the foundation for the mental representation of comprehension. An ageing effect was observed on the suppression process during anaphora resolution under high working memory load only. When working memory load was low, neither younger nor older participants suppressed the accessibility of the nonreferents by the time they finished reading the sentences. This suggested that anaphora resolution might be postponed in less demanding tasks. However, under higher working memory load, younger adults, but not older adults, suppressed the accessibility of the nonreferents by the time they finished reading the sentence. It was therefore suggested that age-related changes in anaphora resolution abilities might be mediated by a decline in inhibitory functions that are responsible for suppressing the already-activated information that are no longer relevant to the task goals. The final study of the thesis (Chapter 5) aimed to determine why younger adults delayed the process of anaphora resolution in Experiment 1 (See Chapter 3), but completed the process by the time they finished reading the sentences in Experiment 2 (See Chapter 4). Specific questions addressed were: 1) Was comprehension accuracy affected by working memory storage load and the syntactic structure of the sentences?; 2) Do younger adults suppress the accessibility of the nonreferents by the time they reach the end of the sentence, in simpler sentences with increased storage load and late disambiguation?; and, 3) Do younger adults suppress the accessibility of nonreferents by the time they reach the end of the sentence, in more syntactically complex sentences with low storage load and prior disambiguation?. Forty younger participants completed four separate comprehension experimental tasks followed by a reading span test. A similar experimental approach was employed to that described in Chapters 3 and 4; however working memory storage load, syntactic complexity, and time-course for providing contextual information were manipulated. Results of Chapter 5 found that participants' accuracy declined in more syntactically complex sentences. A decline in accuracy appeared indicative of the tasks' higher processing demands and demonstrated that prior disambiguation was not facilitating the resolution of anaphora. Results from the recognition task showed that in sentences of increased syntactic complexity, participants suppressed the accessibility of nonreferents by the time they finished reading the sentence. It was suggested that higher processing demands of syntactically complex sentences, rather than a facilitating effect of earlier disambiguation in these sentences, contributed to the earlier suppression of nonreferents. In summary, this thesis demonstrated that older adults were less accurate than younger adults in comprehending anaphoric pronouns. Moreover, working memory capacity positively influenced comprehension accuracy and affected the advantage of first mention of discourse entities. It was suggested that individual differences in working memory capacity might affect the ability to lay foundations for discourse comprehension. Furthermore, older adults showed no suppression of nonreferents during processing of anaphora, regardless of working memory storage load. It appears possible that older adults' difficulty in anaphora resolution might be due to an inability to suppress irrelevant discourse information. Findings from the present study suggest that ageing may negatively affect the comprehension of linguistic structures for which more than one meaning could be inferred. While further exploration of this finding is required, it is possible that communication strategies could be devised to minimise the use of structures with more than one meaning - with the aim of improving and maintaining communication in older adults. Ultimately, determining the underlying causes of language impairments in both healthy ageing and neurological disease will help to improve speech-language therapy methods for these populations.

Connective ties in discourse: Three ERP studies on causal, temporal and concessive connective ties and their influence on language processing. <br><br> Questions<br><br> In four experiments the influence of lexical connectives such as " darum", therefore, " danach", afterwards, and " trotzdem", nevertheless, on the processing of short two-sentence discourses was examined and compared to the processing of deictical sentential adverbs such as " gestern", yesterday, and " lieber", rather. These latter words do not have the property of signaling a certain discourse relation between two sentences, as connective ties do. Three questions were central to the work: <br><br> * Do the processing contrasts found between connective and non-connective elements extend to connective ties and deictical sentential adverbs (experiments 2 and 3)? <br><br> * Does the semantic content of the connective ties play the primary role, i.e is the major distinction to be made indeed between connective and non-connective or instead between causal, temporal and concessive? <br><br> * When precisely is the information provided by connective ties used? There is some evidence that connective ties can have an immediate influence on the integration of subsequent elements, but the end of the second sentences appears to play an important role as well: experiments 2, 3, and 4. <br><br> Conclusions<br><br> First of all, the theoretical distinction between connective and non-connective elements does indeed have " cognitive reality" . This has already been shown in previous studies. The present studies do however show, that there is also a difference between one-place discourse elements (deictical sentential adverbs) and two-place discourse elements, namely connective ties, since all experiments examining this contrast found evidence for qualitatively and quantitatively different processing (experiments 1, 2, and 3).<br><br> Secondly, the semantic type of the connective ties also plays a role. This was not shown for the LAN, found for all connective ties when compared to non-connective elements, and consequently interpreted as a more abstract reflection of the integration of connective ties. There was also no difference between causal and temporal connective ties before the end of the discourses in experiment 3. <br><br> However, the N400 found for incoherent discourses in experiment 2, larger for connective incoherent than non-connective incoherent discourses, as well as the P3b found for concessive connective ties in the comparison between causal and concessive connective ties gave reason to assume that the semantic content of connective ties is made use of in incremental processing, and that the relation signaled by the connective tie is the one that readers attempt to construct.<br><br> Concerning when the information provided by connective ties is used, it appears as if connectivity is generally and obligatorily taken at face value. As long as the meaning of a connective tie did not conflict with a preferred canonical discourse relation, there were no differences found for varying connective discourses (experiment 3). However, the fact that concessive connective ties announce the need for a more complex text representation was recognized and made use of immediately (experiment 4). Additionally, a violation of the discourse relation resulted in more difficult semantic integration if a connective tie was present (experiment 2). It is therefore concluded here that connective ties influence processing immediately.<br><br> This claim has to be modified somewhat, since the sentence-final elements suggested that connective ties trigger different integration processes than non-connective elements. It seems as if the answer to the question of when connective ties are processed is neither exclusively immediately nor exclusively afterwards, but that both viewpoints are correct. It is suggested here that before the end of a discourse economy plays a central role in that a canonical relation is assumed unless there is evidence to the contrary. A connective tie could have the function of reducing the dimensions evaluated in a discourse to the one signaled by the connective tie. At the end of the discourse the representation is evaluated and verified, and an integrated situation model constructed. Here, the complexity of the different discourse relations that connective ties can signal, is expressed. / Konnektiva im Diskurs: Drei EKP-Studien zu kausalen, temporalen und konzessiven Konnektoren und ihrem Einfluss auf die Sprachverarbeitung. <br><br> Einführung und Fragestellung<br><br> In vier Experimenten wurde der Einfluss von lexikalischen Konnektiva wie " darum", " danach" und " trotzdem" auf die Verarbeitung von kurzen zweisätzigen Diskursen untersucht und mit der Verarbeitung von deiktischen Satzaderbien wie " gestern" und " lieber" verglichen, die nicht wie die Konnektiva die Eigenschaft haben, die Diskursrelation zwischen zwei Sätzen explizit auszudrücken.<br><br> Drei Fragen standen im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit: <br><br> * Findet sich der Kontrast zwischen konnektiven und nicht-konnektiven Elementen auch zwischen Konnektiva und deiktischen Satzadverbien wieder (Experimente 2 und 3)? <br><br> * Spielt der semantische Inhalt der Konnektiva die primäre Rolle: ist die Hauptunterscheidung zwischen konnektiven und nicht-konnektiven Elementen zu machen, oder zwischen kausalen (darum, deshalb), temporalen (danach, hinterher) und konzessiven (trotzdem, dennoch) Elementen (Experimente 3 / 4)? <br><br> * Wann genau wird die Information, die Konnektiva bieten, genutzt? Es gibt Evidenz dafür, dass Konnektiva einen sofortigen Einfluss haben, aber auch dafür, dass das Ende der Texte eine gewichtige Rolle spielt: Experimente 2, 3, und 4. <br><br> Konklusionen<br><br> Zunächst einmal hat die theoretische Unterscheidung zwischen konnektiven und nicht-konnektiven Worten tatsächlich " kognitive Realität" . Dies wurde bereits in früheren Studien gezeigt. Die aktuellen Experimente zeigten jedoch, dass es auch einen Unterschied zwischen einstelligen (deiktische Satzadverbien) und zweistelligen (Konnektiva) Diskursrelationen gibt, da alle Experimente, die diesen Kontrast untersuchten, qualitativ und quantitativ andere Verarbeitung für Konnektiva zeigten (Experimente 1, 2 und 3).<br><br> Zweitens spielt der semantische Typus der Konnektiva ebenfalls eine Rolle. Dieser Einfluss zeigte sich nicht für die LAN, die für alle Konnektiva im Vergleich mit nicht-konnektiven Elementen gefunden wurde, und die dementsprechend auch als Korrelat abstrakterer Integration von Konnektiva vorgeschlagen wird. Es zeigte sich ebenfalls kein Unterschied zwischen kausalen und temporalen Konnektiva vor dem Ende des Diskurses in Experiment 3. Die N400, gefunden für inkohärente Satzpaare in Experiment 2, größer für inkohärent konnektive als inkohärent nicht-konnektive Diskurse, wie auch die P3b, gefunden im Vergleich zwischen kausalen und konzessiven Konnektiva in Experiment 4, lieferten jedoch Grund zu der Annahme, dass die Bedeutung von Konnektiva in der inkrementellen Verarbeitung genutzt wird, und dass die Relation, die Konnektiva signalisieren, diejenige ist, die Leser versuchen zu erstellen.<br><br> Im Hinblick auf wann die Information, die Konnektiva liefern, genutzt wird, scheint es, also ob Konnektivität generell und obligatorisch für bare Münze genommen wird. So lange die Bedeutung der Konnektiva nicht mit einer präferierten kanonischen Diskursrelation konfligierte, zeigten sich keine Differenzen innerhalb verschiedener konnektiver Diskurse (Experiment 3), aber die Tatsache, dass konzessive Konnektiva die Notwendigkeit einer komplexeren Textrepräsentation voraussagen, wurde sofort erkannt und genutzt (Experiment 4). Zusätzlich resultierte eine Verletzung der Diskursrelation in Experiment 2 in erschwerterer semantischer Integration, wenn ein Konnektivum vorhanden war. Es wird daher gefolgert, dass Konnektiva die Verarbeitung sofort beeinflussen. <br><br> Diese Schlussfolgerung muss jedoch etwas abgeschwächt werden, da die satzfinalen Elemente darauf hinwiesen, dass Konnektiva andere Integrationsprozesse am Ende der Diskurse auslösten als nicht-konnektive Elemente. Es scheint, dass die Antwort auf die Frage, wann Konnektiva verarbeitet werden, weder sofort noch hinterher ist, sondern dass beide Sichtweisen korrekt sind. Es wird hier vorgeschlagen, dass vor dem Ende eines Diskurses Ökonomie insofern eine entscheidende Rolle spielt, als eine kanonische Relation angenommen wird so lange es keine gegenteilige Evidenz gibt. Ein Konnektivum könnte die evaluierten Dimensionen in einem Diskurs auf die signalisierten reduzieren. Am Ende des Diskurses wird die erstellte Textrepräsentation evaluiert und verifiziert, und ein integriertes Situationsmodell erstellt. Hier drückt sich dann die Komplexität der verschiedenen Diskursrelationen, die Konnktiva signalisieren können, aus.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:06:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NataliaLN_DISSERT.pdf: 1696553 bytes, checksum: c5bbeb3bb03dfc5d903faa7562ac3850 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-16 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Nos ?ltimos anos, as pesquisas em Lingu?stica Cognitiva (LC) t?m se voltado para a atividade de compreens?o discursiva e postulam que nesse processo ocorrem ativa??o e acionamento de estruturas cognitivas est?veis, os esquemas e frames, a cada processamento cognitivo on-line. Uma vez que a forma??o de nosso sistema conceptual tem base corp?rea, o processo de compreens?o discursiva deve discorrer a partir das mesmas estrat?gias cognitivas em qualquer indiv?duo. No entanto, em se tratando da Educa??o de jovens e Adultos (EJA), cujo alunado teve um processo de escolariza??o tardio e/ou defasado, s?o percept?veis encaminhamentos pedag?gicos e metodol?gicos que pressup?em a n?o utiliza??o de estrat?gias complexas de constru??o de sentido (infer?ncias, mesclagens conceptuais etc.) por parte de seu p?blico alvo. Nesse sentido, com a presente pesquisa, busco mapear as estrat?gias cognitivas que alunos da EJA ativam na compreens?o/processamento discursivo de narrativas, sob a perspectiva da LC. Configurando-se como uma pesquisa de cunho experimetal, para a gera??o de dados, desenvolvi e apliquei dois protocolos verbais, ou protocolos de leitura, testes que buscam dar uma clara e mensur?vel percep??o da complexidade do processamento cognitivo do discurso. Por meio da descri??o e da analise introspectiva do corpus, composto das respostas dos alunos da EJA aos protocolos, foi poss?vel ratificar a hip?tese de que o alunado utiliza estrat?gias cognitivas de constru??o de sentido complexas, uma vez que o processamento cognitivo do discurso tem base corporificada.

Die vorliegende Dissertation trägt zur Erforschung der fremdsprachlichen Sprachverarbeitung bei, indem sie den Einfluss von wachsendem Diskurs auf die semantische Verarbeitung von Wörtern durch fortgeschrittene Deutschlerner (L2) im Vergleich zu Muttersprachlern (L1) untersucht. Im Moment des Lese- und Hörverstehens wurde unter Laborbedingungen die kognitive Verarbeitung von bekannten Wörtern und die Bedeutungserschließung von unbekannten Wörtern mit Hilfe von kontextuellen Hinweisen im vorausgehenden Kontext erforscht. In der EEG-Studie wurde im Prozess des leisen Lesens die Gehirnreaktion der Versuchspersonen auf das kritische Wort im Text gemessen. Die Analyse des ereigniskorrelierten Potentials N400, das semantische Verarbeitung reflektiert, implizierte, dass selbst ein reduzierter unterstützender Kontext die Verarbeitung des kritischen bekannten Wortes erleichtert. Im Gegensatz dazu fördert ein zusammenhängender neutraler Kontext, der keine Hinweise auf die Bedeutung des kritischen bekannten Wortes enthält, dessen kognitive Verarbeitung nicht. Wenn aber in einem Text ein unbekanntes Wort vorkommt, scheinen nur die Muttersprachler, jedoch nicht die L2-Lerner, von erweitertem unterstützendem Kontext zu profitieren, um die Bedeutung dieses Wortes in realer Zeit zu erschließen. Die ursprüngliche Forschungsfrage wurde erweitert, um zu testen, ob Personen dazu fähig sind, ein nachfolgendes Wort im Kontext auf Grundlage der vorausgehenden semantischen Hinweise vorauszusagen. Diese Fähigkeit wurde im Moment der auditiv-visuellen Diskursverarbeitung untersucht. In der Eye-Tracking-Studie wurden die Blickbewegungen der Versuchsteilnehmer zu den kritischen Bildern auf dem Monitor aufgenommen, bevor das entsprechende kritische Wort genannt wurde. Die gewonnenen Daten belegen, dass Muttersprachler den nachfolgenden Input selbst auf Basis eines reduzierten unterstützenden Kontextes voraussagen können. Für die L2-Lermer scheint ein reduzierter unterstützender Kontext keine prädiktive Kraft zu besitzen. Im Kontrast zu den Ergebnissen der früheren Lesestudie demonstrierten beide Versuchspersonengruppen eine ähnlich ausgeprägte Fähigkeit dabei, die Bedeutung eines unbekannten Wortes aufgrund der semantischen Signale des vorausgehenden erweiterten Kontextes zu erschließen. Das könnte bedeuten, dass fortgeschrittene L2-Lerner in einer natürlicheren Sprachverarbeitungssituation – insbesondere wenn sie die Informationen über verschiedene sensorische Kanäle bekommen – die kontextuellen Signale eines erweiterten unterstützenden Kontextes ähnlich effektiv wie die Muttersprachler einsetzen können, um die nachfolgenden Wörter leichter zu verarbeiten. Die berichteten Ergebnisse wurden vor dem Hintergrund von gedächtnisbasierten Theorien der Diskursverarbeitung diskutiert. Es wurde angenommen, dass die gemessenen Unterschiede bei der kontextgebundener Wortverarbeitung mit der ungleich ausgeprägten Fähigkeit zusammenhängen könnten, in L1 und L2 mentale Modelle des verarbeiteten Diskurses aufzubauen. Die Erkenntnisse der vorliegenden Dissertation tragen zu dem Wissensstand über Diskursverarbeitungsstrategien durch neue empirische Daten bei, die einen Einblick darin gewähren, wie geschriebene und gesprochene Texte von L2-Sprechern und Muttersprachlern ähnlich oder unterschiedlich verarbeitet werden. Vom Standpunkt der Fremdsprachendidaktik aus könnten die Ergebnisse als Effizienzbeweis für die kontextbasierten Semantisierungsstrategie interpretiert werden. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse können in der Fremdsprachendidaktik eingesetzt werden, um die Diskursverarbeitung bei L2-Sprechern zu fördern.

Este trabajo presenta un estudio empírico del uso y función del metalenguaje en el conocimiento científico experto y los lenguajes de especialidad en lengua inglesa, con especial atención al establecimiento, modificación y negociación de la terminología común del grupo de especialistas de cada área. Mediante enunciados discursivos llamados Operaciones Metalingüísticas Explícitas se formaliza y analiza el carácter dinámico de las estructuras conceptuales científicas y los sublenguajes que las vehiculan.Por otro lado, se presenta la implementación de un sistema automático de extracción de información metalingüística en textos de especialidad. El sistema MOP (Metalinguistic Operation Processor) extrae enunciados metalingüísticos y definiciones de documentos especializados, utilizando tanto autómatas de estados finitos como algoritmos de aprendizaje automático. El sistema crear bases semi-estructuradas de información terminológica llamadas Metalinguistic Information Databases (MID), de utilidad para la lexicografía especializada, el procesamiento del lenguaje natural y el estudio empírico de la evolución del conocimiento científico, entre otras aplicaciones. / This work presents an empirical study of the use and function of metalanguage in expert scientific knowledge and special-domain languages, with special focus on how each field's terminology is established, modified and negotiated within the group of experts. Through discourse statements called Explicit metalinguistic Operations the dynamic nature of conceptual structures and the sublanguages that embody them are formalized and analyzed.On the other hand, it presents a system implementation for the automatic extraction of metalinguistic information from specialized texts. The Metalinguistic Operation Processor (MOP) system extracts metalinguistic statements and definitions from special-domain documents, using finite-state machinery and machine-learning algorithms. The system creates semi-structured databases called Metalinguistic Information Databases (MID), useful for specialized lexicography, Natural Language Processing, and the empirical study of scientific knowledge, among other applications.