Today, with digitally stored information available in abundance, even for many minor languages, this information must by some means be filtered and extracted in order to avoid drowning in it. Automatic summarization is one such technique, where a computer summarizes a longer text to a shorter non-rendundant form. Apart from the major languages of the world there are a lot of languages for which large bodies of data aimed at language technology research to a high degree are lacking. There might also not be resources available to develop such bodies of data, since it is usually time consuming and requires substantial manual labor, hence being expensive. Nevertheless, there will still be a need for automatic text summarization for these languages in order to subdue this constantly increasing amount of electronically produced text. This thesis thus sets the focus on automatic summarization of text and the evaluation of summaries using as few human resources as possible. The resources that are used should to as high extent as possible be already existing, not specifically aimed at summarization or evaluation of summaries and, preferably, created as part of natural literary processes. Moreover, the summarization systems should be able to be easily assembled using only a small set of basic language processing tools, again, not specifically aimed at summarization/evaluation. The summarization system should thus be near language independent as to be quickly ported between different natural languages. The research put forth in this thesis mainly concerns three computerized systems, one for near language independent summarization – The HolSum summarizer; one for the collection of large-scale corpora – The KTH News Corpus; and one for summarization evaluation – The KTH eXtract Corpus. These three systems represent three different aspects of transferring the proposed summarization method to a new language. One aspect is the actual summarization method and how it relates to the highly irregular nature of human language and to the difference in traits among language groups. This aspect is discussed in detail in Chapter 3. This chapter also presents the notion of “holistic summarization”, an approach to self-evaluative summarization that weighs the fitness of the summary as a whole, by semantically comparing it to the text being summarized, before presenting it to the user. This approach is embodied as the text summarizer HolSum, which is presented in this chapter and evaluated in Paper 5. A second aspect is the collection of large-scale corpora for languages where few or none such exist. This type of corpora is on the one hand needed for building the language model used by HolSum when comparing summaries on semantic grounds, on the other hand a large enough set of (written) language use is needed to guarantee the randomly selected subcorpus used for evaluation to be representative. This topic briefly touched upon in Chapter 4, and detailed in Paper 1. The third aspect is, of course, the evaluation of the proposed summarization method on a new language. This aspect is investigated in Chapter 4. Evaluations of HolSum have been run on English as well as on Swedish, using both well established data and evaluation schemes (English) as well as with corpora gathered “in the wild” (Swedish). During the development of the latter corpora, which is discussed in Paper 4, evaluations of a traditional sentence ranking text summarizer, SweSum, have also been run. These can be found in Paper 2 and 3. This thesis thus contributes a novel approach to highly portable automatic text summarization, coupled with methods for building the needed corpora, both for training and evaluation on the new language. / Idag, med ett överflöd av digitalt lagrad information även för många mindre språk, är det nära nog omöjligt att manuellt sålla och välja ut vilken information man ska ta till sig. Denna information måste istället filteras och extraheras för att man inte ska drunkna i den. En teknik för detta är automatisk textsammanfattning, där en dator sammanfattar en längre text till en kortare icke-redundant form. Vid sidan av de stora världsspråken finns det många små språk för vilka det saknas stora datamängder ämnade för språkteknologisk forskning. För dessa saknas det också ofta resurser för att bygga upp sådana datamängder då detta är tidskrävande och ofta dessutom kräver en ansenlig mängd manuellt arbete. Likväl behövs automatisk textsammanfattning för dessa språk för att tämja denna konstant ökande mängd elektronsikt producerad text. Denna avhandling sätter således fokus på automatisk sammanfattning av text med så liten mänsklig insats som möjligt. De använda resurserna bör i så hög grad som möjligt redan existera, inte behöva vara skapade för automatisk textsammanfattning och helst även ha kommit till som en naturlig del av en litterär process. Vidare, sammanfattningssystemet bör utan större ansträngning kunna sättas samman med hjälp av ett mindre antal mycket grundläggande språkteknologiska verktyg, vilka inte heller de är specifikt ämnade för textsammanfattning. Textsammanfattaren bör således vara nära nog språkoberoende för att det med enkelhet kunna att flyttas mellan ett språk och ett annat. Den forskning som läggs fram i denna avhandling berör i huvudsak tre datorsystem, ett för nära nog språkoberoende sammanfattning – HolSum; ett för insamlande av stora textmängder – KTH News Corpus; och ett för utvärdering av sammanfattning – KTH eXtract Corpus. Dessa tre system representerar tre olika aspekter av att föra över den framlagda sammanfattningsmetoden till ett nytt språk. En aspekt är den faktiska sammanfattningsmetoden och hur den påverkas av mänskliga språks högst oregelbundna natur och de skillnader som uppvisas mellan olika språkgrupper. Denna aspekt diskuteras i detalj i kapitel tre. I detta kapitel presenteras också begreppet “holistisk sammanfattning”, en ansats tillsjälvutvärderande sammanfattning vilken gör en innehållslig bedömning av sammanfattningen som en helhet innan den presenteras för användaren. Denna ansats förkroppsligas i textsammanfattaren HolSum, som presenteras i detta kapitel samt utvärderas i artikel fem. En andra aspekt är insamlandet av stora textmängder för språk där sådana saknas. Denna typ av datamängder behövs dels för att bygga den språkmodell som HolSum använder sig av när den gör innehållsliga jämförelser sammanfattningar emellan, dels behövs dessa för att ha en tillräckligt stor mängd text att kunna slumpmässigt extrahera en representativ delmängd lämpad för utvärdering ur. Denna aspekt berörs kortfattat i kapitel fyra och i mer önskvärd detalj i artikel ett. Den tredje aspekten är, naturligtvis, utvärdering av den framlagda sammanfattningsmetoden på ett nytt språk. Denna aspekt ges en översikt i kapitel 4. Utvärderingar av HolSum har utförts både med väl etablerade datamängder och utvärderingsmetoder (för engelska) och med data- och utvärderingsmängder insamlade specifikt för detta ändamål (för svenska). Under sammanställningen av denna senare svenska datamängd, vilken beskrivs i artikel fyra, så utfördes även utvärderingar av en traditionell meningsextraherande textsammanfattare, SweSum. Dessa återfinns beskrivna i artikel två och tre. Denna avhandling bidrar således med ett nydanande angreppssätt för nära nog språkoberoende textsammanfattning, uppbackad av metoder för sammansättning av erforderliga datamängder för såväl modellering av som utvärdering på ett nytt språk. / QC 20100712

Spanish, as a V(erb)-framed language (Talmy 1985), is expected to lexicalize the path of motion in the verb and manner in some satellite when it comes to the description of motion events. Nonetheless, it shows mixed properties (e.g. Aske 1989, Berman & Slobin 1994). All manner of motion verbs can take a path satellite introduced by the prepositions "hacia" and "hasta", and yet only some can take a path satellite introduced by the preposition "a." I claim that goal XPs introduced by "hasta" and "hacia" are adjuncts, whereas "a" is an argument marker. In order to capture the intermediacy of a verb’s ability to take a goal XP, I classify manner of motion verbs according to a three-way distinction that takes into account whether they encode path categorically, overwhelmingly, or only sometimes, and whether they lexically reject the notion of a goal. Finally, I posit verb coercion—under certain semantic and pragmatic conditions—of manner of motion verbs that strongly or categorically favor displacement in order to express a goal. These semantic/pragmatic influential factors are reduced to (i) degree of manner and (ii) degree of goal-orientedness. / text

Το αντικείμενο της διατριβής είναι η μελέτη μεθόδων αυτόματης εξαγωγής των συμφράσεων και των σημασιολογικών ομοιοτήτων των λέξεων από μεγάλα σώματα κειμένων. Υιοθετείται μια προσέγγιση ελάχιστων γλωσσικών πόρων που εξασφαλίζει την απεριόριστη μεταφερσιμότητα των μεθόδων σε φυσικές γλώσσες και θεματικές περιοχές. Για την αξιολόγηση των προτεινόμενων μεθόδων προτείνονται, αξιολογούνται και εφαρμόζονται μεθοδολογίες με βάση πρότυπες βάσεις λεξικής γνώσης (στην Αγγλική), όπως το WordNet. Για την εξαγωγή των συμφράσεων προτείνονται νέα μέτρα εξαγωγής στατιστικά σημαντικών διγράμμων και γενικά ν-γράμμων που αξιολογούνται θετικά. Για την εξαγωγή των λεξικών - σημασιολογικών ομοιοτήτων των λέξεων ακολουθείται καταρχήν η προσέγγιση ομοιότητας περικειμένων λέξεων με παραθυρικές μεθόδους, όπου μελετώνται το πεδίο συμφραζομένων, το φιλτράρισμα των συνεμφανίσεων των λέξεων, τα μέτρα ομοιότητας, όπου εισάγεται ο παράγοντας του αριθμού κοινών παραμέτρων, καθώς και η αντιμετώπιση συστηματικών σφαλμάτων, ενώ προτείνεται η αξιοποίηση των λειτουργικών λέξεων. Επιπλέον, προτείνεται η αξιοποίηση της ομοιότητας περικείμενων εκφράσεων, που απαντάται συχνά σε θεματικώς εστιασμένα κείμενα, με ένα αλγόριθμο βασισμένο στην ετεροσυσχέτιση ακολουθιών λέξεων. Μελετάται η μεθοδολογία αξιοποίησης των παρατακτικών συνδέσεων ενώ προτείνεται μια μέθοδος ενοποίησης ετερογενών σωμάτων γνώσης λεξικών – σημασιολογικών ομοιοτήτων. Τέλος, η εξαχθείσα γνώση μετασχηματίζεται σε σημασιολογικές κλάσεις με μια συμβολική μέθοδο ιεραρχικής ομαδοποίησης και επίσης ενσωματώνεται επιτυχώς σε ένα διαλογικό σύστημα μηχανικής μάθησης όπου ενισχύει την απόδοση της αναγνώρισης του σκοπού του χρήστη συμβάλλοντας στην εκτίμηση του ρόλου των άγνωστων λέξεων. / The research described in this dissertation regards automatic extraction of collocations and lexico-semantic similarities from large text corpora. We follow an approach based on minimal linguistic resources in order to achieve unrestricted portability across languages and thematic domains. In order to evaluate the proposed methods we propose, evaluate and apply methodologies based on English gold standard lexical resources, such as WordNet. For the extraction of collocations we propose and test a few novel measures for the identification of statistically significant bigrams and, generally, n-grams, which exhibit strong performance. For the extraction of lexico-semantic similarities we follow a distributional window-based approach. We study the contextual scope, the filtering of lexical co-occurrences and the performance of similarity measures. We propose the incorporation of the number of common parameters into the latter, the exploitation of functional words and a method for the elimination of systematic errors. Moreover, we propose a novel approach to exploitation of word sequence similarities, common in technical texts, based on cross-correlation of word sequences. We refine an approach for word similarity extraction from coordinations and we propose a method for the amalgamation of lexico-semantic similarity databases extracted via different principles and methods. Finally, the extracted similarity knowledge is transformed in the form of soft hierarchical semantic clusters and it is successfully incorporated into a machine learning based dialogue system, reinforcing the performance of user’s plan recognition by estimating the semantic role of unknown words.

Material addicional: http://hdl.handle.net/10230/6326 / La tesi Els sufixos verbalitzadors del català. Relacions semàntiques i diccionari és un treball interdisciplinari en què intervenen aspectes de morfologia i semàntica lèxiques i lexicografia, que té un objectiu doble: d'una banda, analitzar els verbs sufixats de manera que quedin recollits els punts de divergència i de contacte entre els diversos verbs, i de l'altra, proposar una representació lexicogràfica per als sufixos verbalitzadors en forma de prototip de diccionari. Amb aquest objectiu, es parteix de la premissa que és important que els afixos en general, i els sufixos verbalitzadors en particular, passin a formar part de la macroestructura del diccionari, per tal de millorar les definicions lexicogràfiques de les entrades que els contenen.Així, s'analitzen com a objecte d'estudi les sèries derivatives verbals coradicals, és a dir: verbs que comparteixen la mateixa base, però que es construeixen per mitjà de processos diferents, ja que el fet de confrontar els diversos elements que forman una sèrie derivativa havia de permetre precisar quines són les característiques de cada procés i/o cada sufix, i, en concret, quines són les diferències semàntiques i sintàctiques que hi ha entre cada element. El treball aconsegueix establir tres tipus de factors que expliquen que no es donin sèries sinonímiques completes en els verbs construïts per sufixació: pragmàtics, temàtics i distribucionals.La proposta de representació lexicogràfica dels sufixos analitzats es presenta dins d'un projecte futur de Diccionari d'afixos. Aquesta representació intenta millorar la dels diccionaris existents, sistematitzant les informacions de cada afix i incloent-hi les relacions semàntiques que s'estableixen entre les paraules construïdes del mateix tipus i les regles que les construeixen. / The dissertation Els sufixos verbalitzadors del català. Relacions semàntiques i diccionari (en.: The verbalizing suffixes of Catalan. Semantic relations and dictionary) is an interdisciplinary work, where aspects of lexical morphology, lexical semantics and lexicography are involved. The work has a double goal: first, to analyze the verbs to determine the points of divergence and contact among them, and second, to propose a lexicographic representation for the suffixes in a prototype of dictionary. We started from the premise that it is important that affixes in general, and the verbalizing suffixes in particular, should be part of the macrostructure of the dictionary, in order to improve the lexicographic definitions of the entries that contain them. Thus, verbal derivative strings are analized, but only those verbs that share the same base, but built by different processes. We thought that to confront the several elements that form a derivative string will allow us how to determine which are the characteristics of each process and/or each suffix, and, in particular, which are the semantic and syntactic differences that exist between each element. The work achieves to establish three types of factors that explain why complete synonymic strings do not exist: pragmatic, thematic and distributional.The proposal of lexicographic representation for suffixes is shown in a future project of Dictionary of affixes. This representation attempts to improve that of the published dictionaries, giving the information of each affix systematically and including the semantic relations that are established between the words built by the same rule.

A multiplicidade semântica, isto é, o fato de uma forma linguística apresentar mais de um significado ou nuance contextual, é um fenômeno que, apesar de não trazer grandes problemas à comunicação cotidiana, impõe diversas questões às teorias semântico-lexicais e a suas aplicações linguísticas. Neste trabalho, buscamos compreender o tratamento dispensado à multiplicidade semântica por learners’ dictionaries do inglês (dicionários monolíngues para aprendizes avançados de inglês como língua estrangeira) à luz do quadro teórico da Semântica Cognitiva Lexical. Em um primeiro momento, sistematizamos as implicações trazidas pela multiplicidade semântica para os learners’ dictionaries, principalmente no que diz respeito aos procedimentos de lumping e splitting, ao tipo de solução adotada para a divisão de verbetes para as formas lexicais (homonímica ou polissêmica) e aos critérios de organização das acepções nos verbetes. Com relação a esses aspectos, demonstramos que não há uma base teórica sólida que permita definir quantos e quais significados um item lexical apresenta, que não há consenso quanto ao tratamento das soluções nesse tipo de dicionário e que a frequência – critério utilizado pelas obras para organizar as acepções – não é tão objetivo quanto se esperaria, nem tem respaldo empírico para a utilização nesse tipo de dicionário. Assim, defendemos que, por conta do caráter interpretativo da descrição semântico lexical, evidenciada pela flexibilidade no tratamento dispensado pelas obras às questões da multiplicidade semântica, seja buscada uma abordagem distinta a essas questões. Com esse intuito, em um segundo momento, introduzimos a concepção semântico-cognitiva de estrutura semasiológica, que, ancorada em postulados da Teoria Prototípica, destaca a sobreposição e a saliência semântica como características estruturais do léxico, postulados que contemplam a flexibilidade e a instabilidade do significado lexical. Na busca por subsídios metodológicos que fundamentem uma proposta alternativa aos problemas lexicográficos, apresentamos alguns dos modelos de descrição da estrutura semântica dos itens lexicais propostos pelo paradigma cognitivo: o Modelo Radial, o Modelo Esquemático e o Modelo de Grupos em Sobreposição. Avaliamos a estrutura semasiológica do item lexical case e propomos formas alternativas para sua representação nos learners’ dictionaries que condizem tanto com os postulados semântico-cognitivos, quanto com o que se sabe sobre o tipo de dicionário em questão e as necessidades de seus usuários. Com relação às soluções homonímica e polissêmica, sugerimos quatro configurações possíveis que permitem representar a estrutura coesa da polissemia, mas cuja validação depende ainda de testes de uso. Quanto à organização das acepções, consideramos que, mesmo através do uso de uma estrutura hierárquica, é possível representar os fenômenos de sobreposição e saliência semântica que julgamos relevantes para os usuários dessas obras, por exemplo, através do uso dos próprios recursos possibilitados pela hierarquia e da redação de definições que destaquem atributos compartilhados por dois ou mais significados que não podem ser relacionados na estrutura linear do verbete. Assim, uma abordagem semântico-cognitiva parece ser útil para nortear práticas lexicográficas relativas à estruturação das informações sobre a multiplicidade semântica nos learners’ dicitionaries. / Semantic multiplicity can be defined as a case in which a single linguistic form presents more than one meaning or contextual reading. Even though this phenomenon usually does not pose serious challenges for everyday communication, it certainly brings about important issues to lexical semantic theories and its linguistic applications. The present dissertation aims at evaluating the treatment semantic multiplicity receives in English monolingual advanced learners’ dictionaries from a cognitive-semantic point of view. Therefore, the consequences of semantic multiplicity for the organization of learners’ dictionaries are presented, mainly with regard to the procedures of lumping and splitting, the solutions applied for structuring entries (homonymic or polysemous solutions), and the criteria used in arranging senses. First, it is demonstrated that there are no solid methodological bases on which to decide on how many (nor which) senses a lexical item has. Second, it is shown that there is no agreement on the solution to be applied to this type of dictionary. Third, it is advocated that the criterion used for sense arrangement (frequency) is not as objective as one would expect and it has not yet been proven to bring any advantage for the users of learners’ dictionaries. Because of the interpretative nature of lexical semantic description, which is reflected in the different treatments the dictionaries provide to these matters, a distinct approach is sought. To this end, the cognitive-semantic conception of semasiological structure is introduced. With its origins linked to Prototype Theory tenets, this notion highlights that semantic salience and overlapping are structural characteristics of the lexicon, which reflect the flexibility and instability of lexical meaning. In order to search for methods that could ground an alternative proposal for these lexicographic issues, the cognitive-semantic descriptive models of semantic structure are assessed: the radial model, the schematic model, and the overlapping sets model. The semasiological structure of the lexical item case is described and a new proposal for its organization is provided, in tune with cognitive-semantic tenets and with what is known about this type of dictionary and its users’ needs. Regarding homonymic and polysemous solutions, four different arrangements are suggested, which represent the coherent structure of polysemy. Regarding sense arrangement, it is shown that even through the use of a hierarchical structure, it is possible to represent the semantic overlapping and salience found to be useful for the users of learners’ dictionaries. By exploring the hierarchical resources themselves and by manipulating the wording of definitions, it is feasible to accentuate attributes shared by two or more senses that cannot be related in the linear structure of the dictionary entry. Thus, Cognitive Semantics presents itself as a useful approach to guide lexicographic practices related to the structuring of semantic multiplicity information in learners’ dictionaries.

A multiplicidade semântica, isto é, o fato de uma forma linguística apresentar mais de um significado ou nuance contextual, é um fenômeno que, apesar de não trazer grandes problemas à comunicação cotidiana, impõe diversas questões às teorias semântico-lexicais e a suas aplicações linguísticas. Neste trabalho, buscamos compreender o tratamento dispensado à multiplicidade semântica por learners’ dictionaries do inglês (dicionários monolíngues para aprendizes avançados de inglês como língua estrangeira) à luz do quadro teórico da Semântica Cognitiva Lexical. Em um primeiro momento, sistematizamos as implicações trazidas pela multiplicidade semântica para os learners’ dictionaries, principalmente no que diz respeito aos procedimentos de lumping e splitting, ao tipo de solução adotada para a divisão de verbetes para as formas lexicais (homonímica ou polissêmica) e aos critérios de organização das acepções nos verbetes. Com relação a esses aspectos, demonstramos que não há uma base teórica sólida que permita definir quantos e quais significados um item lexical apresenta, que não há consenso quanto ao tratamento das soluções nesse tipo de dicionário e que a frequência – critério utilizado pelas obras para organizar as acepções – não é tão objetivo quanto se esperaria, nem tem respaldo empírico para a utilização nesse tipo de dicionário. Assim, defendemos que, por conta do caráter interpretativo da descrição semântico lexical, evidenciada pela flexibilidade no tratamento dispensado pelas obras às questões da multiplicidade semântica, seja buscada uma abordagem distinta a essas questões. Com esse intuito, em um segundo momento, introduzimos a concepção semântico-cognitiva de estrutura semasiológica, que, ancorada em postulados da Teoria Prototípica, destaca a sobreposição e a saliência semântica como características estruturais do léxico, postulados que contemplam a flexibilidade e a instabilidade do significado lexical. Na busca por subsídios metodológicos que fundamentem uma proposta alternativa aos problemas lexicográficos, apresentamos alguns dos modelos de descrição da estrutura semântica dos itens lexicais propostos pelo paradigma cognitivo: o Modelo Radial, o Modelo Esquemático e o Modelo de Grupos em Sobreposição. Avaliamos a estrutura semasiológica do item lexical case e propomos formas alternativas para sua representação nos learners’ dictionaries que condizem tanto com os postulados semântico-cognitivos, quanto com o que se sabe sobre o tipo de dicionário em questão e as necessidades de seus usuários. Com relação às soluções homonímica e polissêmica, sugerimos quatro configurações possíveis que permitem representar a estrutura coesa da polissemia, mas cuja validação depende ainda de testes de uso. Quanto à organização das acepções, consideramos que, mesmo através do uso de uma estrutura hierárquica, é possível representar os fenômenos de sobreposição e saliência semântica que julgamos relevantes para os usuários dessas obras, por exemplo, através do uso dos próprios recursos possibilitados pela hierarquia e da redação de definições que destaquem atributos compartilhados por dois ou mais significados que não podem ser relacionados na estrutura linear do verbete. Assim, uma abordagem semântico-cognitiva parece ser útil para nortear práticas lexicográficas relativas à estruturação das informações sobre a multiplicidade semântica nos learners’ dicitionaries. / Semantic multiplicity can be defined as a case in which a single linguistic form presents more than one meaning or contextual reading. Even though this phenomenon usually does not pose serious challenges for everyday communication, it certainly brings about important issues to lexical semantic theories and its linguistic applications. The present dissertation aims at evaluating the treatment semantic multiplicity receives in English monolingual advanced learners’ dictionaries from a cognitive-semantic point of view. Therefore, the consequences of semantic multiplicity for the organization of learners’ dictionaries are presented, mainly with regard to the procedures of lumping and splitting, the solutions applied for structuring entries (homonymic or polysemous solutions), and the criteria used in arranging senses. First, it is demonstrated that there are no solid methodological bases on which to decide on how many (nor which) senses a lexical item has. Second, it is shown that there is no agreement on the solution to be applied to this type of dictionary. Third, it is advocated that the criterion used for sense arrangement (frequency) is not as objective as one would expect and it has not yet been proven to bring any advantage for the users of learners’ dictionaries. Because of the interpretative nature of lexical semantic description, which is reflected in the different treatments the dictionaries provide to these matters, a distinct approach is sought. To this end, the cognitive-semantic conception of semasiological structure is introduced. With its origins linked to Prototype Theory tenets, this notion highlights that semantic salience and overlapping are structural characteristics of the lexicon, which reflect the flexibility and instability of lexical meaning. In order to search for methods that could ground an alternative proposal for these lexicographic issues, the cognitive-semantic descriptive models of semantic structure are assessed: the radial model, the schematic model, and the overlapping sets model. The semasiological structure of the lexical item case is described and a new proposal for its organization is provided, in tune with cognitive-semantic tenets and with what is known about this type of dictionary and its users’ needs. Regarding homonymic and polysemous solutions, four different arrangements are suggested, which represent the coherent structure of polysemy. Regarding sense arrangement, it is shown that even through the use of a hierarchical structure, it is possible to represent the semantic overlapping and salience found to be useful for the users of learners’ dictionaries. By exploring the hierarchical resources themselves and by manipulating the wording of definitions, it is feasible to accentuate attributes shared by two or more senses that cannot be related in the linear structure of the dictionary entry. Thus, Cognitive Semantics presents itself as a useful approach to guide lexicographic practices related to the structuring of semantic multiplicity information in learners’ dictionaries.

This thesis examines suffixation in Middle English in the periods 1200-1299 and 1300-1399. More specifically, the work is focussed on nominal coinages of native origin only, formed with the suffixes -ness, -head / -hood, -ship and -dom, where the aim is to observe their productivity in time. In the theoretical part, we explore the contribution of external (socio-political) and internal (typological and word-formational) factors to changes in the English language, including word-formation processes. Our hypothesis is that suffixation as a word-formation process will continue strongly, despite the ongoing language-internal changes and the overwhelming influx of foreign words. Data for this research was collected from The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) through Advance Search. The data retrieved for each suffix was considered from a morphological, structural and lexico-semantic perspective. The analyses were performed to detect changes in the behaviour of each suffix and to discover the realities attesting their productivity. Moreover, the analyses uncovered additional phenomena: types that had only one quotation (hapaxes) and competition occurring between the selected suffixes. The hapaxes were also investigated for their morphological, structural and semantic features so as to identify any common...

This diploma thesis analyses the occurrence of synonymy in the texts of academic prose and fiction. The topic of synonymy has been in the centre of attention for a long time and it still deserves much attention. The aim of this thesis is to approach to the topic from a different perspective. Theoretical part describes the theoretical background of synonymy from the upper layers of the system of language. These theories are used as analytical tool in analysing the collected samples with the focus on similarities and differences in connotation of pairs of synonyms. The diploma thesis should particularly contribute to study of partial synonymy and the components of associative meaning that vary in dependence on functional style. This thesis should also marginally refer to the topic of absolute synonymy. The frequency of the components of associative meaning and findings are described in the conclusion of the thesis.

This paper analyses and discusses the present-day use of the noun bitch, as the term in contemporary usage seems to have started to deviate from the lexical definition. Traditionally considered an insult when applied to a woman, bitch has recently started being used as a self-imposed label rather than an applied one. Such a phenomenon indicates reappropriation, a negotiation of the meaning and semantics of a word. The purpose of this study is to investigate the origin and semantics of the term, as well as its historical usage and developments. Of particular interest and significance regarding the semantic development of bitch are social and extra-linguistic factors such as political movements, as will be evident from the results presented. Additionally, the present-day use of the term is analysed using lexical semantics and corpus linguistics, with the adjective collocates of the term retrieved from two corpora. Further, contemporary music lyrics are quoted and analysed to lend further support to the corpus findings regarding the present-day use, as well as the indicated semantic change and reappropriation. The results indicate that the term bitch is undergoing a reappropriation and is currently used both as a derogatory and self-empowering term. It is hoped that this paper will give insight to the phenomenon of reappropriation and the connection between social and linguistic change, as well as the importance of context in determining the meaning of a term.

A multiplicidade semântica, isto é, o fato de uma forma linguística apresentar mais de um significado ou nuance contextual, é um fenômeno que, apesar de não trazer grandes problemas à comunicação cotidiana, impõe diversas questões às teorias semântico-lexicais e a suas aplicações linguísticas. Neste trabalho, buscamos compreender o tratamento dispensado à multiplicidade semântica por learners’ dictionaries do inglês (dicionários monolíngues para aprendizes avançados de inglês como língua estrangeira) à luz do quadro teórico da Semântica Cognitiva Lexical. Em um primeiro momento, sistematizamos as implicações trazidas pela multiplicidade semântica para os learners’ dictionaries, principalmente no que diz respeito aos procedimentos de lumping e splitting, ao tipo de solução adotada para a divisão de verbetes para as formas lexicais (homonímica ou polissêmica) e aos critérios de organização das acepções nos verbetes. Com relação a esses aspectos, demonstramos que não há uma base teórica sólida que permita definir quantos e quais significados um item lexical apresenta, que não há consenso quanto ao tratamento das soluções nesse tipo de dicionário e que a frequência – critério utilizado pelas obras para organizar as acepções – não é tão objetivo quanto se esperaria, nem tem respaldo empírico para a utilização nesse tipo de dicionário. Assim, defendemos que, por conta do caráter interpretativo da descrição semântico lexical, evidenciada pela flexibilidade no tratamento dispensado pelas obras às questões da multiplicidade semântica, seja buscada uma abordagem distinta a essas questões. Com esse intuito, em um segundo momento, introduzimos a concepção semântico-cognitiva de estrutura semasiológica, que, ancorada em postulados da Teoria Prototípica, destaca a sobreposição e a saliência semântica como características estruturais do léxico, postulados que contemplam a flexibilidade e a instabilidade do significado lexical. Na busca por subsídios metodológicos que fundamentem uma proposta alternativa aos problemas lexicográficos, apresentamos alguns dos modelos de descrição da estrutura semântica dos itens lexicais propostos pelo paradigma cognitivo: o Modelo Radial, o Modelo Esquemático e o Modelo de Grupos em Sobreposição. Avaliamos a estrutura semasiológica do item lexical case e propomos formas alternativas para sua representação nos learners’ dictionaries que condizem tanto com os postulados semântico-cognitivos, quanto com o que se sabe sobre o tipo de dicionário em questão e as necessidades de seus usuários. Com relação às soluções homonímica e polissêmica, sugerimos quatro configurações possíveis que permitem representar a estrutura coesa da polissemia, mas cuja validação depende ainda de testes de uso. Quanto à organização das acepções, consideramos que, mesmo através do uso de uma estrutura hierárquica, é possível representar os fenômenos de sobreposição e saliência semântica que julgamos relevantes para os usuários dessas obras, por exemplo, através do uso dos próprios recursos possibilitados pela hierarquia e da redação de definições que destaquem atributos compartilhados por dois ou mais significados que não podem ser relacionados na estrutura linear do verbete. Assim, uma abordagem semântico-cognitiva parece ser útil para nortear práticas lexicográficas relativas à estruturação das informações sobre a multiplicidade semântica nos learners’ dicitionaries. / Semantic multiplicity can be defined as a case in which a single linguistic form presents more than one meaning or contextual reading. Even though this phenomenon usually does not pose serious challenges for everyday communication, it certainly brings about important issues to lexical semantic theories and its linguistic applications. The present dissertation aims at evaluating the treatment semantic multiplicity receives in English monolingual advanced learners’ dictionaries from a cognitive-semantic point of view. Therefore, the consequences of semantic multiplicity for the organization of learners’ dictionaries are presented, mainly with regard to the procedures of lumping and splitting, the solutions applied for structuring entries (homonymic or polysemous solutions), and the criteria used in arranging senses. First, it is demonstrated that there are no solid methodological bases on which to decide on how many (nor which) senses a lexical item has. Second, it is shown that there is no agreement on the solution to be applied to this type of dictionary. Third, it is advocated that the criterion used for sense arrangement (frequency) is not as objective as one would expect and it has not yet been proven to bring any advantage for the users of learners’ dictionaries. Because of the interpretative nature of lexical semantic description, which is reflected in the different treatments the dictionaries provide to these matters, a distinct approach is sought. To this end, the cognitive-semantic conception of semasiological structure is introduced. With its origins linked to Prototype Theory tenets, this notion highlights that semantic salience and overlapping are structural characteristics of the lexicon, which reflect the flexibility and instability of lexical meaning. In order to search for methods that could ground an alternative proposal for these lexicographic issues, the cognitive-semantic descriptive models of semantic structure are assessed: the radial model, the schematic model, and the overlapping sets model. The semasiological structure of the lexical item case is described and a new proposal for its organization is provided, in tune with cognitive-semantic tenets and with what is known about this type of dictionary and its users’ needs. Regarding homonymic and polysemous solutions, four different arrangements are suggested, which represent the coherent structure of polysemy. Regarding sense arrangement, it is shown that even through the use of a hierarchical structure, it is possible to represent the semantic overlapping and salience found to be useful for the users of learners’ dictionaries. By exploring the hierarchical resources themselves and by manipulating the wording of definitions, it is feasible to accentuate attributes shared by two or more senses that cannot be related in the linear structure of the dictionary entry. Thus, Cognitive Semantics presents itself as a useful approach to guide lexicographic practices related to the structuring of semantic multiplicity information in learners’ dictionaries.