Esta dissertação investiga nomes nus e classificadores numerais do chinês mandarim, assim como a distinção lexical entre nomes contáveis e massivos do chinês. O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar e avaliar as possíveis denotações dos nominais do chinês mandarim. O texto é divido em três partes. Na primeira, investigam-se nomes nus do chinês mandarim, que manifestam número geral. Defende-se que o número geral não ocorre em sintagmas nominais em que existe numeral. No Chinês mandarim, nomes nus podem ser interpretados como indefinidos, definidos e genéricos de acordo com suas posições sintáticas e contextos em que ocorrem. A hipótese defendida na segunda parte da dissertação é a de que, no chinês mandarim, há distinção lexical entre nomes contáveis e massivos. Um fator importante na distinção contável-massivo do chinês mandarim é a presença de classificadores e suas relações com os nomes. Defende-se que a combinação entre os nomes e os classificadores é seletiva e, com base nisso, os nomes comuns do chinês podem ser divididos em nomes contáveis, nomes massivos, nomes coletivos, nomes abstratos e nomes próprios. Além de classificador, mais uma evidência para a contabilidade dos nomes do chinês é o morfema men. A terceira parte da dissertação avalia a presença de classificador nos sintagmas nominais com numerais. Defende-se que diferentes grupos de classificadores possuem diferentes funções: classificadores individuais são marcadores gramaticais de contabilidade e não têm a função individualizadora e, os outros grupos têm suas restrições na combinação com os nomes. A combinação entre numeral e classificador pode ser tratada como um núcleo complexo que ocorre morfologicamente como um item lexical, mas o numeral pode-se omitir dentro deste complexo e classificador não. Sendo assim, Os classificadores devem ser tratados como um sufixo na sua ocorrência dentro do complexo [Num-CL], mas como um clítico em outras ocorrências. / This dissertation investigates bare nouns and numeral classifiers in Mandarin Chinese, as well as the lexical distinction between count and mass nouns of Chinese. The goal of this work is to study and assess the possible denotations of nominals in Mandarin Chinese. The dissertation is divided in three parts. In the first part, the bare nominals in Mandarin Chinese will be investigated and they have general number. We argue that the general number can not happen in noun phrases when they contain numerals. In Mandarin Chinese, the bare nouns can be interpreted as indefinites, definites and generics, according to their syntactic positions and contexts in that they happen. The hypothesis presented in the second part of this dissertation is that in Mandarin Chinese, there is the lexical distinction between count and mass nouns. One important factor in this count-mass distinction of Mandarin Chinese is the presence of classifiers and their relationships with the nouns. We argue that, based on the selective combination between names and classifiers, the common nouns of Chinese can be divided in count nouns, mass nouns, collective nouns, abstract nouns and proper nouns. Besides the classifier, one more evidence for the accounting of Chinese\'s names is the morpheme men. The third part of the dissertation assesses the classifiers presence in the noun phrases with numerals. We argue that, different groups of classifiers have different functions: the individual classifiers are grammatical markers of accounting and they do not have the individualizing function, while the other groups have their restrictions in the combination with the nouns. The combination between the numeral and the classifier can be treated as a complex head that happens morphologically as a lexical item, but the numeral in which can be omitted in some contexts and the classifier can not. Thus, the classifiers should be treated as a suffix in his occurrence with the complex [Num-CL], but as a clitic in other occurrences.

En mandarin, les déterminants du nom, démonstratifs et numéraux, sont en général antéposés au nom. Le français requiert la présence de l’article, une catégorie grammaticale absente du système nominal du mandarin qui indique la quantification au travers de la présence de classificateurs nominaux. Sur le plan de la morphologie nominale, en mandarin, une langue isolante, le nom se construit préférablement par le biais de la composition de différent traits sémantiques, tandis qu’en français, considéré comme une langue flexionnelle, le nom se révèle être lui-même le sème. Le déterminant et le nom s’accordent en genre et en nombre, alors que le nom en mandarin chinois ne distingue pas le genre et que les indications du nombre se font uniquement au travers de la présence de classificateurs. Comprendre ces différences est essentiel à l’acquisition de ces deux langues. Afin de faciliter la compréhension des fonctions de ces phénomènes grammaticaux pour les apprenants, ce travail doctoral propose des analyses et explications permettant à l’apprenant de franchir favorablement le « seuil » de la détermination nominale. / In Mandarin Chinese, as in French, nominal determiners (demonstrative and numeral) precede in general the noun. French requires the presence of the article, a grammatical category that is not found in Mandarin Chinese. Rather, in Mandarin Chinese, quantification is carried out through the presence of noun classifiers. As for nominal morphology, in Mandarin Chinese, an isolating language, nouns are preferably formed through the composition of different semantic features. By contrast, in French, considered as mainly flexional, only the nominal root holds the semantic unit. In French, determiner and noun agree in gender and number, whereas in Mandarin Chinese, that does not distinguish gender, number is expressed by noun classifiers. Understanding these differences is essential to the acquisition of these two languages. In order to facilitate the understanding of the functions of these grammatical phenomena, this research proposes accurate analyses and explanations that allow second language learners to overcome more effectively the difficulties of nominal determination

Cette recherche est centrée sur l'étude des valeurs aspectuelles des noms de sentiment (N_sent) et des verbes collocatifs dans les constructions verbo-nominales (CVN). L'aspectualité est étudiée en tant que catégorie lexico-grammaticale, au niveau syntagmatique (au sein des CVN) mais elle englobe également le lexique et la syntaxe de la phrase. Le travail est mené dans une perspective contrastive français – russe et ce, sur des corpus informatisés de données issues des deux langues. Nous avons constitué deux types de corpus : comparable (comportant les textes originaux, 60 M de mots, de la base de Frantext et Ruscorpora) et parallèle (coprus de traduction, 10 M de mots, aligné avec le logiciel Alinea d'O. Kraif). Les questions qui sous-tendent ce travail concernent les trois points suivants. En premier lieu, nous nous interrogeons si les CVN de sentiment peuvent véhiculer l'aspect. Nous vérifions cela grâce à l'analyse de la combinatoire syntaxique et lexicale de ces constructions. En deuxième lieu, nous nous posons la question de savoir s'il existe une relation aspectuelle entre le N_sent et le verbe collocatif. Cette affinité aspectuelle peut être révélée à partir des traits aspectuels inhérents des N_sent (duratif/ponctuel) et les propriétés aspectuelles des verbes (accompli/inaccompli/global en français vs imperfectif/perfectif en russe) : vivre (duratif) dans le bonheur (duratif) / žit' (imperfectif) v sčast'e (duratif) ; s'enflammer (ponctuel) de colère (ponctuel) / vspyxnut' (perfectif) ot gneva (ponctuel). En troisième lieu, notre travail sur les corpus bilingues français-russe nous amène à des problématiques d'ordre contrastif. Nous estimons que l'approche contrastive permet de mieux expliciter les similitudes et les différences aspectuelles au sein des CVN dans les deux langues, ainsi que de mettre en évidence les différences dans l'expression de l'aspect en français et en russe. Pour ce faire, nous analysons les équivalents des CVN dans les deux langues : les équivalents aspectuels et les équivalents structuraux. Ainsi, notre méthodologie nous a amenée à des conclusions intéressantes qui pourront s'avérer utiles en linguistique contrastive et en traductologie, ainsi qu'en linguistique de corpus et en didactique des langues. La contribution de ce travail de thèse consiste en plusieurs points que nous synthétisons ci-dessous : - À notre connaissance, beaucoup de travaux ont été faits sur l'aspect des verbes et peu sur l'aspect des noms. Nous avons proposé une étude de l'aspectualité à partir du nom en tant que « base » de la construction verbo-nominale. Cette étude a mis en contraste les deux traditions linguistiques (russe et française) dans l'étude des N_sent et de leur aspect. - Nous avons effectué une étude détaillée et systématique de la combinatoire des N_sent, ce qui nous a permis d'identifier leur aspect au sein des CVN. - Le travail sur les deux types de corpus nous a permis de récolter des données quantitatives sur les CVN dans les deux langues, sur les textes originaux et traduits. L'analyse qualitative de ces corpus nous a permis de faire des études spécifiques pour chaque type de corpus. Ainsi, le corpus comparable permet d'effectuer la recherche sur l'aspectualité des CVN, tandis que le corpus parallèle fournit des éléments nécessaires pour l'étude des équivalents fonctionnels de traduction (essentiellement de type formel). Les équivalents formels russes des CVN françaises sont en majorité aussi des CVN pour tous les N_sent étudiés, sauf strax (peur). Ce dernier est traduit le plus souvent en tant que verbe (bojat'sja, ispugat'sja (craintre, s'épouvanter). On trouve également parmi ces équivalents en russe des constructions impersonnelles (mne strašno (à moi peureusement)). / This dissertation work is realised as a contrastive analysis which aims the identification of the aspectual differences between two linguistic systems, French and Russian. Our methodology is based on the analysis of two types of data corpora : comparable and parallel. The subject of this research concerns the study of aspectuel values of Nouns of emotion and their collocative verbs, especially in the Verb+Noun constractions. We have chosen these structures as a location of the field of aspectuality which, beeing lexicon-grammar categorie, touches the lexicon as well as the syntax of a phrase. The identification of the aspectual values of these combinations comes from their lexical and syntactic combinatory. It is composed of different parameters (settings) : aspectuel features of the Noun (bi-nominal structures, adjectives-modifiers and determinants) and aspectual features of the Verb (grammatical aspect, lexical aspect and phases). Our scientific contribution consists in a study of the aspectuality as a linguistic category touching the Nouns of emotion in French and in Russian. The main results of this research tend to confirm our hypotheses about inherent aspect of the seven Noun of emotion studied in French and in Russian (admiration/vosxiščenie, amour/ljubov', angoisse/trevoga, bonheur/sčast'e, colère/gnev, joie/radost', peur/strax) and their aspectual relations with Verbs whithin Verb+Noun constructions.

The aim of this dissertation was to investigate plural absence in Noun Syntagma in interviews with speakers of a community in Goias city, Brazil, based on theoretical and methodological Labov s Linguistic Variation approaches. Linguistic factors were: phonic prominence, syntagma elements position, syntagma elements grammatical class and syntagma structure. Extra linguistic variables were: schooling, sex and age. Based on works from Braga (1977) and Scherre (1988), the conditions for noun number agreement rules were studied and compared to pattern language in this community in Brazilian Portuguese speaking. The hypothesis were confirmed: speakers who studied till the second degree use less agreement rules than those who studied till fourth degree, although schooling was not relevant in every data crossing; female speakers are more concerned to these rules than male ones; explicit plural marks are less frequent in binary data (-prominent) as in mulher-mulheres, pior-piores; the first position have favored s retention in every data crossing; article was the grammatical class that received more plural marks; and syntagma structure that received more plural marks was that formed by a Determinant and a Noun (DET N) / O objetivo desta dissertação foi investigar o apagamento do plural em sintagmas nominais a partir de entrevistas com falantes de uma comunidade de fala da cidade de Goiás, com base nos pressupostos teórico-metodológicos da Teoria da Variação e Mudança Lingüística de Labov. As variáveis lingüísticas estudadas foram: saliência fônica, posição dos elementos no sintagma nominal, classe gramatical dos elementos e estrutura sintagmática. As variáveis extralingüísticas foram: escolaridade, sexo e faixa etária. Com base nos trabalhos de Braga (1977) e Scherre (1988), foram estudados os condicionamentos da aplicação da regra de concordância de número de acordo com a norma padrão na fala dessa comunidade, no Português do Brasil. As hipóteses de pesquisa foram confirmadas: os falantes até segunda série fazem menos concordância que os de terceira e quarta séries, embora o grau de escolaridade não tenha sido relevante em todos os cruzamentos feitos; os falantes do sexo feminino preocupam-se mais em fazer a CN que os do sexo masculino; as marcas explícitas de plural ocorrem menos nos dados de forma binária (- saliente), como no plural em es (mulher-mulheres, pior-piores) e em is (real-reais, material-materiais); a primeira posição da marca de plural favoreceu a retenção do s em todos os cruzamentos feitos. Quanto à classe gramatical dos elementos formadores do SN, em todos os cruzamentos feitos, o artigo foi o que mais recebeu a marca de plural. A estrutura sintagmática de maior ocorrência de plural foi DET N, ou seja, a estrutura formada por um determinante e um substantivo. / Mestre em Lingüística

Submitted by Haroudo Xavier Filho (haroudo.xavierfo@ufpe.br) on 2016-05-19T18:03:16Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação. Dos Sintagmas Nominais aos Descritores Documentais Estudo de Caso na Indexação de Te.pdf: 3525255 bytes, checksum: 7cb6e4bda3f02eb17e2009285414748d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-19T18:03:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação. Dos Sintagmas Nominais aos Descritores Documentais Estudo de Caso na Indexação de Te.pdf: 3525255 bytes, checksum: 7cb6e4bda3f02eb17e2009285414748d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-20 / O uso dos Sintagmas Nominais como instrumentos de organização e recuperação da informação digital vem se mostrando uma alternativa promissora para sistemas de informação. Nesse contexto, a indexação automática por meio de Sintagmas Nominais se mostra como uma alternativa que minimiza alguns problemas encontrados na indexação baseada em palavras isoladas, uma vez que os Sintagmas Nominais se constituem em unidades sintáticas que possuem semântica/sentido específico. No entanto, é notório que nem todos os Sintagmas Nominais que se encontram em um documento digital são representativos do mesmo, o que demonstra por sua vez a necessidade de uma seleção dos Sintagmas Nominais que realmente possam funcionar como descritores documentais. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo geral investigar a seleção de sintagmas nominais com valor de descritor no contexto do processo de indexação automática por meio de sintagmas nominais de resumos de teses e dissertações em português da área jurídica. Pretende-se: 1. Investigar o processo de indexação automática por meio de sintagmas nominais; 2. Verificar quais são as características de um Sintagma Nominal como valor de descritor documental; 3. Identificar na literatura científica nacional metodologias para seleção de sintagmas nominais em textos em português, bem como os critérios de seleção de cada metodologia; 4. Planejar experimento, onde os Sintagmas Nominais extraídos são categorizados quanto ao atendimento ou não a critérios de seleção propostos na literatura e quanto ao valor como Descritores, quando semelhantes aos descritores documentais resultantes da indexação manual; 5. Avaliar os critérios de seleção na indexação automática por meio de Sintagmas Nominais para teses e dissertações da área jurídica. Para o alcance dos objetivos propostos, fez-se uso de uma pesquisa bibliográfica e de um experimento. A pesquisa bibliográfica permitiu a identificação de pesquisas voltadas para a indexação automática por meio de Sintagmas Nominais, principalmente no que se refere à seleção de Sintagmas que funcionem como descritores documentais. Com base nas leituras dessas pesquisas, puderam-se identificar vários critérios utilizados para a seleção de Sintagmas. O experimento constituiu-se na aplicação dos critérios identificados na literatura aos sintagmas nominais extraídos de um conjunto de resumos de teses e dissertações da área jurídica, com o intuito de mensurar a utilidade ou não desses critérios no que diz respeito à seleção de sintagmas nominais descritores. Assim, realizou-se a indexação manual dos documentos, a extração automática dos Sintagmas Nominais constituintes dos mesmos, a categorização dos sintagmas nominais como descritores com base na semelhança aos descritores documentais advindos da indexação manual e a aplicação dos critérios de seleção aos sintagmas nominais extraídos. Por meio do experimento, foram percebidos comportamentos distintos entre cada critério, onde a maioria foi considerada útil para a seleção de sintagmas nominais. / The use of noun phrases as tools for information organization and retrieval has proven to be a promising alternative in information systems. In this context, automatic indexing through the noun phrases shows a new alternative that minimizes some problems encountered in indexing based on single words, given that noun phrases are syntactic units with specific semantic/meaning. However, it is evident that not all the noun phrases in a digital document are representative of the content, which in turn demonstrates the need for a selection of noun phrases that may serve as documentary descriptors. In this context, this work aims to investigate the selection of noun phrases with descriptor value in the context of the automatic indexing process by noun phrases from abstracts of theses and dissertations in the area of law in Portuguese. The specific objectives are: 1. Investigate the automatic indexing process by noun phrases; 2. Identify what are the characteristics of a noun phrase with descriptor value; 3. Identify the methodologies in national scientific literature for selection of noun phrases in texts in Portuguese, as well as the selection criteria of each methodology; 4. Organization of an experiment where each extracted noun phrase is categorized as descriptor and if it meets or not the proposed selection criteria in the literature; 5. Evaluate the selection criteria in the automatic indexing by noun phrases for theses and dissertations in the legal field. To achieve the objectives, it was made use of a bibliographic research and experiment. The literature review allowed the identification of research on automatic indexing by noun phrases, especially criteria used to choose noun phrases that act as documentary descriptors. Based on the readings of this research, it was possible to identify several criteria used for the selection of noun phrases. The experiment consisted in applying the criteria identified in the literature to noun phrases extracted from a set of abstracts of theses and dissertations in the legal field, in order to measure the usefulness or not of these criteria for the selection of noun phrases descriptors. Thus it was made manual indexing of documents, automatic extraction of noun phrases thereof, the categorization of noun phrases as descriptors based on their resemblance to the descriptors of manual indexing and the application of criteria in the extracted noun phrases. Through the experiment, we notice a different behavior for each criterion, where most of the criteria was considered useful for noun phrase selection.

Cognitive Linguistics has been widely used to deal with the ambiguity generated by words in combination. Although this domain offers many solutions to address this challenge, not all of them can be implemented in a computational environment. The Dynamic Construal of Meaning framework is argued to have this ability because it describes an intrinsic degree of association of meanings, which in turn, can be translated into computational programs. A limitation towards a computational approach, however, has been the lack of syntactic parameters. This research argues that this limitation could be overcome with the aid of the Generative Lexicon Theory (GLT). Specifically, this dissertation formulated possible means to marry the GLT and Cognitive Linguistics in a novel rapprochement between the two. This bond between opposing theories provided the means to design a computational template (the AXEL System) by realising syntax and semantics at software levels. An instance of the AXEL system was created using a Design Research approach. Planned iterations were involved in the development to improve artefact performance. Such iterations boosted performance-improving, which accounted for the degree of association of meanings in three-noun compounds. This dissertation delivered three major contributions on the brink of a so-called turning point in Computational Linguistics (CL). First, the AXEL system was used to disclose hidden lexical patterns on ambiguity. These patterns are difficult, if not impossible, to be identified without automatic techniques. This research claimed that these patterns can assist audiences of linguists to review lexical knowledge on a software-based viewpoint. Following linguistic awareness, the second result advocated for the adoption of improved resources by decreasing electronic space of Sense Enumerative Lexicons (SELs). The AXEL system deployed the generation of “at the moment of use” interpretations, optimising the way the space is needed for lexical storage. Finally, this research introduced a subsystem of metrics to characterise an ambiguous degree of association of three-noun compounds enabling ranking methods. Weighing methods delivered mechanisms of classification of meanings towards Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD). Overall these results attempted to tackle difficulties in understanding studies of Lexical Semantics via software tools.

Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores the various elements which appear in compound nouns in Northern Sotho. The purpose of this study fill in an important gap in the Northern Sotho language studies as regards the morphological structure of compound nouns in Northern Sotho. This study is organized as follows: CHAPTER ONE presents an introduction to the study. The introductory sections which appear in this chapter include the aim of the study, the methodology and different views of researchers of other languages on compound nouns. Different categories which appear with the noun in the Northern Sotho compound are identified. CHAPTER TWO deals with the different features of the noun in Northern Sotho. It examines the various class prefixes, nominal stems/roots and nominal suffixes which form nouns. Nouns appear in classes according to the form of their prefixes. The morphological structures of the nouns have been presented. It also reviews the meanings, sound/phonological changes and origins of nouns. CHAPTER THREE is concerned with the nominal heads of compound nouns. It examines compounds that are formed through a combination of nouns, and compounds that are formed from nouns together with other syntactic categories. Arguments which defend the structure of different compounds with nominal heads are presented. CHAPTER FOUR explores compound nouns with verbal heads. It examines various elements of compound nouns with a verb as one of its components. The entire chapter includes examples that illustrate that when a verbal form appears with a noun, it is adapted to a noun by the addition of the relevant prefixes and suffixes. CHAPTER FIVE gives an overview of the findings, and presents the conclusions, of the research on compound nouns in Chapters Three and Four.

The main aim of the thesis is to investigate how discourse entities are linked with topic chaining and discourse coherence by showing that the choice and the distribution of referring expressions is correlated with the center transition patterns in the centering framework. The thesis provides an integrated interpretation in understanding the behaviour of referring expressions in discourse by considering the relation between referential choice and the local and global coherence of discourse. The thesis has three stages: (1) to provide a semantic and pragmatic perspective in a contrastive study of referring expressions in English and Japanese spontaneous dialogues, (2) to analyse the way anaphoric and deictic expressions can contribute to discourse organisation in structuring and focusing the specific discourse segment, and (3) to investigate the choice and the distribution of referring expressions in the Map Task Corpus and to clarify the way the participants collaborate to judge the most salient entity in the current discourse against their common ground. Significantly, despite the grammatical differences in the form of reference between the two languages, the ways of discourse development in both data sets show distinctive similarities in the process by which the topic entities are introduced, established, and shifted away to the subsequent topic entities. Comparing and contrasting the choice and the distribution of referring expressions of the four different transition patterns of centers, the crucial factors of their correspondent relations between English and Japanese referring expressions are shown in the findings that the topic chains of noun phrases are constructed and are treated like proper names in discourse. This can suggest that full noun phrases play a major role when the topic entity is established in the course of discourse. Since the existing centering model cannot handle the topic chain of noun phrases in the anaphoric relations in terms of the local focus of discourse, centering must be integrated with a model of global focus to account for both pronouns and full noun phrases that can be used for continuations across segment boundaries. Based on Walker’s cache model, I argue that the forms of anaphors are not always shorter, and the focus of attention is maintained by the chain of noun phrases rather than by (zero) pronouns both within a discourse segment and over discourse segment boundaries. These processes are predicted and likely to underlie other uses of language as well. The result can modify the existing perspectives that the focus of attention is normally represented by attenuated forms of reference, and full noun phrases always show focus-shift. In addition, necessary extension to the global coherence of discourse can link these anaphoric relations with the deictic expressions over discourse segment boundaries. Finally, I argue that the choice and the distribution of referring expressions in the Map Task Corpus depends on the way the participants collaborate to judge the most salient entity in the current discourse against their common ground.

The diploma thesis analyses written academic text. Academic prose is frequently characterized as a highly complex style which is structurally elaborated, contains a large number of subordinate clauses and expresses meaning relations explicitly. However, new research (e.g. Biber & Gray, 2010) shows that complexity of academic writing occurs on the level of noun phrases which often contain extensive premodification and/or postmodification. The thesis studies noun phrase structure in research articles from two disciplines: medicine and sociology. Two articles from each discipline were selected, each yielding 50 complex noun phrases. These 200 examples were analysed with respect to their modification, its form and levels of embedding. The results were compared for both disciplines. The aim of the thesis was to describe complex noun phrase structure and identify its relation to the type of academic discipline. Key words: noun phrase, modification, academic text, sociology, medicine

Comparison of Old Norse and Proto-Norse Noun Declension The purpose of this thesis is to follow the development of noun declensions from Proto-Norse to the Old Norse (Old Icelandic) language. The first of the three chapters seeks to give a comprehensive overview of Proto-Norse noun declensions. This overview is based on the evidence of the older runic inscriptions and on reconstruction using relevant linguistic literature. Each of the declensions is presented in the form of a paradigm accompanied by commentary and quotations of preserved grammatical forms. The second and largest chapter presents a survey of Old Norse (Old Icelandic) noun declensions. The survey has two aims. The first aim is to provide a synchronic description of the Old Norse noun declension system which would not be encumbered by an excess of diachronic approach as is often the case in the traditional grammars of Old Norse. At the same time, however, it should show how Old Norse inflectional exponents and classes continue the Proto-Norse declensions as presented in the first chapter. There is also a discussion of some of the systemic causes leading to morphological changes in inflection. The third chapter sums up the previous diachronic analysis and questions the validity of the traditional designations of declension classes based on...