The aim of this essay is determining and describing some of the semantic domains of the concept of action. Action belongs to the type of abstract nouns with unclear semantic domains. In other words, there are difficulties in determining the precise semantic patterns that the word ‘action’ refers to. In order to shed light on the semantic domains of action, a collection of metaphors using words for body parts has been studied. In metaphor, action can be denoted, described or used to denote or describe something else. That means semantic references to actions can be contained within metaphoric expressions, not the least in metaphors applying words for body parts. This study focuses on hands, feet and fingers. Their respective conceptual models are analysed, to see how they pertain to action as a phenomenon. The discussion subsequently identifies the semantic patterns that relate to how these body parts are conceptualised in the English language. The semantic domains inferred are related to neuropsychology, in order to show how similar patterns have been identified and described in relation to action. The conclusion of this essay is that the semantic domains of space, time, motion and intention are referred to as integral to the meaning of action. In other words, that which is denoted by the word ‘action’ is a movement that occurs in a conceptual space and time, with an intention. As the study shows, also metaphors that describe or denote inactivity adhere to this pattern in reversed form.

Les modèles de compréhension statistiques appliqués à des applications vocales nécessitent beaucoup de données pour être entraînés. Souvent, une même application doit pouvoir supporter plusieurs langues, c’est le cas avec les pays ayant plusieurs langues officielles. Il s’agit donc de gérer les mêmes requêtes des utilisateurs, lesquelles présentent une sémantique similaire, mais dans plusieurs langues différentes. Ce projet présente des techniques pour déployer automatiquement un modèle de compréhension statistique d’une langue source vers une langue cible. Ceci afin de réduire le nombre de données nécessaires ainsi que le temps relié au déploiement d’une application dans une nouvelle langue. Premièrement, une approche basée sur les techniques de traduction automatique est présentée. Ensuite une approche utilisant un espace sémantique commun pour comparer plusieurs langues a été développée. Ces deux méthodes sont comparées pour vérifier leurs limites et leurs faisabilités. L’apport de ce projet se situe dans l’amélioration d’un modèle de traduction grâce à l’ajout de données très proche de l’application ainsi que d’une nouvelle façon d’inférer un espace sémantique multilingue. / Statistical understanding models applied to dialog applications need a lot of training data. Often, an application needs to support more than one language. This is relevant for countries that have more than one official language. In those applications, users queries convey the same meanings but in different languages. This project presents techniques to automatically deploy statistical comprehension models from a source language to a target language. The goal is to reduce the training data needed and the time requiered to deploy an application in a new language. First, an approach using machine translation techniques is presented. Then, an approach that uses a common semantic space to compare both languages has been developed. Those methods are compared to verify their limits and feasibility. This work present an improvement of the translation model using in-domain data and a novel technique for inferring a multilingual semantic space

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:25:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5250.pdf: 3919934 bytes, checksum: 3c8316869ef0d0dd0f6a8ecd3801219a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-18 / This paper aims to develop a semantic enunciative study considering the route of meanings constructed by the determinations of the word São Paulo into the enunciative space in that it considering the language events produced by the press, during the Constitutionalist Movement of 1932. This paper is guided by the Semantics of the Events proposed and developed by Eduardo Guimarães (1989, 1999, 2002, 2002a, 2003, 2004, 2004a, 2004b, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009), wich is a semantic study based on the historicity of language, dismissing the subject from a central position to understand it as someone who is constituted by language and through language.Through its operating mechanisms, the semantics approach presented by Guimarães establishes a relationship with the Discourse Analysis and, in general, with the theories of the subject, joining it then with the French School of Discourse Analysis and with the Argumentative Semantics according to Ducrot perspectives. It is being done a study of the Semantic Domains of Determination of the word São Paulo , considering the way it is denominated by the newspapers "Folha da Manhã" and "Folha da Noite", during the the month of July 1932, when the armed movement was hatched in Brazil. In this sense, the aim is to capture the enunciative events from the statements and analyze them in order to identify , in fact, what has contributed to the significance of the concept of paulistanidade , and the senses that represents São Paulo today. / O presente trabalho objetiva desenvolver um estudo semântico enunciativo considerando o percurso de sentidos construído pelas determinações da palavra São Paulo no espaço enunciativo em que se tomam os acontecimentos de linguagem produzidos pela imprensa, durante o Movimento Constitucionalista de 1932. Colocam-se como princípio norteador os elementos teóricos e epistemológicos da Semântica do Acontecimento proposta e desenvolvida por Eduardo Guimarães (1989, 1999, 2002, 2002a, 2003, 2004, 2004a, 2004b, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009), uma Semântica fundamentada na historicidade da língua, destituindo o sujeito de uma posição central para compreendê-lo enquanto constituído na e pela linguagem. Por meio de seus mecanismos de funcionamento, a abordagem semântica apresentada por Guimarães estabelece uma relação com a Análise do Discurso, de modo específico, e, em geral, com as teorias do sujeito, filiando-se assim à escola francesa de Análise do Discurso e à Semântica Argumentativa em moldes ducrotianos. Abordando esse acontecimento histórico, que se configura em caráter político e social, enquanto um acontecimento na esfera enunciativa, realiza-se um estudo dos DSDs (Domínios Semânticos de Determinação) da palavra São Paulo a partir da forma como a mesma designa nos textos apresentados pelos jornais "Folha da Manhã" e "Folha da Noite", durante o mês de julho de 1932, momento de eclosão do movimento armado. Nesse sentido, objetiva-se apreender pelos acontecimentos enunciativos dos enunciados a serem analisados, o que, de fato, contribuiu para a significação do conceito de paulistanidade, constituindo assim os sentidos que representam São Paulo na atualidade.

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