Classe de "phénomènes naturels" en français et en polonais - une description orientée-objets

Abstract

The aim of the dissertation is to study and describe a group of substantives belonging to the category of natural phenomena. This description is based on the methodology o f object-oriented approach. It is a new type of lexicographical description proposed by Professor W. Banyś . The initial category of natural phenomena and its name is based on the classification presented by the WordNet lexical database and it has been expanded on during the process of description of individual entries. Before proceeding to the analysis and description of nouns, the author presents a survey of contemporary theories of lexicographical description dealing with the issue of automatic translation. The author begins with discussing the electronic lexical database: the object-oriented approach. The main issue is the necessity of creating electronic dictionaries that should not only copy the contents of standard dictionaries with their explicit information, but also include some of the implicit information, e.g. : hierarchies o f semantic dependencies. The following part deals with the idea of electronic dictionary proposed by the Linguistic Laboratory in Paris. The main concepts used in the description are: syntactico-semantic features, the semantic notion of “object classes” and Operateurs appropries. The morphological data is placed in the so called fields (champs). The dictionary therefore contains the lexical, syntactic and semantic information necessary for the automatic analysis of sentences in a text. The basic goal is therefore to construct all the parameters necessary for the complete description of the usages of predicates with the precision and completeness required by automatic analysis. The next part presents the Meaning-Text linguistic theory proposed by I. Mel’cuk and A. Zolkovsky . The MT theory is a system of rules simulating the linguistic behavior o f humans. More specifically, this theory is aimed at performing the transition from what is loosely called ‘meanings’ ( any information or content that a speaker may be willing to transmit ) to texts ( physical manifestation of speech). This operation requires, apart from the meaning of lexemes, the semantic relations between words. These semantic relations are presented by means of lexical functions. The authors of this model have specified about 60 possible semantic relations between lexemes. The last theory discussed in the dissertation is The Generative Lexicon model by J. Pusteyovsky . It addresses the problem of multiplicity of word meanings — how the finite number of words in natural languages can carry the unlimited number of meanings. J. Pusteyovsky , opposing against the static view of word meaning, proposes a view that the lexicon becomes an active and central component in linguistic description. The meaning of a word is structured on the basis of four levels of representation (argument structure, event structure, qualia structure, inheritance structure). The qualia roles capture how humans understand objects and relations in the word, and provide the minimal explanation for the linguistic behavior of lexical items. The lexical item is described as a combination o f these four levels. The second chapter presents different works and publications in French researching the category of natural phenomena. The author stresses that the works discussed are mainly concerned with the verbal expressions, such as “It is raining “It is snowing.’’’’ Nouns belonging to this category are not taken into consideration. The last part presents the results o f the study and the conclusions. The events traditionally perceived as natural phenomena do not form a homogenous class from a linguistic point o f view. The class may be labeled as homogenous if it shares a common set o f predicates. The author proposes a division o f this class into smaller subclasses in order to discern linguistic classes. The chapter ends with the classification of substantives belonging to the discussed category established on the basis of common predicates and attributes. The practical part contains an analysis of 73 substantives belonging to the category of natural phenomena based on the first discussed method — the object oriented approach. The description consists of : the determination of a group of Operateurs et attributs appropries, that is, the adjectives and verbs related to the object the determination of super-types, that is, the upper classes the determination of linguistic classes for a language the specification of synonyms of a lexical item.