27.716, Diss: Applied Ling, Lexicography, Semantics, Text/Corpus Ling: Antonio San Martín Pizarro: 'La representación de la variación contextual mediante definiciones terminológicas flexibles'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-716. Mon Feb 08 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.716, Diss: Applied Ling, Lexicography, Semantics, Text/Corpus Ling: Antonio San Martín Pizarro: 'La representación de la variación contextual mediante definiciones terminológicas flexibles'

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Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2016 10:34:56
From: Antonio San Martín Pizarro [asanmartin at ugr.es]
Subject: La representación de la variación contextual mediante definiciones terminológicas flexibles

 
Institution: Universidad de Granada 
Program: Programa Oficial de Posgrado en Estudios Avanzados de Traducción e Interpretación 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2016 

Author: Antonio San Martín Pizarro

Dissertation Title: La representación de la variación contextual mediante
definiciones terminológicas flexibles 

Dissertation URL:  http://www.infoling.org/repository/ID/171

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Lexicography
                     Semantics
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Pamela Faber Benítez
Pilar León Araúz

Dissertation Abstract:

Definitions are one of the most important components of any high-quality
terminological resource as well as a privileged medium for knowledge
representation since they offer a direct natural-language explanation of the
content of a concept. The adequacy of the definitions thus largely determines
the overall usefulness of the terminological resource for the user. This study
has been motivated by the observation that terminological definitions often do
not meet the needs of users. 

In this PhD thesis, we apply premises of cognitive linguistics to
terminological definitions and present a proposal called the flexible
terminological definition. This consists of a set of definitions of the same
concept made up of a general definition (in this case, one encompassing the
entire environmental domain) along with additional definitions describing the
concept from the perspective of the subdomains in which it is relevant.

Our proposal specifically applies the following cognitive theories:
frame-based terminology, (Faber et al. 2006, 2009; Faber 2012), grounded
cognition theories (Barsalou 1993, 1999, 2003), frame semantics (Fillmore
1976, 1977, 1982), prototype theory (Rosch 1975, 1978) and the theory theory
(Murphy 1993, 2000).

Since cognitive linguistics proves that context is a determining factor in the
construction of the meaning of lexical units (including terms), we assume that
terminological definitions can, and should, reflect the effects of context,
even though definitions have traditionally been treated as the expression of
meaning void of any contextual effect.

The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the effects of contextual
variation on specialized concepts with a view to their representation in
terminological definitions. Specifically, we focused on contextual variation
based on thematic restrictions, i.e. how  different areas of knowledge
conceptualize differently the same concepts, and how this can be reflected in
the definition.

To accomplish the objectives of this thesis, we conducted an empirical study
consisting of the analysis of a set of contextually variable concepts and the
creation of a flexible definition for two of them.

As a result of the first part of our empirical study, we divided our notion of
domain-dependent contextual variation into three different phenomena:
modulation, perspectivization and subconceptualization. These phenomena are
additive in that all concepts experience modulation, some concepts also
undergo perspectivization, and finally, certain concepts are additionally
subjected to subconceptualization.

In the second part, we applied these notions to terminological definitions and
we presented guidelines on how to build flexible definitions, from the
extraction of knowledge to the actual writing of the definition.

This thesis contributes to the improvement of the quality of terminological
definitions because, with our approach, the user is presented with a
definition tailored to the domain that they have chosen, thus multiplying the
probabilities that the definition will offer them the information they need.
Furthermore, flexible terminological definitions provide a knowledge
representation that better resembles the human conceptual system than
traditional definitions. As a consequence, a flexible definition not only
provides more relevant information, but it also accomplishes this in a way
that potentially facilitates and enhances knowledge acquisition.

This thesis is written in Spanish, except for a long summary, the results, and
the conclusions, which are written in English.




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