16.527, Books: Computational Ling/Semantics: Nirenburg, Raskin

Tue Feb 22 15:29:06 UTC 2005

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-527. Tue Feb 22 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.527, Books: Computational Ling/Semantics: Nirenburg, Raskin

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org)
        Sheila Collberg, U of Arizona
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Megan Zdrojkowski <megan at linguistlist.org>
================================================================

Links to the websites of all LINGUIST's supporting publishers
are available at the end of this issue.

===========================Directory==============================

1)
Date: 16-Feb-2005
From: David Weininger < dgw at mit.edu >
Subject: Ontological Semantics: Nirenburg, Raskin

-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 10:26:31
From: David Weininger < dgw at mit.edu >
Subject: Ontological Semantics: Nirenburg, Raskin

Title: Ontological Semantics
Series Title: Language, Speech, and Communications series

Publication Year: 2004
Publisher: MIT Press
	   http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Book URL: http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/FL20040262140861

Author: Sergei Nirenburg, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Author: Victor Raskin

Hardback: ISBN: 0262140861 Pages: 440 Price: U.S. $ 50

Abstract:

In Ontological Semantics Sergei Nirenburg and Victor Raskin introduce a
comprehensive approach to the treatment of text meaning by computer.
Arguing that being able to use meaning is crucial to the success of natural
language processing (NLP) applications, they depart from the ad hoc
approach to meaning taken by much of the NLP community and propose
theory-based semantic methods. Ontological semantics, an integrated complex
of theories, methodologies, descriptions, and implementations, attempts to
systematize ideas about both semantic description as representation and
manipulation of meaning by computer programs. It is built on already
coordinated "microtheories" covering such diverse areas as specific
language phenomena, processing heuristics, and implementation system
architecture rather than on isolated components requiring future integration.

Ontological semantics is constantly evolving, driven by the need to make
meaning manipulation tasks such as text analysis and text generation work.
Nirenburg and Raskin have therefore developed a set of heterogeneous
methods suited to a particular task and coordinated at the level of
knowledge acquisition and runtime system architecture implementations, a
methodology that also allows for a variable level of automation in all its
processes.

Nirenburg and Raskin first discuss ontological semantics in relation to
other fields, including cognitive science and the AI paradigm, the
philosophy of science, linguistic semantics and the philosophy of language,
computational lexical semantics, and studies in formal ontology. They then
describe the content of ontological semantics, discussing text-meaning
representation, static knowledge sources (including the ontology, the fact
repository, and the lexicon), the processes involved in text analysis, and
the acquisition of static knowledge.

Sergei Nirenburg is Professor of Computer Science and Electrical
Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Victor Raskin
is Professor of  English and Linguistics at Purdue University.

Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics
                     Semantics

Written In: English  (ENG)

See this book announcement on our website:
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=13495

MAJOR SUPPORTERS

	Cascadilla Press
		http://www.cascadilla.com/	

	Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
		http://www.continuumbooks.com	

	Edinburgh University Press
		http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/	

	Elsevier Ltd.
		http://www.elsevier.com/locate/linguistics	

	Hodder Arnold
		http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk	

	John Benjamins
		http://www.benjamins.com/	

	Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
		http://www.erlbaum.com/	

	MIT Press
		http://mitpress.mit.edu/	

	Mouton de Gruyter
		http://www.mouton-publishers.com	

	Rodopi
		http://www.rodopi.nl/	

OTHER SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS	

	Graduate Linguistic Students' Assoc., Umass
		http://glsa.hypermart.net/

	Kingston Press Ltd
		http://www.kingstonpress.com/

	Multilingual Matters
		http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

	Pacific Linguistics
		http://pacling.anu.edu.au/

	SIL International
		http://www.ethnologue.com/bookstore.asp

	Utrecht Institute of Linguistics / LOT Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistic
		http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/

-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-16-527	