An ontology of linguistic annotations

2017

Understanding the differences underlying the scope, usage and content of language data requires the provision of a clarifying terminological basis which is integrated in the metadata describing a particular language resource. While terminological resources such as the SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms, ISOcat or the GOLD ontology provide a considerable amount of linguistic terms, their practical usage is limited to a look up of a defined term whose relation to other terms is unspecified or insufficient. Therefore, in this paper we propose an ontology for linguistic terminology, called OnLiT. It is a data model which can be used to represent linguistic terms and concepts in a semantically interrelated data structure and, thus, overcomes prevalent isolating definition-based term descriptions. OnLiT is based on the LiDo Glossary of Linguistic Terms and enables the creation of RDF datasets, that represent linguistic terms and their meanings within the whole or a subdomain of linguistics.

This paper presents the OntoLingAnnot annotation framework, already developed for the annotation of morphological, syntactic, semantic and discourse phenomena, and its extension to cover the annotation of pragmatic phenomena. This extension was considered the ideal test bed for the interoperability of the linguistic annotations performed by means of the platform, since (i) pragmatics itself deals with a real mix of different linguistic topics, such as speech acts, pragmatic coherence relations, deixis, presuppositions and implicatures; and (ii) it clearly interacts with the rest of levels, since (potentially) every linguistic unit at any level can have a pragmatic projection. In particular, it introduces the different pragmatic units that can be used to annotate texts and dialogues using the framework. These pragmatic units are included in the set of ontologies associated to OntoLingAnnot, whose design requirements and development process are also described here. Besides, this paper shows as well the main principles and properties of the OntoLingAnnot annotation framework that help its different annotations interoperate.

The central task in constructing a general linguistic ontology is m apping the phenomena of a given language to the concepts in the ontology, and extending the o ntology where no viable mapping exists. Mapping well-known independent features is f airly straightforward, but mapping a new feature or language-specific ontology to a general model is a complicated problem. This is especially true when par t of the meaning of a language-specific ontology derives from sociocultural phenomena - it may not be meaningful to store the data independent of its presentational cont ext, and so the context itself must be recorded in a structured format, or with richly a nnotated instances of photos, diagrams, maps and/or videos. In this study, we will survey a variety of linguistic documentati on materials to report on the range of ontological categories and structures that may be re quired to integrate such phenomena into the GOLD framework. In particular we focus on the ability of GOLD to meet th...

Ldv Forum, 2009

2006

Abstract. Both the multilingual aspects which characterize the (Semantic) Web and the demand for more easy-to-share forms of knowledge representation, being equally accessible by humans and machines, push the need for a more “linguistically aware” approach to ontology development. Ontologies should thus express knowledge by associating formal content with explicative linguistic expressions, possibly in different languages.

Proceedings of Workshop on …

Reliable automatic semantic annotation systems do not exist for many languages. Their creation depends in many respects on construction of gold standard corpora. In this paper we present a system for supporting the semi-automatic construction of such corpora. The general annotation architecture comprises two steps: chunk annotation -identification of the text segment which represents a given concept or a relation in the text; concept selection -a chunk might represent more than one concept depending on the context. Implementation of the annotation architecture requires as a prerequisite the following resources -ontology as a source of concepts and relations for the annotation, terminological lexicons, regular grammars linked to the ontology in such a way that each rule incorporates the potential concepts or relations it could recognize in the text. In most cases the creation of a gold standard corpus annotated with semantic information will require the ontology, the lexicons and the regular grammars to be continually extended on the basis of the actual annotation in the text.

To appear in R. Bliss/J. Miller: Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics.

This paper gives an outline of natural language ontology as a subdiscipline of both philosophy and linguistics. It also gives motivations for the novel view that part of the constructional ontology reflected in natural language is in significant respects on a par with syntax (within the generative view).

The aim of natural language ontology is to uncover the ontological categories and structures that are implicit in the use of natural language. This paper aims to clarify what exactly the subject matter of natural language ontology is, what sorts of linguistic data it should take into account, how natural language ontology relates to other sorts of projects in metaphysics, in what ways natural language ontology is important, and in what ways the ontology of natural language may be driven by the use of natural language itself.

The aim of natural language ontology is to uncover the ontological categories and structures that are implicit in the use of natural language, that is, that a speaker accepts when using a language. This talk aims to clarify how natural language ontology relates to other projects in metaphysics, what sorts of linguistic data it should and should not take into account and why natural language ontology is important.

Language Documentation and Description 9, 199-218, 2011

What is the role of ontologies in language documentation theory and practice? This paper clarifies the meaning of the term ‘ontology’ in the context of information management and the Web, and emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between knowledge representation and knowledge organization. It then examines how the term ‘ontology’ has been applied in the field of linguistics, focusing on a particular kind of ontology that is regarded as especially relevant in the context of language documentation. The General Ontology for Linguistic Description (GOLD) is presented in some detail, along with criticisms that have been raised against it. Finally it is suggested that the discipline of language documentation has more need for a knowledge organization system, and a shared thesaurus, than for an ontology-based knowledge representation system.