Abstract

FABER BENITEZ, Pamela  and  LEON ARAUZ, Pilar. Conceptual dynamism in the foundations of terminological knowledge: the case of EcoLexicon. Íkala [online]. 2010, vol.15, n.25, pp.75-100. ISSN 0123-3432.

Introduction: the new conceptual-linguistic shift in Terminology has given rise to a new approach, focused on discourse and the real use of terms in texts (Temmerman and Kerremans,2003). This change of paradigm has led to a significant improvement in the content of terminological knowledge bases. However, the most innovative aspect of knowledge modeling lies in the wide-ranging use of ontologies, which provides Terminology with greater semantic expressiveness. Objective: the presentation of the environmental knowledge base, EcoLexicon, developed at the University of Granada, by the research group, EcoLexicon. In order to obtain the maximum benefit from the application of ontologies, a closed inventory of conceptual relations is proposed along with their combinatorial potential. Accordingly, the result is a domain-specific representation, restricted by context. Method: based on data extracted from a corpus of texts compiled for this research, the concepts in the domain are classified according to their typology and relational potential. The characteristics applied are those of the Web Ontology Language (OWL) to make inferences (e.g. the transitivity of meronymy). Results: the definition of conceptual relations, depending on the nature of the concepts, offers a quantitative solution that limits excess information, and at the same time, offers a qualitative solution for knowledge acquisition. Conclusions: EcoLexicon successfully combines Terminology with the expressive capacity of ontologies, which in the future will help to define search systems adapted to different user groups.

Keywords : Terminology; ontology; terminological knowledge bases; EcoLexicon; conceptual relations.

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