A Corpus-driven Approach to Source Domain Determination
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Chung, Siaw-Fong
DOI
en-US
Abstract
Domain information is mapped in the formulation of metaphors. In conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Lakoff, 1993), the two domains mapped are the target domain and source domain. Target domains are usually more abstract, for the most part borrowing information from the source domains, whereas source domains are more concrete, and the information they provide is an important key to understanding the concept of the target domains. Due to the importance of source domains, studies attempting to operationally define source domains involved in conceptual metaphors have been undertaken in the past. However, authors of previous studies encountered difficulties due to two main reasons: (a) the variation in the specificity of the source domains; and (b) the subjectivity of individuals when determining source domains.
This thesis overcomes these difficulties by employing both top-down and bottom-up approaches to determine the source domain of a conceptual metaphor. A top-down approach to metaphor identification usually sorts metaphorical instances according to pre-determined source domains which come from a conceptual knowledge system (such as an ontology). An example of this is the prediction of metaphorical instances based on a general metaphor such as LOVE IS JOURNEY, where JOURNEY is pre-determined (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). A bottom-up approach, on the other hand, accumulates knowledge about domain though language use (or collocation). The bottom-up approach has been used in frequency-based or prototypical (Rosch and Mervis, 1975; Labov, 1973) definitions of source domains. Both top-down and bottom-up approaches have been used to identify source domains in metaphor studies, however the precision of the two approaches has not previously been compared. It is therefore the intention of this thesis to compare these two approaches employed to determine source domains, using computational tools such as WordNet, SUMO (Suggested Upper Merged Ontology) and Sketch Engine.
The outcome of the thesis will be a comprehensive comparison of these two approaches regarding the determination of source domains. This thesis is the first study to compare both top-down and bottom-up approaches in defining domain information. Furthermore, our use of computational tools with a linguistic framework of domain identification, as well as evidence from psycholinguistic experiments, will contribute not only to computational linguistics, but will also enhance our ability to define domains. This in turn will make a substantial contribution to understanding the human categorization of concepts through linguistic evidence. Based on the combined results of the two approaches, this thesis also proposes a hierarchical model for source domain definition. This model facilitates automatic identification of metaphors and explains why certain domains overlap in conceptualization.
Subjects
源域
概念隱喻
由上而下的方式
由下而上的方式
知識本體
搭配詞組
source domains
conceptual metaphors
top-down approach
bottom-up approach
ontology
collocation
Type
other
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