Quest for a Computerised Semantics.

The objective of this thesis was to colligate the various strands of research in the literature of computational linguistics that have to do with the computational treatment of semantic content so as to encode it into a computerized dictionary. In chapter 1 the course of mechanical translation (1947-1960) and quantitative linguistics is traced to demonstrate the limitations of computational linguistics without semantics. Chapter 2 covers linguistic research in the l960's, which was essentially an offshoot of transformational grammar. In chapter 3, various classification schemes are examined as a body of experience from which to draw conclusions on the constraints to which the construction of a computerized dictionary is subject. Chapter 4 is a synthesis of all this data in the form of a model dictionary entry. In chapters 2 and 3 the approaches to semantics are of two types. In one, the semantic categories for each dictionary entry were in the form of unordered elements, and the means of applying them in text was placed within the realm of grammar. In the other type, syntagmatic relationships occurred between the encoded components of dictionary definitions just as they did between those of utterances in a text. The conclusion reached is that the latter type of approach provides firmer foundations upon which to set up a computerized dictionary, as it shows how information is structured in terms of its application in text. (Author)