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Ontoterminology Meets Lexicography: the Multimodal Online Dictionary of Endometriosis (MODE) Sara Carvalho, Rute Costa, Christophe Roche

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Ontoterminology Meets Lexicography: the Multimodal Online Dictionary of Endometriosis (MODE) Sara Carvalho, Rute Costa, Christophe Roche Ontoterminology meets Lexicography: the Multimodal Online Dictionary of Endometriosis (MODE) Sara Carvalho, Rute Costa, Christophe Roche To cite this version: Sara Carvalho, Rute Costa, Christophe Roche. Ontoterminology meets Lexicography: the Multimodal Online Dictionary of Endometriosis (MODE). GLOBALEX 2016: Lexicographic Resources for Human Language Technology Workshop at the 10th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC’16)., 2016, Portoroz, Slovenia. hal-01829907 HAL Id: hal-01829907 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01829907 Submitted on 4 Jul 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Ontoterminology meets Lexicography: the Multimodal Online Dictionary of Endometriosis (MODE) Sara Carvalho123, Rute Costa23, Christophe Roche32 1 School of Technology and Management – University of Aveiro R. Comandante Pinho e Freitas, 28 3750-127 Águeda - Portugal 2 NOVA CLUNL – Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities – Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Av. de Berna, 26-C 1069-061 Lisboa – Portugal 3 Condillac Research Group – LISTIC – Université de Savoie Mont Blanc Campus Scientifique 73376 Le Bourget du Lac – France E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract With the advent of the Semantic Web and, more recently, of the Linked Data initiative, the need to operationalise lexicographic resources, i.e. to represent them in a computer-readable format, has become increasingly important, as it contributes to pave the way to the ultimate goal of interoperability. Moreover, the collaborative work involving Terminology and ontologies has led to the emergence of new theoretical perspectives, namely to the notion of Ontoterminology, which aims to reconcile Terminology’s linguistic and conceptual dimension whilst preserving their core identities. This can be particularly relevant in subject fields such as Medicine, where concept- oriented and ontology-based approaches have become the cornerstone of the most recent (bio)medical terminological resources, and where non-verbal concept representations play a key role. Due to the lack of specialised lexicographic resources in the field of endometriosis, this paper aims to present the MODE project, i.e. the Multimodal Online Dictionary of Endometriosis, a multilingual resource comprising several types of data, namely video articles, a new type of scholarly communication in Medicine. It is believed that introducing a medical lexicographic resource supported by ontoterminological principles and encompassing scientific video articles may constitute a relevant window of opportunity in the research field of Lexicography. Keywords: terminology; ontoterminology; e-lexicography; multimodal dictionary; ontology; endometriosis resources, especially in domains that lack those resources, 1. Introduction as is the case with endometriosis. Therefore, this paper With the advent of the Semantic Web1 and, more recently, aims to present the MODE project, i.e. the Multimodal of the Linked Data initiative 2 , t h e n o t i o n o f Online Dictionary of Endometriosis, a multilingual operationalisation, i.e. the creation of computer-readable resource comprising several types of data, namely video representations, has become increasingly important, as it articles, a new type of scholarly communication in contributes to pave the way to the ultimate goal of Medicine. interoperability. This article will thus be structured as follows: section 2 will Moreover, the collaborative work involving Terminology focus on the theoretical background, specifically regarding and ontologies – in the sense of Knowledge Engineering Terminology’s double dimension, the Ontoterminology (KE) – has led to the emergence of new theoretical approach and how both can relate to Lexicography; section perspectives, one of them being Ontoterminology (Roche 3 will provide a brief overview of endometriosis, not only et al. 2009), which aims to reconcile Terminology’s as a subject field per se, but also in what concerns the linguistic and conceptual dimensions whilst preserving existing specialised lexicographic resources; section 4 will their core identities (Roche (2012, 2015); Costa (2013); be dedicated to the MODE project, with a description of its Santos & Costa (2015)). supporting principles and core structure, followed by a final This can be particularly relevant in subject fields such as section consisting of concluding remarks. Medicine, where concept-oriented and ontology-based approaches have become the cornerstone of the most recent 2. Terminology, ontologies and (bio)medical terminological resources, and where non- Lexicography verbal representations play a key role. It is believed that ontoterminological principles may 2.1 Terminology’s double dimension provide a relevant theoretical and methodological As mentioned above, this approach, which encompasses a contribution to the research field of Lexicography by linguistic and a conceptual dimension that are interrelated, supporting the creation of specialised online lexicographic has been described by Roche (2012, 2015), Costa (2013) 1 Berners-Lee, Hendler, & Lassila (2001); Shadbolt, Hall, & Berners-Lee (2006). 2 Berners-Lee (2006); Bizer, Heath, & Berners-Lee (2009). 8 and by Santos & Costa (2015). According to Roche (2015: principles. As a matter of fact, this approach proposes the 136), Terminology is “both a science of objects and a double semiotic triangle, an extension of Ogden and science of terms”. For Costa (2013), it is precisely this Richards’s proposition (1923) which allows a distinction double dimension, as well as the study of the relationship between the definition of the term, written in natural between one and the other, that grants Terminology its language, and the definition of the concept, which may place as an autonomous scientific subject. resort to either a formal or a semi-formal language (Roche, This double dimension perspective implies, therefore, that 2012). It is believed that when anchored in this approach, both the experts’ conceptualisations of a given subject and terminology work may contribute to further enhance the the discourses produced by them must be taken into quality of specialised communication. account in terminology work. In a nutshell, the cornerstone of this approach lies in the complementarity of these two 2.3 Ontoterminology and Lexicography: is fundamentally different dimensions, as two sides of the collaboration possible? same coin. As Terminology, in the last few decades, Lexicography has Among the theoretical perspectives that have emerged in been searching for its identity as an autonomous scientific recent years involving Terminology and the role of discipline in its own right, with an intense debate around ontologies, Ontoterminology is the one that best suits the the principles that should support lexicographic theory and objectives of the MODE project, and thus will be presented practice (cf. Wiegand 1997, 1998; Bergenholtz & Tarp in more detail below. 2003; Atkins & Rundell 2008; Tarp 2008; Béjoint 2010; Hartmann 2010; Fuertes-Olivera & Bergenholtz 2011; 2.2 Ontoterminology: a new approach to Granger & Paquot 2012; Fuertes-Olivera & Tarp 2014). Terminology? Part of this discussion pointed, understandably, towards Proposed by Roche et al. (2009), Ontoterminology aims to delimiting and positioning Lexicography scientifically, as reconcile Terminology’s linguistic and conceptual well as its branches, namely Specialised Lexicography. dimensions while maintaining their fundamental In this context, a lot has been written about the need to differences. Defined as a “terminology whose conceptual distinguish Specialised Lexicography from Terminology. system is a formal ontology” (Roche et al., 2009: 325), this They are indeed different, first and foremost because the approach acknowledges the conceptualisation of a given former studies the units of the specialised lexicon and the domain as the starting point of any terminological project, way they behave in discourse, whereas the latter focuses hence corroborating ISO 704’s perspective that “producing not only on the linguistic dimension, but also on a a terminology requires an understanding of the conceptual dimension that cannot be underestimated and is conceptualisation that underpins human knowledge in a in fact embodied in terms4. subject area” (2009: 3). However, and despite the differences, some consider that As mentioned before, even though the conceptual Specialised Lexicography and Terminology are not dimension plays a key role in Ontoterminology, due to the necessarily incompatible and that both areas could benefit potential of operationalising the conceptualisations of a from collaborative work (cf. Humbley 1997; Costa 2013). given subject field – thus enabling interoperability –, this Fuertes-Olivera & Tarp (2014) refer to the existing does not mean that natural language should be excluded interaction between Specialised Lexicography and from terminology work. In fact, “to conceptualise, one Terminology in
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