中文词义关系的定义与判定原则

The Definitions and Verifying Principles for Chinese Lexical Semantic Relations

在英语及其它的欧洲语言里 ,词汇语意关系已有相当充分的研究。例如 ,欧语词网 (EuroWordNet ,Vossen 1998)就是一个以语意关系来勾勒词汇词义的数据库。也就是说 ,词汇意义的掌握是透与其它词汇语意的关连来获致的。为了确保数据库建立的品质与一致性 ,欧语词网计画就每一个处理的语言其词汇间的词义关系是否成立提出相应的语言测试。实际经验显示 ,利用这些语言测试 ,人们可以更容易且更一致地辨识是否一对词义之间确实具有某种词义关系。而且 ,每一个使用数据库的人也可以据以检验其中关系连结的正确性。换句话说 ,对一个可检验且独立于语言的词汇语意学理论而言 ,这些测试提供了一个基石。本文中 ,我们探究为中文词义关系建立中文语言测试的可能性。尝试为一些重要的语意关系提供测试的句式和规则来评估其可行性。这项研究除了建构中文词汇语意学的理论基础 ,也对Miller的词汇网络架构 (WordNet,Fell baum 1998)提供了一个有力的支持 。

Lexical Semantic Relations in English and other European languages are well studied.For instance,EuroWordNet (Vossen 1998) is a lexical semantic database in which the meaning of each word is characterized by its semantic relations with other word meanings.That is to say, the understanding of the meaning of a word is by its semantic relations with others.In order to ensure the quality and consistence of the database during the construction of it,the EuroWordNet project provided linguistic tests for each semantic relation in each language it handled.Empirically,using these linguistic semantic tests, people can more easily and consistently check if two word meanings have a certain kind of semantic relations.And anyone who accesses the database can verify the correctness as to each relation linking.In other words,these linguistic tests for lexical semantic relations provide a building block for a verifiable and language independent theory of lexical semantics.In this paper,we explore the possibility of a similar set of semantic relation tests for Chinese.In particular,we attempted to provide test formulae and rules for significant semantic relations in order to evaluate the possibility.In addition to the construction of the theoretical infrastructure of studies on Chinese lexical semantics, our study will also provide strong support for the universality of the relation-based approach to lexical representation and linguistic ontology pioneered by Miller's WordNet (Fellbaum 1998).