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Methods Inf Med 1998; 37(04/05): 327-333
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634568
Original Article
Schattauer GmbH

The Distinction between Linguistic and Conceptual Semantics in Medical Terminology and its Implication for NLP-Based Knowledge Acquisition

W. Ceusters
1   Language and Computing NV, Zonnegem, Belgium
2   Department of Medical Informatics, University Hospital Ghent, Belgium
,
F. Buekens
3   Department of Philosophy, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands
,
G. De Moor
2   Department of Medical Informatics, University Hospital Ghent, Belgium
,
A. Waagmeester
1   Language and Computing NV, Zonnegem, Belgium
4   Department of Medical Informatics, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
› Author Affiliations
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Publication History

Publication Date:
15 February 2018 (online)

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Abstract

Natural language understanding systems have to exploit various kinds of knowledge in order to represent the meaning behind texts. Getting this knowledge in place is often such a huge enterprise that it is tempting to look for systems that can discover such knowledge automatically. We describe how the distinction between conceptual and linguistic semantics may assist in reaching this objective, provided that distinguishing between them is not done too rigorously. We present several examples to support this view and argue that in a multilingual environment, linguistic ontologies should be designed as interfaces between domain conceptualizations and linguistic knowledge bases.

Keywords

Ontology - Natural Language - Conceptual Semantics - Linguistic Semantics
 

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