As construções interrogativas QU- no Constructicon da FrameNet Brasil

Abstract

This work is part of the Multilingual Knowledge Base project or simply m.knob (www.mknob.com). It aims to create a web application and has been developed at the FrameNet Brasil Laboratory of Computational Linguistics - FN-Br - (SALOMÃO, 2009). More generally, FN-Br has been exploring the implementation of Framing Semantics and Construction Grammar theories through the creation of computational linguistic resources, such as the Lexicon and Constructicon of the Brazilian Portuguese (PB) - a repertoire of constructions available online. In this way, this Master’s thesis is based on the theoretical assumptions of Cognitive Linguistics, such as Frame Semantics (FILLMORE, 1982) and the Berkeley Constructions Grammar (KAY & FILLMORE, 1999). Our analytical methodology is the one by Berkeley FrameNet (FILLMORE et al., 2003). In this context, this thesis aims to present the description and the linguistic-computational modeling (cf. DIAS-DA-SILVA, 1996) of the Interrogative Wh-constructions of the Brazilian Portuguese in the constructional base of FrameNet Brasil, which supports the web application m.knob. The research is justified by the fact that the chatbot - a tourist attraction recommendation interface based on natural-language understanding - employed in the application does not support the user interacting through interrogative sentences. In that sense, the description and modeling of Wh-constructions are necessary in order to help the user, during interaction with the application, look for additional information about the recommended attractions through questions. To foster this new function, this thesis presents a proposal for modeling eleven Wh-Constructions in Brazilian Portuguese. At the end, a proof of concept test is applied to evaluate the proposed model.