Enriching Knowledge Representation of Terminology

Abstract

Whereas a number of studies have been conducted towards representing knowledge linked with terms, terminological knowledge still demands further exploration due to its diversity and intricacy. Although much recent cognitive terminological research has examined either frames or event structures based on specialized contexts and hence has helped improve the clarification of relevant knowledge representation, other types of knowledge structures tied to terms like metaphoric and metonymic structures as well as conceptual blending processes of terms have not yet been adequately investigated. In view of this gap, we put forward a cognitive integrated model (CIM), attempting to integrate cognitive structures and construction of terms in a holistic manner. In this study, we mainly center on integration of the decontextualized part: the adapted (ECM1), conceptual metaphor (CM1), conceptual metonymy (CM2), and conceptual blending (CB1) in light of terminological definitions without context, acting as offline knowledge of terms. Integration of the contextualized part is briefly discussed, merely about the adjusted ECM within context (ECM2) as online knowledge. The tentative incorporation of both offline and online knowledge of terms derives at least five particular variants of the CIM: ECM1+ECM2, ECM1+CB1+ECM2, ECM1+CM1+CB1+ECM2, ECM1+CM2+CB1+ECM2, ECM1+CM1+CM2+CB1+ECM2. Accordingly, both definition-based and usage-based methods are exploited, respectively backed up by dictionaries or professional works and corpora, etc. We subsequently apply the five variants to representing Event-Domain Cognitive Model knowledge of international trade terms previously seldom explored in terminology. It turns out that the cognitive integrated perspective contributes to enriching knowledge representation of the terms by exposing diverse knowledge structures and conceptual construction.