Abstract:

This paper describes an ongoing research conducted at the Institute for Computational Linguistics (ILC) of the National Research Council (CNR) in Pisa, concerning the creation of a lexical semantic database for the Latin language, with its Italian and English translation. As we all know, many words of the Italian language derive from Latin, in the same way as many Latin words and expressions are used in everyday Italian language. The aim of this work is to exploit a well-known and tested conceptual model to construct a resource that can be easily consulted by the students of high school and university who wish to achieve proficiency in Latin language learning and deeper awareness of the use of Italian. The database is of a relational type, following the EuroWordNet (EWN)/ItalWordNet (IWN) model, according to the WordNet (WN) philosophy perspective. The items included in the database are clustered into approximately 250 synsets, which are sets of one or more synonyms, for example carina, navis (ship). Each Latin synset is linked to other words (or synsets) by means of semantic “internal relations” of the hierarchical-vertical type (or “is-a” relations), and of the horizontal type (role, means, purpose, sub-event, instance, etc. relations), on the basis of the model. One of the most important characteristics of the database is the possibility of connecting the Latin words to the equivalent English synonyms (or near synonyms), included in the Princeton database WordNet, by means of “equivalence relations”. “Plug-in” relations connect each word of the Latin lexicon to the equivalent synset (synonym) of the Italian WordNet (IWN), as a kind of hookup point from which it is possible to see the Italian synonym with all its semantic relations. The study of all these kinds of relations can support the students in the learning of the Latin language, linked to Italian as well as to English. The database currently contains 200 nouns and 50 verbs, drawn from the most recent version of the Campanini-Carboni’s Latin and Italian Dictionary (2011), and from William's Vocabulary for Speaking Latin (1828). A set of adjectives and adverbs will be codified in the near future, in order to represent all the grammatical categories and a small group of proper names will also be included to enrich the resource. Particular attention is paid to the Latin words that are used in everyday spoken and written Italian, for instance virus, medium, video, etc. The management tool of the database allows to visualize each Latin word inserted in the database, the Italian translation with its definition, the link with the English language, and slots showing additional information on request about its etymology, history, derivates, declension or conjugation. The Latin concept is represented as a node in the net of connections of its semantic field, and it is still alive, as a part of our historical roots.

Keywords:

Latin language, lexical databases, semantic relations, synonymy, technology-enhanced learning.