Boosting Lexical Resources for the Semantic Web: Generative Lexicon and Lexicon Interoperability

To make the vision of a European Information Infrastructure and of the Semantic Web a reality, two key issues are tackled: (i) content, which must be dealt with in a multilingual environment; (ii) standards, which are critical to achieve interoperability and integration. In the Semantic Web scenario, ontologies are the key components to manage knowledge, whereas, in Human Language Technology, semantic description is committed to computational lexicons, which have to squarely address the complexity of natural language. Answers to the above issues are found within two frameworks: first, in the framework of Generative Lexicon (GL) theory and GL-based lexicons that account for the complex, multidimensional and multifaceted nature of meaning in lexicon and ontology design; second, in the context of the ISLE enterprise which, with the MILE, represents an essential interface between advanced research in the field of multilingual lexical semantics and the practical task of developing resources for HLT.