Lexicology and information: an essay of quantification

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5433/1519-5392.2015v15n2p31

Keywords:

Lexicology, Press, Corpus linguistics.

Abstract

This work aims to evaluate the technique of measuring information of a set of texts through its vocabulary. From a theoretical point of view, we adopted concepts of structural lexicology (BIDERMAN, 2001) and functionalism (NEVES, 1997). We collected all texts published about a certain topic on digital version from three journals of Minas Gerais throughout nine months (179 texts) and then we did a quantitative analysis (based on tokens, types and lemmas) and a qualitative analysis (based on the relevance of certain events). As results, we found that: (a) the three journals behaved differently in the treatment of the topic, (b) the level of lemmas is most relevant to quantify differences in the amount of information of a text, (c) the amount of new information in each text analyzed is relatively low (13-15%), (d) periodicals continue to compose digital texts following the logic of printed media, and (e) the quantification of information through lemmas is not a sufficient criterion for identifying relevant information.

Author Biography

César Nardelli Cambraia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG

PhD in Philology and Portuguese language at Universidade de São Paulo - USP. Associate professor at Universidade Fedral de Minas Gerais - UFMG.

References

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BIDERMAN, Maria Tereza. A face quantitativa da linguagem: um dicionário de frequências do português. Alfa, São Paulo, v. 42, p. 157-181, 1998.

BIDERMAN, Maria Tereza. Teoria linguística: teoria lexical e linguística computacional. 2. ed. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2001.

CAMBRAIA, César Nardelli. Da lexicologia social a uma lexicologia sócio-histórica: caminhos possíveis. Revista de Estudos de Linguagem, Belo Horizonte, v. 21, n. 1, p. 157-188, 2013.

HOUAISS, Antônio et al. Dicionário eletrônico Houaiss da língua portuguesa. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 2001.

MARCUSCHI, Luiz Antônio. O léxico: lista, rede ou cognição social? In: NEGRI, Lígia et al. (Org.). Sentido e significação: em torno da obra de Rodolfo Ilari. São Paulo: Contexto, 2004. p. 263-284.

MATORÉ, Georges. La méthode en lexicologie: domaine français. Paris: Didier, 1973.

NEVES, Maria Helena de Moura. A gramática funcional. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1997.

Published

2015-08-31

How to Cite

CAMBRAIA, César Nardelli. Lexicology and information: an essay of quantification. Entretextos, Londrina, v. 15, n. 2, p. 31–52, 2015. DOI: 10.5433/1519-5392.2015v15n2p31. Disponível em: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/entretextos/article/view/17370. Acesso em: 3 jul. 2024.

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