GRIAL

Grup de Recerca Interuniversitari en Aplicacions Lingüístiques

Main investigator:
Coll-Florit, Marta
Area:
Arts and Humanities
Area of specialization:
Languages and cultures, Internet technologies and artificial intelligence
Affiliation center:
Faculties
UNESCO codes:
57, 5701, 570104, 570112, 570109, 570508
ODS:
3 - Health and well-being

  • linguistics
  • applied linguistics
  • language processing
  • discourse analysis
  • psycholinguistics
  • terminology

The Interinstitutional research group in linguistic applications (GRIAL) is interested in the creation of language resources, grounded on theoretical models, which can have different utilities in such diverse fields as lexicography, translation, semantic interpretation or, in general, natural language processing. On a theoretical level, we work, on one hand, within the framework of cognitive linguistics, describing language following the model proposed within construction grammar; and, on the other hand, on discourse analysis, within which our research is based above all on the conceptual metaphor theory. Our resource creation methodology is always empirical, based on the observation of real language data compiled in a corpus. We are also interested in specific aspects of second language acquisition and in the creation of technological applications for teaching purposes. The languages we usually work with are Spanish and the Catalan and, to a lesser degree, English.

 

GRIAL-UOC is an interdisciplinary research group made up of specialists in cognitive linguistics, computational linguistics, and computing and human language processing. As such, the group’s research field is situated in the intersection where linguistics meets cognitive science. In particular we focus on cognitive linguistics and linguistic
knowledge transfer for computational language processing resources and methods. These may have uses in a wide range of fields, including lexicography, semantic interpretation, language learning and translation. 
 
The group currently has four main research lines.
  1. Cognitive linguistics and conceptual metaphors: analysing how people talk about mental disorders.
  2. Psycholinguistics: empirical studies with speakers on the mental processing of syntactic and semantic information.
  3. Translation technologies: design and implementation of translation tools, for terminology extraction, computer-assisted translation, and the creation and exploitation of resources.
  4. Natural language processing: creation of language resources and computational language processing techniques.
 
GRIAL-UOC is part of the Grup de recerca interuniversitari en aplicacions lingüístiques (GRIAL) (inter-university research group on linguistic applications), which has been given the status of ‘consolidated’ research group by the Government of Catalonia (2017 SGR 1093).

Cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis

Research on the mental processing of language and discourse analysis within the framework of the conceptual metaphor theory (application to different discursive domains, such as, for example, mental health).

3 - Health and well-being

Translation technologies

Research and application of translation technologies (automatic translation, computer-assisted translation).

Natural language processing

Research and application in the creation of language resources and computational language processing techniques (for example, application in the field of lexicography).