Extracting knowledge from testaments - An ontology learning approach

Abstract

The extraction of ontologies from textual data is not a simple task. It is necessary to have specific expertise and knowledge about the ontology application domain to carry it out, and knowing how to use properly a set of sophisticated methods and techniques, requiring the use of advanced ontology learning tools. For some years, ontologies have been instruments of great importance in the process of designing and developing knowledge systems. In this paper, we present and describe the design and development of a semi-automatic system for extracting an ontology of Portuguese testaments from a set of ancient texts of the 18th century, towards the acquisition of the knowledge about the legacies of people of a Portuguese region on that period. This ontology has great interest and relevance for knowing many aspects of that time, namely linguistic, historical, religious, cultural, economic or agricultural, among others.