JoSse DE KOCK 
Walter BOSSAERT 
Towards an automatic morphological segmentation. 
Ottr intention is to obtain a morphological segmentation of French 
acceptable to a present-day speaker or listener~ for a corpus provided 
without any previous ir~exlng~ by means of electronic calculation. 
Experience tends to prove that it is possible to achieve such a 
segmentation by means of exclusively formal criteria. It consists in 
establishing and grading these criteria and formulating them mathematicall~ 
The use of the computer guarantees objectiveness up to a significant 
linguistic level; the computer is an instrument of research for new 
rules; it guarantees the control of established rules. 
The method followed by us is based on the hypothesis that the 
linguistic performance of human memory consists in a constant segmentation 
or r4construction of the signs of the linguistic code on levels which 
are graded and organized each in accordance wlth its own rules~ in 
function of the specific capacities of the human braln~ and with a 
~ertain degree of productiveness. 
No segmentation is excluded beforehand. The segmentation is implemented 
by means of factors of association or alternation of the separate segments~ 
according to a law of minimal economy~ as well as by quantitative or 
statistical factors concerning the number of different segments~ their, 
frequency on each slde of the proposed dlvlslon~ and their internal 
relationship. 
These factors seem to apply to a large number of languages and to 
the majority of French forms. Certain counter-indications and some 
correctives proper to the French la/Igu/%ge must be observed. 
Finally it may be stated that a segmentation is not implemented in 
function of a scale of absolute values~ but in function of the specific 
morphological tension of each word in relation to the single words 
resembling it from the point of vlewof morphology. 
The corpus used is made up of 84782 phonetic forms (isolated~ conjugated 
and declined)~ which are provided by the 5~Ob@+-words whichaccording to 
Juilland occur most frequently. At the moment we haye made a start wlth 
programming the essential factors on samples. 
10 Ghent, May 15 1969. 
Jesse DE IiOJK 
?lalte r B0 SS.%i!%~ ~ 
Pour uno se~::entation morpholo~ique automatique 
L'ini'.n%ion est d'ohtt~nir un'." se~,.::on~ation morpholo~ique du fran- 
~ais acce~tc.\]~l<~ 2our un loeuheur on un audi~ur d'aujourd'hui~ pour ~m 
corpus donn6 sans ind:':'at~on pr~'alable aucnn~, au :~:oyen d'~m~ caleula- ' 
trice 41 'c ~ronique. 
L'e:q.6rience i<.'nd h 2~'ouver qu'une hell~ so$~nta%ion est possible 
au ~.;oyen de criL\[,rps nniqt:,uenh fom.:els. Lille eensiste ~ 6%ablir ees cri- 
tbres~ A !:'s hi'/'raroh~(~r 2t ~,~ l~!s forl'.~uler ~;ath6matiquement. ~e passage 
pal" l'or(!ina-h':,_r carantit itol~jec%,ivib6 Aun nivpau linguistique d6j'~ 
si~ifieatif; l'~rdinaDeur es5 ~n inr:hruud ~; de r,~.~herche de nonvelles 
rSzle~s ; il assure le co;lir,~le des rhEles 6%a\])lies. 
in i,6tho~\[e cuivi:~ repose sur l'h~q)ot\]'_.Sse que le travail linf~is- 
tique de In i.:i. eJ~:e hlu ni!,.e consi~lie en ~n. ~ seF~rnCation on une restruc- 
%u~-~tion con~tan~es des sic;n<,s du co(~,e lincnistipne our des ~latP-fon~es 
hi(~ral'ehis'es eC or~nnis,'.'es e,',,-.cune s~lon s'.~s r~;~,~les £.,ropres~ en fone- 
~ion des eai~ncihds sl)~eifiques d~ c~rv-~au hu'-nin ~t avee ~une eertaine 
rentahi !i g6. 
ilncun2 se,,n:~.nta%.ion n'~;st "xc\].~, :~.'avo.nc~. ia s~:~.~ntation est o.;6- 
r6e 8.'..,. ;-%'~n ~e :Cnc±.e~!l'!~ <!'a~',o~iaI;ion ou .''nl:;'.').'~.a:~co {~es se .-zlonts s~- 
i:ar6s~ zT!on ~'-n:~ ~oi ~.'/e~uo~::i~, ;.,ini;.~.le~ ainsi qt,.V~vec d~.,s facteurs . 
quautitatifs ou sDa+~shiq:;.ss i~ortant s~,r le ~.')~;~)l':~ ,~'~ s:~:uents dif..'6y-~n~s 
eb lout fr~q~,-~nee de chnq~te eht6 de \]a cou.;e l;rol:.~s6e, ^+~ de leur ra.~- 
port. 
Cos fae%eurs sen~blenL al)~lica\]~l~s ~ uu f~r'p.~(? ~:~:n~ro :Is lanzues ."D " 
"; la z:aj,~'it6 des fonz.o.~ fran.Oo.ls.~s. ~:~z'~.ines oonL~.e-i:'.,3ieaDions -~% ,~os 
~insi ".in? s:;~:,en.De.Dio'n ne slol.;~re ~;as on reaction ~vtune 6chell~: fie 
val~urs a\])solu~-sl z~ais :~n foncgion il: la tension :uorph.')lozique sp6eifi- 
que do chaq-.,e ;.;or viz-~t-vls d:~z z.:v.ls ;.,ors ~,ui Irl ~.~s.~e,~l~lent du poin- 
de "~;e ~uori>h~Iozique. 
Lo cori~z~s u~ilis6 asD consti~.~6 jar S7bi :2o~,.~s. i.,hon6tiqu~s, isol<-~r~ 
con,~,.:'~16es et ,~.'clin'-"es i !~ui son~ fo',:rnios par l~'s ~0i-! Lots los plus 
frequents solon Juill~nd. ~i ce jour !a i)rozrazu<ation des factours osren- 
tills .~st ~n",r6e on o.~:i~!oi~ation sur 6chantillons. 
11 
Gand, le 14 Izai 1969 
