Lexical Resources and Ontological Classifications for the Recognition of Proper Names Sense Extension

Particular uses of PNs with sense extension are focussed on and inspected taking into account the presence of PNs in lexical semantic databases and electronic corpora. Methodology to select ad include PNs in semantic databases is described; the use of PNs in corpora of Italian Language is examined and evaluated, analyzing the behaviour of a set of PNs in different periods of time. Computational resources can facilitate our study in this field in an effective way by helping codify, translate and handle particular cases of polysemy, but also guiding in metaphorical and metonymic sense recognition, supported by the ontological classification of the lexical semantic entities. The relationship between the “abstract” and the “concrete”, which is at the basis of the Conceptual Metaphor perspective, can be considered strictly related to the variation of the ontological values found in our analysis of the PNs and their belonging classes which are codified in the ItalWordNet database.