GALLURA and the challenge of combining phono-semantic matching with story-generation: Zoonomastic illustration

Abstract

In the present paper, we illustrate on animal names (zoonyms) the specification and design of the phono-semantic matching (PSM) module which within the architecture of GALLURA, should be upstream in the control flow. The PSM module takes a word (e.g., a zoonym, or then a place-name) and an indication of a target-language (in practice, Hebrew). The desired output of the PSM module should be a set of alternative segmentations or sets of such native (i.e., Hebrew) words or roots that are derivationally "relevant" (in a folk-etymological sense). That output of the PSM module should then be an input for the story-telling module of GALLURA. The desired output of GALLURA is a combination of folk-etymology and storytelling, a humorous aetiological (i.e., explanatory) tale. A story is sought, that by bridging through some narrative trajectory the input and output of the PSM module, would back up the folk-etymology proposed by the output of the PSM module. Phono-semantic matching (PSM), itself not an easy task, is only part of the skills required. Here however we focus on the processing in the designed PSM module.