Saussurian analogy: a theoretical account and its application

in tim (7ours de linguislique g&~,&'alc, S;d, llSSllr() l-fl(;Ilti()llS kl, p[tellO]ll(:[IOll OF tremendous itnl)ortance in l+mguage, analogy. For example, giwm the series walk, walked and look, how can we (:oil, t,tl(+ fourth term, looked? We give ;~ t)ossi-I)le a,(:count of this phenomenotl in t, et'tns of edition distances, thus paving the way to comptlt+d;ionM applic++tk)ns. This ex-l)lanal;ion a ccoutJts for prefixing, suffix.+ ing and infixing. We show how it is possible to perform the a.nMogical anal ysis and generation of sentences, using tt tree-bank ;m(l ~q)l)roxitnaLl;e l);tt, tertF ln&t(;hitlg. As a, (;OllSe(ltlellce ~ our [)ro-posal linds its t)lnee in I;he (~xa.tul)le-l)as(.'d approach to naturM language processing.