Université de Montréal - Thèse sous forme numérique

xviiiAcknowledgmentsFirst and foremost, it is difficult to overstate my gratitude to my Ph.D. supervisor andmentor, Marie-Claude L‘Homme. With her good teaching, her good company, and herpatience, she helped to make my doctorate fun for me. Merci infiniment! I would also liketo thank my co-supervisor Rute Costa for encouraging me to study abroad and for lettingme pursue my own path in terminology.I am extremely grateful to Benoit Robichaud for his friendship, support andinvaluable help with the design and implementation of JuriDico. I thank Patrick Drouin forallowing me to use TermoStat, Crhistian Martins de Aquino for the help with legalconcepts and for the insightful discussions, Avelino Correia da Costa for the validation ofthe data, Patrick Forget for the clarifications he provided concerning several aspects of thesubject field of law, Patrick Leroyer for the discussion on an earlier version of the project,and Carlos Subirats for his help with the theoretical framework.I thank the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and the Université de Montréalfor their generous financial support.I am also indebted to my friends, to my student colleagues, and to my formerstudent colleagues in Portugal and in Québec for the support as well as for the fun we havehad over the last years. I am especially grateful to the Magníficos and to my best friendSimona Sult who has supported me emotionally on a daily basis over the last four years.Mulţumesc!I owe my deepest gratitude to my entire extended family in Montreal for helping meget through the difficult times and for the caring they provided. Lastly, I wish to thank myparents, Fátima Mendonça and João Pimentel, as well as my brother, João Pedro Pimentel,for supporting me throughout my life. To them I dedicate this thesis. Muito obrigada!