wngloss
WNGLOSS(7WN) WordNettm WNGLOSS(7WN)
NAME
wngloss - glossary of terms used in WordNet system
DESCRIPTION
The WordNet Reference Manual consists of Unix-style manual pages di-
vided into sections as follows:
+--------+-----------------------------------------+
|Section | Description |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+
| 1 | WordNet User Commands |
| 3 | WordNet Library Functions |
| 5 | WordNet File Formats |
| 7 | Miscellaneous Information about WordNet |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+
System Description
The WordNet system consists of lexicographer files, code to convert
these files into a database, and search routines and interfaces that
display information from the database. The lexicographer files orga-
nize nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs into groups of synonyms, and
describe relations between synonym groups. grind(1WN) converts the
lexicographer files into a database that encodes the relations between
the synonym groups. The different interfaces to the WordNet database
utilize a common library of search routines to display these relations.
Note that the lexicographer files and grind(1WN) program are not gener-
ally distributed.
Database Organization
Information in WordNet is organized around logical groupings called
synsets. Each synset consists of a list of synonymous words or collo-
cations (eg. "fountain pen", "take in"), and pointers that describe the
relations between this synset and other synsets. A word or collocation
may appear in more than one synset, and in more than one part of
speech. The words in a synset are grouped such that they are inter-
changeable in some context.
Two kinds of relations are represented by pointers: lexical and seman-
tic. Lexical relations hold between semantically related word forms;
semantic relations hold between word meanings. These relations include
(but are not limited to) hypernymy/hyponymy (superordinate/subordi-
nate), antonymy, entailment, and meronymy/holonymy.
Nouns and verbs are organized into hierarchies based on the hyper-
nymy/hyponymy relation between synsets. Additional pointers are be
used to indicate other relations.
Adjectives are arranged in clusters containing head synsets and satel-
lite synsets. Each cluster is organized around antonymous pairs (and
occasionally antonymous triplets). The antonymous pairs (or triplets)
are indicated in the head synsets of a cluster. Most head synsets have
one or more satellite synsets, each of which represents a concept that
is similar in meaning to the concept represented by the head synset.
One way to think of the adjective cluster organization is to visualize
a wheel, with a head synset as the hub and satellite synsets as the
spokes. Two or more wheels are logically connected via antonymy, which
can be thought of as an axle between the wheels.
Pertainyms are relational adjectives and do not follow the structure
just described. Pertainyms do not have antonyms; the synset for a per-
tainym most often contains only one word or collocation and a lexical
pointer to the noun that the adjective is "pertaining to". Participial
adjectives have lexical pointers to the verbs that they are derived
from.
Adverbs are often derived from adjectives, and sometimes have antonyms;
therefore the synset for an adverb usually contains a lexical pointer
to the adjective from which it is derived.
See wndb(5WN) for a detailed description of the database files and how
the data are represented.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Many terms used in the WordNet Reference Manual are unique to the Word-
Net system. Other general terms have specific meanings when used in
the WordNet documentation. Definitions for many of these terms are
given to help with the interpretation and understanding of the refer-
ence manual, and in the use of the WordNet system.
In following definitions word is used in place of word or collocation.
adjective cluster A group of adjective synsets that are orga-
nized around antonymous pairs or triplets. An
adjective cluster contains two or more head
synsets which represent antonymous concepts.
Each head synset has one or more satellite
synsets.
attribute A noun for which adjectives express values.
The noun weight is an attribute, for which the
adjectives light and heavy express values.
base form The base form of a word or collocation is the
form to which inflections are added.
basic synset Syntactically, same as synset. Term is used
in wninput(5WN) to help explain differences in
entering synsets in lexicographer files.
collocation A collocation in WordNet is a string of two or
more words, connected by spaces or hyphens.
Examples are: man-eating shark, blue-collar,
depend on, line of products. In the database
files spaces are represented as underscore (_)
characters.
coordinate Coordinate terms are nouns or verbs that have
the same hypernym.
cross-cluster pointer A semantic pointer from one adjective cluster
to another.
derivationally related forms
Terms in different syntactic categories that
have the same root form and are semantically
related.
direct antonyms A pair of words between which there is an as-
sociative bond resulting from their frequent
co-occurrence. In adjective clusters, direct
antonyms appears only in head synsets.
domain A topical classification to which a synset has
been linked with a CATEGORY, REGION or USAGE
pointer.
domain term A synset belonging to a topical class. A do-
main term is further identified as being a
CATEGORY_TERM, REGION_TERM or USAGE_TERM.
entailment A verb X entails Y if X cannot be done unless
Y is, or has been, done.
exception list Morphological transformations for words that
are not regular and therefore cannot be pro-
cessed in an algorithmic manner.
group Verb senses that similar in meaning and have
been manually grouped together.
gloss Each synset contains gloss consisting of a
definition and optionally example sentences.
head synset Synset in an adjective cluster containing at
least one word that has a direct antonym.
holonym The name of the whole of which the meronym
names a part. Y is a holonym of X if X is a
part of Y.
hypernym The generic term used to designate a whole
class of specific instances. Y is a hypernym
of X if X is a (kind of) Y.
hyponym The specific term used to designate a member
of a class. X is a hyponym of Y if X is a
(kind of) Y.
indirect antonym An adjective in a satellite synset that does
not have a direct antonym has an indirect
antonyms via the direct antonym of the head
synset.
instance A proper noun that refers to a particular,
unique referent (as distinguished from nouns
that refer to classes). This is a specific
form of hyponym.
lemma Lower case ASCII text of word as found in the
WordNet database index files. Usually the
base form for a word or collocation.
lexical pointer A lexical pointer indicates a relation between
words in synsets (word forms).
lexicographer file Files containing the raw data for WordNet
synsets, edited by lexicographers, that are
input to the grind program to generate a Word-
Net database.
lexicographer id (lex id)
A decimal integer that, when appended onto
lemma, uniquely identifies a sense within a
lexicographer file.
monosemous Having only one sense in a syntactic category.
meronym The name of a constituent part of, the sub-
stance of, or a member of something. X is a
meronym of Y if X is a part of Y.
part of speech WordNet defines "part of speech" as either
noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. Same as
syntactic category.
participial adjective An adjective that is derived from a verb.
pertainym A relational adjective. Adjectives that are
pertainyms are usually defined by such phrases
as "of or pertaining to" and do not have
antonyms. A pertainym can point to a noun or
another pertainym.
polysemous Having more than one sense in a syntactic cat-
egory.
polysemy count Number of senses of a word in a syntactic cat-
egory, in WordNet.
postnominal A postnominal adjective occurs only immedi-
ately following the noun that it modifies.
predicative An adjective that can be used only in predi-
cate positions. If X is a predicate adjec-
tive, it can only be used in such phrases as
"it is X" and never prenominally.
prenominal An adjective that can occur only before the
noun that it modifies: it cannot be used pred-
icatively.
satellite synset Synset in an adjective cluster representing a
concept that is similar in meaning to the con-
cept represented by its head synset.
semantic concordance A textual corpus (e.g. the Brown Corpus) and a
lexicon (e.g. WordNet) so combined that every
substantive word in the text is linked to its
appropriate sense in the lexicon via a seman-
tic tag.
semantic tag A pointer from a word in a text file to a spe-
cific sense of that word in the WordNet data-
base. A semantic tag in a semantic concor-
dance is represented by a sense key.
semantic pointer A semantic pointer indicates a relation be-
tween synsets (concepts).
sense A meaning of a word in WordNet. Each sense of
a word is in a different synset.
sense key Information necessary to find a sense in the
WordNet database. A sense key combines a
lemma field and codes for the synset type,
lexicographer id, lexicographer file number,
and information about a satellite's head
synset, if required. See senseidx(5WN) for a
description of the format of a sense key.
subordinate Same as hyponym.
superordinate Same as hypernym.
synset A synonym set; a set of words that are inter-
changeable in some context without changing
the truth value of the preposition in which
they are embedded.
troponym A verb expressing a specific manner elabora-
tion of another verb. X is a troponym of Y if
to X is to Y in some manner.
unique beginner A noun synset with no superordinate.
WordNet 3.0 Dec 2006 WNGLOSS(7WN)
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