1WNGLOSS(7)                         WordNet™                         WNGLOSS(7)
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NAME

6       wngloss - glossary of terms used in WordNet system
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DESCRIPTION

9       The  WordNet  Reference  Manual  consists  of  Unix-style  manual pages
10       divided into sections as follows:
11
12
13                 ┌────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┐
14Section Description               
15                 ├────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
16                 │   1    │ WordNet User Commands                   │
17                 │   3    │ WordNet Library Functions               │
18                 │   5    │ WordNet File Formats                    │
19                 │   7    │ Miscellaneous Information about WordNet │
20                 └────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┘
21
22   System Description
23       The WordNet system consists of lexicographer  files,  code  to  convert
24       these  files  into  a database, and search routines and interfaces that
25       display information from the database.  The lexicographer  files  orga‐
26       nize  nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs into groups of synonyms, and
27       describe relations between synonym groups.  grind(1) converts the lexi‐
28       cographer  files into a database that encodes the relations between the
29       synonym groups.  The different interfaces to the WordNet database  uti‐
30       lize  a  common  library of search routines to display these relations.
31       Note that the lexicographer files and grind(1) program are  not  gener‐
32       ally distributed.
33
34
35   Database Organization
36       Information  in  WordNet  is  organized around logical groupings called
37       synsets.  Each synset consists of a list of synonymous words or  collo‐
38       cations (eg. "fountain pen", "take in"), and pointers that describe the
39       relations between this synset and other synsets.  A word or collocation
40       may  appear  in  more  than  one  synset,  and in more than one part of
41       speech.  The words in a synset are grouped such that  they  are  inter‐
42       changeable in some context.
43
44       Two  kinds of relations are represented by pointers: lexical and seman‐
45       tic.  Lexical relations hold between semantically related  word  forms;
46       semantic relations hold between word meanings.  These relations include
47       (but are not  limited  to)  hypernymy/hyponymy  (superordinate/subordi‐
48       nate), antonymy, entailment, and meronymy/holonymy.
49
50       Nouns  and  verbs  are  organized  into hierarchies based on the hyper‐
51       nymy/hyponymy relation between synsets.   Additional  pointers  are  be
52       used to indicate other relations.
53
54       Adjectives  are arranged in clusters containing head synsets and satel‐
55       lite synsets.  Each cluster is organized around antonymous  pairs  (and
56       occasionally  antonymous triplets).  The antonymous pairs (or triplets)
57       are indicated in the head synsets of a cluster.  Most head synsets have
58       one  or more satellite synsets, each of which represents a concept that
59       is similar in meaning to the concept represented by  the  head  synset.
60       One  way to think of the adjective cluster organization is to visualize
61       a wheel, with a head synset as the hub and  satellite  synsets  as  the
62       spokes.  Two or more wheels are logically connected via antonymy, which
63       can be thought of as an axle between the wheels.
64
65       Pertainyms are relational adjectives and do not  follow  the  structure
66       just described.  Pertainyms do not have antonyms; the synset for a per‐
67       tainym most often contains only one word or collocation and  a  lexical
68       pointer to the noun that the adjective is "pertaining to".  Participial
69       adjectives have lexical pointers to the verbs  that  they  are  derived
70       from.
71
72       Adverbs are often derived from adjectives, and sometimes have antonyms;
73       therefore the synset for an adverb usually contains a  lexical  pointer
74       to the adjective from which it is derived.
75
76       See  wndb(5)  for  a detailed description of the database files and how
77       the data are represented.
78

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

80       Many terms used in the WordNet Reference Manual are unique to the Word‐
81       Net  system.   Other  general terms have specific meanings when used in
82       the WordNet documentation.  Definitions for many  of  these  terms  are
83       given  to  help with the interpretation and understanding of the refer‐
84       ence manual, and in the use of the WordNet system.
85
86       In following definitions word is used in place of word or collocation.
87
88       adjective cluster        A group of adjective synsets  that  are  orga‐
89                                nized around antonymous pairs or triplets.  An
90                                adjective cluster contains two  or  more  head
91                                synsets  which  represent antonymous concepts.
92                                Each head synset has  one  or  more  satellite
93                                synsets.
94
95       attribute                A  noun  for  which adjectives express values.
96                                The noun weight is an attribute, for which the
97                                adjectives light and heavy express values.
98
99       base form                The  base form of a word or collocation is the
100                                form to which inflections are added.
101
102       basic synset             Syntactically, same as synset.  Term  is  used
103                                in  wninput(5)  to help explain differences in
104                                entering synsets in lexicographer files.
105
106       collocation              A collocation in WordNet is a string of two or
107                                more  words,  connected  by spaces or hyphens.
108                                Examples are:  man-eating shark,  blue-collar,
109                                depend on,  line of products.  In the database
110                                files spaces are represented as underscore (_)
111                                characters.
112
113       coordinate               Coordinate  terms are nouns or verbs that have
114                                the same hypernym.
115
116       cross-cluster pointer    A semantic pointer from one adjective  cluster
117                                to another.
118
119       derivationally related forms
120                                Terms  in  different syntactic categories that
121                                have the same root form and  are  semantically
122                                related.
123
124       direct antonyms          A  pair  of  words  between  which there is an
125                                associative bond resulting from their frequent
126                                co-occurrence.   In adjective clusters, direct
127                                antonyms appears only in head synsets.
128
129       domain                   A topical classification to which a synset has
130                                been  linked  with a CATEGORY, REGION or USAGE
131                                pointer.
132
133       domain term              A synset belonging  to  a  topical  class.   A
134                                domain  term  is further identified as being a
135                                CATEGORY_TERM, REGION_TERM or USAGE_TERM.
136
137       entailment               A verb X entails Y if X cannot be done  unless
138                                Y is, or has been, done.
139
140       exception list           Morphological  transformations  for words that
141                                are not regular and therefore cannot  be  pro‐
142                                cessed in an algorithmic manner.
143
144       group                    Verb  senses  that similar in meaning and have
145                                been manually grouped together.
146
147       gloss                    Each synset contains  gloss  consisting  of  a
148                                definition and optionally example sentences.
149
150       head synset              Synset  in  an adjective cluster containing at
151                                least one word that has a direct antonym.
152
153       holonym                  The name of the whole  of  which  the  meronym
154                                names  a  part.  Y is a holonym of X if X is a
155                                part of Y.
156
157       hypernym                 The generic term used  to  designate  a  whole
158                                class  of specific instances.  Y is a hypernym
159                                of X if X is a (kind of) Y.
160
161       hyponym                  The specific term used to designate  a  member
162                                of  a  class.   X  is a hyponym of Y if X is a
163                                (kind of) Y.
164
165       indirect antonym         An adjective in a satellite synset  that  does
166                                not  have  a  direct  antonym  has an indirect
167                                antonyms via the direct antonym  of  the  head
168                                synset.
169
170       instance                 A  proper  noun  that  refers to a particular,
171                                unique referent (as distinguished  from  nouns
172                                that  refer  to  classes).  This is a specific
173                                form of hyponym.
174
175       lemma                    Lower case ASCII text of word as found in  the
176                                WordNet  database  index  files.   Usually the
177                                base form for a word or collocation.
178
179       lexical pointer          A lexical pointer indicates a relation between
180                                words in synsets (word forms).
181
182       lexicographer file       Files  containing  the  raw  data  for WordNet
183                                synsets, edited by  lexicographers,  that  are
184                                input to the grind program to generate a Word‐
185                                Net database.
186
187       lexicographer id (lex id)
188                                A decimal integer  that,  when  appended  onto
189                                lemma,  uniquely  identifies  a sense within a
190                                lexicographer file.
191
192       monosemous               Having only one sense in a syntactic category.
193
194       meronym                  The name of a constituent part  of,  the  sub‐
195                                stance  of,  or a member of something.  X is a
196                                meronym of Y if X is a part of Y.
197
198       part of speech           WordNet defines "part  of  speech"  as  either
199                                noun,  verb,  adjective,  or  adverb.  Same as
200                                syntactic category.
201
202       participial adjective    An adjective that is derived from a verb.
203
204       pertainym                A relational adjective.  Adjectives  that  are
205                                pertainyms are usually defined by such phrases
206                                as "of or  pertaining  to"  and  do  not  have
207                                antonyms.   A pertainym can point to a noun or
208                                another pertainym.
209
210       polysemous               Having more than one sense in a syntactic cat‐
211                                egory.
212
213       polysemy count           Number of senses of a word in a syntactic cat‐
214                                egory, in WordNet.
215
216       postnominal              A postnominal adjective  occurs  only  immedi‐
217                                ately following the noun that it modifies.
218
219       predicative              An  adjective  that can be used only in predi‐
220                                cate positions.  If X is  a  predicate  adjec‐
221                                tive,  it  can only be used in such phrases as
222                                "it is X" and never prenominally.
223
224       prenominal               An adjective that can occur  only  before  the
225                                noun that it modifies: it cannot be used pred‐
226                                icatively.
227
228       satellite synset         Synset in an adjective cluster representing  a
229                                concept that is similar in meaning to the con‐
230                                cept represented by its head synset.
231
232       semantic concordance     A textual corpus (e.g. the Brown Corpus) and a
233                                lexicon  (e.g. WordNet) so combined that every
234                                substantive word in the text is linked to  its
235                                appropriate  sense in the lexicon via a seman‐
236                                tic tag.
237
238       semantic tag             A pointer from a word in a text file to a spe‐
239                                cific  sense of that word in the WordNet data‐
240                                base.  A semantic tag in  a  semantic  concor‐
241                                dance is represented by a sense key.
242
243       semantic pointer         A   semantic   pointer  indicates  a  relation
244                                between synsets (concepts).
245
246       sense                    A meaning of a word in WordNet.  Each sense of
247                                a word is in a different synset.
248
249       sense key                Information  necessary  to find a sense in the
250                                WordNet database.   A  sense  key  combines  a
251                                lemma  field  and  codes  for the synset type,
252                                lexicographer id, lexicographer  file  number,
253                                and   information  about  a  satellite's  head
254                                synset, if required.  See  senseidx(5)  for  a
255                                description of the format of a sense key.
256
257       subordinate              Same as hyponym.
258
259       superordinate            Same as hypernym.
260
261       synset                   A  synonym set; a set of words that are inter‐
262                                changeable in some  context  without  changing
263                                the  truth  value  of the preposition in which
264                                they are embedded.
265
266       troponym                 A verb expressing a specific  manner  elabora‐
267                                tion of another verb.  X is a troponym of Y if
268                                to X is to Y in some manner.
269
270       unique beginner          A noun synset with no superordinate.
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274WordNet 3.0                        Dec 2006                         WNGLOSS(7)
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