1WNB(1) WordNet™ User Commands WNB(1)
2
6 wnb - WordNet window-based browser interface
7
9 wnb
10
12 wnb() provides a window-based interface for browsing the WordNet data‐
13 base, allowing synsets and relations to be displayed as formatted text.
14 For each search word, different searches are available based on syntac‐
15 tic category and information available in the database.
16 wnb is written in Tcl/Tk, which is available for Unix and Windows plat‐
18 forms. This allows the same code to work on all supported WordNet
19 platforms without modification.
20
22 wnb() was developed with the philosophy that only those searches and
23 buttons that are applicable at the current time are displayed. As a
24 result, the appearance of the interface changes as it is used. Use the
25 standard windowing system mouse functions to open and close the WordNet
26 Browser Window, move the window, and change its size.
27 The WordNet Browser Window contains the following areas, from top to
29 bottom:
30 Menubar A menubar runs along the top of the browser window
32 with pulldown menus and button entitled File, His‐
33 tory, Options, and Help.
34 Search Word Entry Below the Menubar is a line for entering the search
36 word. A search word can be a single word, hyphen‐
37 ated string, or a collocation. Case is ignored.
38 Although only uninflected forms of words are usu‐
39 ally stored in WordNet, users may search for
40 inflected forms. WordNet's morphological processor
41 finds the base form automatically.
42 Search Selection Below the Search Word Entry line is an area for
44 selecting the search type and senses to search.
45 Until a search word is entered this area is blank.
46 After a search word is entered, buttons appear cor‐
47 responding to each syntactic category (Noun, Verb,
48 Adjective, Adverb) in which the search string is
49 defined in WordNet.
50 At the right edge of the Search Selection line is a
52 box for entering sense numbers. When this box is
53 empty, search results for all senses of the search
54 word that match the search type are displayed. The
55 search may be restricted to one or more specific
56 senses by entering a comma or space separated list
57 of sense numbers in the Senses box. These sense
58 numbers remain in effect until either the user
59 changes or deletes them, or a new search word is
60 entered.
61 Results Window Most of the browser window consists of a large text
63 buffer for displaying the results of WordNet
64 searches. Horizontal and vertical scroll bars are
65 present for scrolling through the output.
66 Status Line A status line is at the bottom of the browser win‐
68 dow. When search results are displayed in the
69 Results Window, this status line reflects the type
70 of search selected. When there is no search word
71 entered, your are prompted to "Enter search word
72 and press return." If the search word entered is
73 not in WordNet, the message "Sorry, no matches
74 found." is displayed.
75
77 The WordNet browser navigates through WordNet in two steps. First a
78 search word is entered and an overview of all the senses of the word in
79 all syntactic categories is displayed in the Results Window. The
80 senses are grouped by syntactic category, and each synset is annotated
81 as described above with synset_offset, lex_filename, and sense_number
82 as dictated by the advanced search options set. The overview search
83 also indicates how many of the senses in each syntactic category are
84 represented in the tagged texts. This is a way for the user to deter‐
85 mine whether a sense's sense number is based on semantic tagging data,
86 or was arbitrarily assigned. For each sense that has appeared in such
87 texts, the number of semantic tags to that sense are indicated in
88 parentheses after the sense number.
89 Then, within a syntactic category, a specific search is selected. The
91 desired search is performed and the search results are displayed in the
92 Results Window. Additional searches on the same word can be performed,
93 or a new search word can be entered.
94 To enter a search word, click the mouse in the horizontal box labeled
96 Search Word, type a single word, hyphenated string, or collocation and
97 press RETURN.
98 wnb() responds by making a set of Part of Speech buttons appear in the
100 Search Selection line. Each button corresponds to a syntactic category
101 in which the search string is defined in WordNet. At the same time, an
102 Overview of the synsets for all senses of the search word is displayed
103 in the Results Window. The Overview includes the gloss for each synset
104 and also indicates which of the senses have appeared in the semanti‐
105 cally tagged texts. For each sense that has appeared in such texts,
106 the number of semantic tags to that sense are indicated in parentheses
107 after the sense number.
108 The pulldown menus in the Search Selection line list all of the WordNet
110 searches that can be performed for the search word in that part of
111 speech. To select a search, highlight it by dragging the mouse to it,
112 and release the mouse while it is highlighted. Drag the mouse outside
113 of the pulldown list and release to hide the menu without making a
114 selection. Dragging the mouse across the Part of Speech buttons dis‐
115 plays the available searches for each syntactic category.
116 To restrict a search to one or more senses within a syntactic category,
118 enter a comma or space separated list of sense numbers in the Senses
119 box before selecting a search.
120 After a search is selected, wnb() performs the search on the WordNet
122 database and displays the formatted results in the Results Window.
123 Whenever search results are displayed, a button entitled Redisplay
124 Overview is present at the right edge of the Search Word Entry line.
125 Clicking on this button redisplays the Overview of all synsets for the
126 search word in the Results Window.
127 Changing the Search Word
129 A new search word can be entered at any time by moving to the Search
130 Word Entry box, if necessary highlighting it by clicking, erasing the
131 old string, typing a new one and pressing RETURN. The Senses box is
132 cleared if necessary, the Part of Speech buttons applicable to the new
133 search word appear, and the Overview for the new search word is dis‐
134 played.
135 The middle mouse button can also be used to select a new search word by
137 placing the mouse over any word in the Results Window and clicking.
138 The selected word will replace the text in the Search Word Entry box,
139 and the overview for that word will automatically be displayed.
140 To select a new search string collocation from text in the Results Win‐
142 dow, highlight the text with the mouse and press CONTROL-S.
143 Interrupting a Search
146 When a search is in progress the message "Searching...(press escape to
147 abort)" is displayed in the Status Line. Note that most searches
148 return very quickly, so this message isn't noticeable. As indicated,
149 pressing the ESCAPE key will interrupt the search. The results of the
150 search obtained before the time the search was interrupted are dis‐
151 played in the Results Window.
152
154 File Menu
155 Find keywords by substring
156 Display a popup window for specifying a search of WordNet
157 for words or collocations that contain a specific sub‐
158 string. If a search word is currently entered in the
159 Search Word box, it is used as the substring to search
160 for by default. The Substring Search Window contains a
161 box for entering a substring, a pulldown menu to its
162 right for specifying the part of speech to search, a
163 large area for displaying the search results, and action
164 buttons at the bottom entitled Search, Save, Print Dis‐
165 miss.
166 Once a substring is entered and a part of speech
168 selected, clicking on the Search button causes a search
169 to be done for all words and collocations in WordNet, in
170 that syntactic category, that contain the substring
171 according to the following criteria:
172 1. The substring can appear at the beginning or end of a
174 word, hyphenated string o collocation.
175 2. The substring can appear in the middle of a hyphenated
177 string or collocation, but only delimited on both sides
178 by spaces or hyphens.
179 The search results are displayed in the large buffer.
181 Clicking on an item from the search results list causes
182 wnb() to automatically enter that word in the Search Word
183 box of the WordNet Browser Window and perform the Over‐
184 view search.
185 Clicking the Save button generates a popup dialog for
187 specifying a filename to save the substring search
188 results to. Clicking the Print button generates a popup
189 dialog in which a print command can be specified.
190 Selecting Dismiss closes the Substring Search Window.
192 Save current display
194 Display a popup dialog for specifying a filename to save
195 the current Results Window contents to.
196 Print current display
198 Display a popup dialog in which to specify a print com‐
199 mand to which the current Results Window contents can be
200 piped. Note - this option does not exist in the Windows
201 version.
202 Clear current display
204 Clear the Search Word and Senses boxes, and Results Win‐
205 dow.
206 Exit Does what you would expect.
208 History
210 This pulldown menu contains a list of the last searches performed.
211 Selecting an item from this list performs that search again. The maxi‐
212 mum number of searches stored in the list can be adjusted from the
213 Options menu. The default is 10.
214 Options
216 Show help with each search
217 When this checkbox is selected search results are pre‐
218 ceded by some explanatory text about the type of search
219 selected. This is off by default.
220 Show descriptive gloss
222 When this checkbox is selected, synset glosses are dis‐
223 played in all search results. This is set by default.
224 Note that glosses are always displayed in the Overview.
225 Wrap Lines
227 When this checkbox is selected, lines in the Results Win‐
228 dow that are wider than the window are automatically
229 wrapped. This is set by default. If not selected, a
230 horizontal scroll bar is present if any lines are longer
231 than the width of the window.
232 Set advanced search options...
234 Selecting this item displays a popup window for setting
235 the following search options: Lexical file information;
236 Synset location in database file; Sense number. Choices
237 for each are:
238 Don't show (default)
240 Show with searches
241 Show with searches and overview
242 When lexical file information is shown, the name of the
244 lexicographer file is printed before each synset,
245 enclosed in angle brackets (< ... >). When both lexi‐
246 cal file information and synset location information are
247 displayed, the synset location information appears first.
248 If within one lexicographer file more than one sense of a
249 word is entered, an integer lex_id is appended onto all
250 but one of the word's instances to uniquely identify it.
251 In each synset, each word having a non-zero lex_id is
252 printed with the lex_id value printed immediately follow‐
253 ing the word. If both lexicographer information and
254 sense numbers are displayed, lex_ids, if present, precede
255 sense numbers.
256 When synset location is shown, the byte offset of the
258 synset in the database "data" file corresponding to the
259 syntactic category of the synset is printed before each
260 synset, enclosed in curly braces ({ ... }). When both
261 lexical file information and synset location information
262 are displayed, the synset location information appears
263 first.
264 When sense numbers are shown, the sense number of each
266 word in each synset is printed immediately after the
267 word, and is preceded by a number sign (#).
268 Set maximum history length...
270 Display a popup dialog in which the maximum number of
271 previous searches to be kept on the History list can be
272 set.
273 Set font...
275 Display a popup window for setting the font (typeface)
276 and font size to use for the Results Window. Choices for
277 typeface are: Courier, Helvetica, and Times (default).
278 Font size can be small, medium (default), or large.
279 Save current options as default
281 Save the currently set options. Next time the browser is
282 started, these options will be used as the user defaults.
283 Help
285 Help on using the WordNet browser
286 Display this manual page.
287 Help on WordNet terminology
289 Display the wngloss(7) manual page.
290 Display the WordNet license
292 Display the WordNet copyright notice and license agree‐
293 ment.
294 About the WordNet browser
296 Information about this application.
297
299 Clicking on any word in the Results Window while holding down the SHIFT
300 key on the keyboard causes the browser to replace Search Word with the
301 word and display its Overview and available searches. Clicking on any
302 word in the Results Window with the middle mouse button does the same
303 thing.
304 Pressing the CONTROL-S keys causes the browser to do as above on the
306 text that is currently highlighted. Under Unix, this will work even if
307 the highlighted text is in another window. This works on hyphenated
308 strings and collocations, as well as individual words.
309 Pressing the CONTROL-G keys displays the Substring Search Window.
311
314 The results of a search of the WordNet database are displayed in the
315 Results Window. Horizontal and vertical scroll bars are present for
316 scrolling through the search results.
317 All searches other than the Overview list all senses matching the
319 search results in the following general format. Items enclosed in
320 italicized square brackets ([ ... ]) may not be present.
321 If a search cannot be performed on some senses of searchstr, the search
323 results are headed by a string of the form:
324 X of Y senses of searchstr
325 One line listing the number of senses matching the search
327 selected.
328 Each sense matching the search selected displayed as follows:
330 Sense n
332 [{synset_offset}] [<lex_filename>] word1[#sense_number][, word2...]
333 Where n is the sense number of the search word, synset_offset is
335 the byte offset of the synset in the data.pos file corresponding
336 to the syntactic category, lex_filename is the name of the lexi‐
337 cographer file that the synset comes from, word1 is the first
338 word in the synset (note that this is not necessarily the search
339 word) and sense_number is the WordNet sense number assigned to
340 the preceding word. synset_offset, lex_filename, and sense_num‐
341 ber are generated if the appropriate Options are specified.
342 The synsets matching the search selected are printed below each
344 sense's synset output described above. Each line of output is
345 preceded by a marker (usually =>), then a synset, formatted as
346 described above. If a search traverses more one level of the
347 tree, then successive lines are indented by spaces corresponding
348 to its level in the hierarchy. Glosses are displayed in paren‐
349 theses at the end of each synset if the appropriate Option is
350 set. Each synset is printed on one line.
351 Senses are ordered from most to least frequently used, with the
353 most common sense numbered 1. Frequency of use is determined by
354 the number of times a sense is tagged in the various semantic
355 concordance texts. Senses that are not semantically tagged fol‐
356 low the ordered senses. Note that this ordering is only an esti‐
357 mate based on usage in a small corpus.
358 Verb senses can be grouped by similarity of meaning, rather than
360 ordered by frequency of use. When the "Synonyms, grouped by
361 similarity" search is selected, senses that are close in meaning
362 are printed together, with a line of dashes indicating the end
363 of a group. See wngroups(7) for a discussion how senses are
364 grouped.
365 The output of the "Derivationally Related Forms" search shows
367 word forms that are morphologically related to searchstr. Each
368 word form pointed to from searchstr is displayed, preceded by
369 RELATED TO-> and the syntactic category of the link, followed,
370 on the next line, by its synset. Printed after the word form is
371 #n where n indicates the WordNet sense number of the term
372 pointed to.
373 The "Domain" and "Domain Terms" searches show the domain that a
375 synset has been classified in and, conversely, all of the terms
376 that have been assigned to a specific domain. A domain is
377 either a TOPIC, REGION or USAGE, as reflected in the specific
378 pointer character stored in the database, and displayed in the
379 output. A Domain search on a term shows the domain, if any,
380 that each synset containing searchstr has been classified in.
381 The output display shows the domain type (TOPIC, REGION or
382 USAGE), followed by the syntactic category of the domain synset
383 and the terms in the synset. Each term is followed by #n where
384 n indicates the WordNet sense number of the term. The converse
385 search, Domain Terms, shows all of the synsets that have been
386 placed into the domain searchstr, with analogous markers.
387 When the "Sentence Frames" search is specified, sample illustra‐
389 tive sentences and generic sentence frames are displayed. If a
390 sample sentence is found, the base form of the search word is
391 substituted into the sentence, and it is printed below the
392 synset, preceded with the EX: marker. When no sample sentences
393 are found, the generic sentence frames are displayed. Sentence
394 frames that are acceptable for all words in a synset are pre‐
395 ceded by the marker *>. If a frame is acceptable for the search
396 word only, it is preceded by the marker =>.
397 Search results for adjectives are slightly different from those
399 for other parts of speech. When an adjective is printed, its
400 direct antonym, if it has one, is also printed in parentheses.
401 When the search word is in a head synset, all of the head
402 synset's satellites are also displayed. The position of an
403 adjective in relation to the noun may be restricted to the
404 prenominal, postnominal or predicative position. Where present,
405 these restrictions are noted in parentheses.
406 When an adjective is a participle of a verb, the output indi‐
408 cates the verb and displays its synset.
409 When an adverb is derived from an adjective, the specific adjec‐
411 tival sense on which it is based is indicated.
412 The morphological transformations performed by the search code
414 may result in more than one word to search for. wnb() automati‐
415 cally performs the requested search on all of the strings and
416 returns the results grouped by word. For example, the verb saw
417 is both the present tense of saw and the past tense of see.
418 When there is more than one word to search for, search results
419 are grouped by word.
420
422 If the WordNet database files cannot be opened, error messages are dis‐
423 played. This is usually corrected by setting the environment variables
424 described below to the proper location of the WordNet database for your
425 installation.
426
428 WNHOME Base directory for WordNet. Default is
429 /usr/local/WordNet-3.0.
430 WNSEARCHDIR Directory in which the WordNet database has been
432 installed. Default is WNHOME/dict.
433
435 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WordNet\3.0\WNHome
436 Base directory for WordNet. Default is C:\Pro‐
437 gram Files\WordNet\3.0.
438 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\WordNet\3.0\wnres
440 User's default browser options.
441
443 index.pos database index files
444 data.pos database data files
446 *.vrb files of sentences illustrating the use of verbs
448 pos.exc morphology exception lists
450
452 wnintro(1), wn(1), wnintro(3), lexnames(5), senseidx(5), wndb(5), wnin‐
453 put(5), morphy(7), wngloss(7), wngroups(7).
454
456 Please reports bugs to wordnet@princeton.edu.
457WordNet 3.0 Dec 2006 WNB(1)