WORDNET: An Electronic Lexical Reference System Based on Theories of Lexical Memory

摘要

This paper describes WORDNET, an online lexical reference system whose design is based on psycholinquistic theories of human lexical organization and memory. English nouns, verbs, and adjectives are organized into synonym sets, each representing one underlying lexical concept. Synonym sets are then related via three principal conceptual relations: hyponymy, meronymy and antonymy. Verbs are additionally specified for presupposition relations that hold among them, and for their most common semantic/syntactic frames. By attempting to mirror the organization of the mental lexicon, WORDNET strives to serve the linquistically unsophisticated user.