Graeme Hirst
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Download article
Published in: Proceedings of the workshop on lexical semantic resources for NLP at NODALIDA 2013; May 22-24; 2013; Oslo; Norway. NEALT Proceedings Series 19
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 88:1, p. 1-1
NEALT Proceedings Series 19:1, p. 1-1
Published: 2013-05-17
ISBN: 978-91-7519-586-5
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
Ontologies and semantic lexicons enjoy a complex relationship. Although words denote concepts and concepts make up ontologies; a lexicon is at best an ersatz ontology; and an ontology is too impoverished to function as a semantic lexicon. There is no clear mapping from the word senses and sense relationships of a semantic lexicon to the concepts and concept relationships of an ontology.
The reasons for this include the following: Word senses overlap in complex ways; many concepts are not lexicalized in some or all languages; and languages make semantic distinctions that are not ontological; but which are nonetheless reflected in surface-form aspects such as classifierwords; diathesis alternations; and the count / mass distinction. Nonetheless; a lexicon can sometimes be the basis for the development of a practical ontology.
Ontologies; lexical-semantic resources; word senses; classifier-words; diathesis alternations
