Glossary of Terms
Many terms used in the WordNet Reference Manual are unique to the WordNet 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 reference manual, and in the use of the WordNet system.
In the following definitions "word" is used in place of "word or collocation".
- adjective cluster
- A group of adjective synsets that are organized 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. Ex: 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 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 words that have the same hypernym.
- cross-cluster pointer
- A semantic pointer from one adjective cluster to another.
- cousin
- Senses whose hyponyms bear a specific relation to each other.
- direct antonyms
- A pair of words between which there is an associative bond built up by co-occurrences. In adjective clusters, direct antonyms appears only in head synsets.
- 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 processed in an algorithmic manner.
- group
- Senses deemed similar by the cousin, sister or twin relations.
- gloss
- Definition and/or example sentences for a synset.
- 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.
- lemma
- lower case ASCII text of word as found in the WordNet database index files.
- lexical pointer
- A lexical pointer indicates a relation between words in synsets (word forms).
- monosemous
- Having only one sense in a syntactic category.
- meronym
- The name of a constituent part of, the substance 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 category.
- polysemy count
- Number of senses of a word in a syntactic category, in WordNet.
- postnominal
- A postnominal adjective occurs only immediately following the noun that it modifies.
- predicative
- An adjective that can be used only in predicate positions. If X is a predicate adjective, it can be used in such phrases as "it is X".
- prenominal
- An adjective that can occur only before the noun that it modifies.
- satellite synset
- Synset in an adjective cluster representing a concept that is similar in meaning to the concept represented by its head synset.
- semantic concordance
- A textual corpus (Brown Corpus) and a lexicon (WordNet) so combined that every substantive word in the text is linked to its appropriate sense in the lexicon via a semantic tag.
- semantic tag
- A pointer from a text file to a specific sense of a word in the WordNet database. A semantic tag in a semantic concordance is represented by a sense key.
- semantic pointer
- A semantic pointer indicates a relation between synsets (word meanings).
- 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 for a description of the format of a sense key.
- sister
- Matching strings that are both the immediate hyponyms of the same superordinate.
- subordinate
- See: hyponym.
- superordinate
- Same as hypernym.
- synset
- A synonym set; a set of words that are interchangeable in some context.
- troponym
- A verb expressing a specific manner elaboration of another verb. X is a troponym of Y if to X is to Y in some manner.
- twin
- Synsets having at least three words in common.
- unique beginner
- A noun synset with no superordinate.
WordNet 3.0 © Princeton University 2006