CI-ADDO-EN: A Second-Generation Architecture for WordNet

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The work constitutes a significant update of WordNet, a large electronic lexical database of English that is a cornerstone of research and applications in computational linguistics, Natural Language Processing, Knowledge Representation, Semantic Web applications and that serves as the basis for numerous computational linguistics tools. WordNet?s database is redesigned and converted from a text-based to a relational (SQL) format to allow flexible and domain-specific extensions. Specific tasks include the definition of an SQL schema, the development of an ASCII-to-WordNetSQL table translation program, a searching interface and additional format conversion utilities. Syntactic limitations on WordNet?s lexicographer files and compiler are eliminated so as to allow long, variable-length word strings and special characters found technical terminology. The table-based SQL format is designed to allow a virtually unlimited number of relations per word form or synonym set, both user-created and ?original? to the Princeton WordNet. User extensions and modifications to WordNetSQL are distinguished from those made ?domestically,? ensuring that development of the core WordNet database remains independent of external updates, and that WordNet?s large user community continues to have available a common, consistent database against which automatic systems can be evaluated. We develp conversion tools for WordNetSQL and other popular WordNet representations (RDF/OWL, Prolog, XML). Maintenance of the Princeton WordNet lexicon and user support continue. The major impact of the freely and publicly available WordNetSQL is to enable flexible extensions by a broad and diverse user group to specific and technical domains including biology and medicine.