PlWordNet
plWordNet is a lexico-semantic database of the Polish language. It includes sets of synonymous lexical units followed by short definitions. plWordNet serves as a thesaurus-dictionary where concepts and individual word meanings are defined by their location in the network of mutual relations, reflecting the lexico-semantic system of the Polish language. plWordNet is also used as one of the basic resources for the construction of natural language processing tools for Polish.
History
plWordNet is being developed at Wrocław University of Technology. The works have been carried out by The WrocUT since 2005, funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and by the EU.The thesaurus has been built from the ‘ground up’ by lexicographers and natural language engineers.
The first version of plWordNet was published in 2009 – it contained 20 223 lemmas, 26 990 lexical units and 17 695 synsets. The most recent version, , was made available on May 13, 2014.
Content
Currently, plWordNet contains 148k lemmas, 207k lexical units and 151k synsets. It has already outgrown Princeton WordNet with respect to the number of lexical units.plWordNet consists of nouns, verbs and adjectives. Each meaning of a given word is a separate lexical unit. Units that represent the same concept, and do not differ significantly in stylistic register, have been combined into synsets - sets of synonyms.
Each lexical unit is assigned to one of the domains, indicating its general meaning. plWordNet domains correspond to Princeton WordNet lexicographers’ files.
Semantic categories in plWordNet
Lexical unit description
Some lexical units are provided with the information about stylistic register, short definition, usage examples and link to the relevant Wikipedia article.| noun | miasto | town, city | ||
| domain | miejsce i umiejscowienie | place and location | ||
| definition | duży, gęsto zabudowany i zaludniony teren posiadający odrębną administrację; miejsce życia ludzi pracujących w przemyśle lub usługach | big, densely built-up and populated area with a separate administration; living place of people working in industry or services | ||
| example | W mieście człowiek ma większą szansę na zrobienie kariery i zarobienie pieniędzy, choć jednocześnie łatwiej tam niż na wsi popaść w ubóstwo. | It is much easier to make a career in a city than in a village, but it is also much easier to fall into poverty. |
The most important element defining words meanings are , which hold between synsets and between lexical units. One synset groups such lexical units, which share the same set of relations.
Based on the relations assigned to the synsets and units, tools for natural language processing can conclude about meaning of the lemma, which is important for example in word-sense disambiguation.
Selected noun relations
| Relation | Test | Example |
| synonymy |
| , 'cat, domestic cat' |
| inter-register synonymy | ,, 'boy, ~brat, squirt' | |
| hypo-/hypernymy | ' jest rodzajem ', ‘beech’ is a kind of ‘deciduous tree’ | |
| mero-/holonymy | ' jest częścią ', ‘air bag’ is a part of ‘car’ |
Applications
plWordNet is available on the open access , allowing free browsing. It has been made available to the users in the form of an , and web services.Some application of plWordNet:
- constructing and developing tools for automatic language processing,
- word-sense disambiguation,
- automatic classification of texts,
- machine translation,
- aphasia treatment,
- Polish-English and English-Polish dictionary,
- Polish language semantic dictionary,
- dictionary of synonyms and thesaurus,
- dictionary of antonyms.