Beyond lexical and semantic resources: Linking WordNet with FrameNet and enhancing synsets with conceptual frames
Beyond lexical and semantic resources: Linking WordNet with FrameNet and enhancing synsets with conceptual frames

Author(s): Svetlozara Leseva, Ivelina Stoyanova
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Lexis, Semantics, Comparative Linguistics, Cognitive linguistics, Computational linguistics
Published by: Институт за български език „Проф. Любомир Андрейчин“, Българска академия на науките
Keywords: semantics; WordNet; FrameNet; conceptual description; verb semantics; linked resources; frame-to-synset mapping
Summary/Abstract: This paper sums up the research and findings made towards the linking of two large lexical semantic resources – WordNet and FrameNet (their verb inventory in particular) – by combining the rich conceptual description provided in FrameNet with the vast lexical coverage and structured relational representation in WordNet. The underlying idea is not just to map the two resources to the extent that their overlap allows, but to expand the mapping in such a way as to assign a FrameNet frame to as many synsets as possible, going far beyond the lexical correspondence in the two resources. We suggest that as a first approximation this mapping be implemented by using the relation of inheritance from a hypernym to a hyponym in WordNet to transfer the frame assigned to the parent synset from the parent to the child synset (inheritance­ based mapping), and then refine the obtained mapping through a number of procedures. The paper is divided in two large parts. In the first part we explore the relation of inheritance and other semantic relations as represented in WordNet and FrameNet and how they correspond to each other when the resources are aligned from a theoretical perspective. In addition, we provide a discussion of the implications of these observations with respect to the enhancement of the two resources through the definition of new relations and the detailisation of conceptual frames. The second part of the paper outlines the procedures defined for the validation of the consistency of the inheritance-based mapping of frames and the extension of its coverage which exploit the lexical information in WordNet (synset literals, synset glosses, etc.) and FrameNet (language units and their definitions, the names of the frames, etc.), the structure of the two resources and the systematic relations between synsets in WordNet and between frames in FrameNet. We present a case study on causativity, a relation which provides enhancement complementary to the one using hierarchical relations, by means of linking in a systematic way large parts of the lexicon. We show how consistency checks and denser relations may be implemented on the basis of this relation. In addition, we propose new frames based on causative–inchoative correspondences and in conclusion touch on the possibilities for defining new frames based on the types of specialisation that take place from parent to child synset.

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