The OntoWordNet Project extension and axiomatization of conceptual relations in WordNet.pdf

The OntoWordNet Project: extension and axiomatization of conceptual relations in WordNet Aldo Gangemi 1 , Roberto Navigli 2 , Paola Velardi 2 1 Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR, viale Marx 15, 00137 Roma, Italy gangemi@r.it 2 Dipartimento di Informatica, University of Roma “La Sapienza” via Salaria 113, 00198 Roma, Italy {navigli,velardi}@dsi.uniroma1.it Abstract. In this paper we present a progress report of the OntoWordNet project, a research program aimed at achieving a formal specification of WordNet. Within this program, we developed a hybrid bottom-up top-down methodology to automatically extract association relations from WordNet, and to interpret those associations in terms of a set of conceptual relations, formally defined in the DOLCE foundational ontology. Preliminary results provide us with the conviction that a research program aiming to obtain a consistent, modularized, and axiomatized ontology from WordNet can be completed in acceptable time with the support of semi-automatic techniques. 1. Introduction The number of applications where WordNet (WN) is being used as an ontology rather than as a mere lexical resource seems to be ever growing. Indeed, WordNet contains a good coverage of both the lexical and conceptual palettes of the English language. However, WordNet is serviceable as an ontology (in the sense of a theory expressed in some logical language) if some of its lexical links are interpreted according to a formal semantics that tells us something about the way we use a lexical item in some context for some purpose. In other words, we need a formal specification of the conceptualizations that are expressed by means of WordNet’s synsets 1 . A formal specification requires a clear semantics for the primitives used to export WordNet 1 Concept names in WordNet are called synsets, since the naming policy for a concept is a set of synonym words, e.g. for sense 1 of car: { car, auto, automob