WordNet 2.0




If I didn't think that saying that I'm completely excited about a new dictionary would taint me forever in the eyes of some, then I would. But I do, so I won't. I will say though, I have a new preferred dictionary.

In any case, If you're using Mac OS X, then you are sure to want William Taysom's version of WordNet the lexical database for the English Language, WordNetX . This is an offline implementation of the online lexical reference developed by Princeton University.

http://wordnet.sourceforge.net/

Wordnet is lexical reference system (a dictionary and much much more). Includes spellchecking and a hypernym hierarchy browser (i.e. cat -- feline -- ... -- mammal -- ... -- animal -- ... -- living thing -- object -- entity).

WordNet was developed by the Princeton University's Cognitive Science Laboratory under the direction of Professor George A. Miller. Over the years many linguists, lexicographers, students, and software engineers have contributed to the project.

The official WordNet web site:
http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/

WordNet is an online lexical reference system. Word forms in WordNet are represented in their familiar orthography; word meanings are represented by synonym sets (synset) – lists of synonymous word forms. Two kinds of relations are recognized: lexical and semantic. Lexical relations hold between word forms; semantic relations hold between word meanings.

a few features to make WordNet's new Mac interface especially nice:

– WordNet includes collocations (look around, health care, ill at ease), proper nouns (Hippocrepis, Taoist, WordNet), and proper names (Socrates, George Washington, Don Quixote).

– If WordNet does not contain your query, a list of suggested spellings is provided. Double-click on one, and you're in business.

– WordNet's Hierarchy collect nouns into ten categories. Verb hypernyms are organized under the VERBS category.

– Single-click on a sense, hypernym, antonym, etc. to lookup its gloss, synset, verb frames and the rest.

– Double-click on a sense, hypernym, antonym, etc. to query the word.

– For those keyboard command freaks out there (you know who you are), I've included some keyboard navigation items in the menu bar.

– Open Source with a Cocoa API for managing queries.

Posted: Tue - November 4, 2003 at 08:54 AM            

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