The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Hidden Structure and Function in the Lexicon

Hidden Structure and Function in the Lexicon
Hidden Structure and Function in the Lexicon
How many words are needed to define all the words in a dictionary? Graph-theoretic analysis reveals that about 10% of a dictionary is a unique Kernel of words that define one another and all the rest, but this is not the smallest such subset. The Kernel consists of one huge strongly connected component (SCC), about half its size, the Core, surrounded by many small SCCs, the Satellites. Core words can define one another but not the rest of the dictionary. The Kernel also contains many overlapping Minimal Grounding Sets (MGSs), each about the same size as the Core, each part -Core, part - Satellite. MGS words can define all the rest of the dictionary. They are learned earlier, more concrete and more frequent than the rest of the dictionary. Satellite words, not correlated with age or frequency, are less concrete (more abstract) words that are also needed for full lexical power.
symbol grounding, dictionaries, mental lexicon, graph theory, semantics
65-77
NLPCS
Picard, Olivier
886e0932-a271-46bf-9a6a-8d9df7b4abd9
Lord, Melanie
44db1c23-add7-419e-a65a-f9523f460dc2
Blondin-Massé, Alexandre
7012e337-6eeb-465d-bc4f-65fed04305fa
Marcotte, Odile
44506541-4f8e-44e4-9a91-742596892658
Lopes, Marcos
2488ab35-4796-469f-9cc0-10895b22cb31
Harnad, Stevan
442ee520-71a1-4283-8e01-106693487d8b
Picard, Olivier
886e0932-a271-46bf-9a6a-8d9df7b4abd9
Lord, Melanie
44db1c23-add7-419e-a65a-f9523f460dc2
Blondin-Massé, Alexandre
7012e337-6eeb-465d-bc4f-65fed04305fa
Marcotte, Odile
44506541-4f8e-44e4-9a91-742596892658
Lopes, Marcos
2488ab35-4796-469f-9cc0-10895b22cb31
Harnad, Stevan
442ee520-71a1-4283-8e01-106693487d8b

Picard, Olivier, Lord, Melanie, Blondin-Massé, Alexandre, Marcotte, Odile, Lopes, Marcos and Harnad, Stevan (2013) Hidden Structure and Function in the Lexicon. In 10th International Workshop on Natural Language Processing and Cognitive Science. NLPCS. pp. 65-77 .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

How many words are needed to define all the words in a dictionary? Graph-theoretic analysis reveals that about 10% of a dictionary is a unique Kernel of words that define one another and all the rest, but this is not the smallest such subset. The Kernel consists of one huge strongly connected component (SCC), about half its size, the Core, surrounded by many small SCCs, the Satellites. Core words can define one another but not the rest of the dictionary. The Kernel also contains many overlapping Minimal Grounding Sets (MGSs), each about the same size as the Core, each part -Core, part - Satellite. MGS words can define all the rest of the dictionary. They are learned earlier, more concrete and more frequent than the rest of the dictionary. Satellite words, not correlated with age or frequency, are less concrete (more abstract) words that are also needed for full lexical power.

Text
arxiv/papers/1308/1308.2428.pdf - Accepted Manuscript
Available under License Other.
Download (1MB)

More information

Published date: 2013
Venue - Dates: workshop; 2013-01-01, 2013-01-01
Keywords: symbol grounding, dictionaries, mental lexicon, graph theory, semantics
Organisations: Web & Internet Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 363500
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/363500
PURE UUID: f496b734-2b07-4300-aef5-7750a82c1195
ORCID for Stevan Harnad: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6153-1129

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 25 Mar 2014 14:31
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:48

Export record

Contributors

Author: Olivier Picard
Author: Melanie Lord
Author: Alexandre Blondin-Massé
Author: Odile Marcotte
Author: Marcos Lopes
Author: Stevan Harnad ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×