Visualizing WordNet Structure

Representations in WordNet are not on the level of individual words or word forms, but on the level of word meanings (lexemes). A word meaning, in turn, is characterized by simply listing the word forms that can be used to express it in a synonym set (synset). As a result, the meaning a word in WordNet is determined by its sets of synonyms. This is essentially a recursive definition of word meaning. Hence meaning in WordNet is a structural notion: the meaning of a concept is determined by its position relative to the other words in the larger WordNet structure. We have implemented a set of scripts that visualize the WordNet structure from the vantage point of a particular word in the database.