A Taxonomy for English Nouns and Verbs

The d e f i n i t i o n t e x t s of a m a c h i n e r e a d a b l e pocket d i c t i o n a r y were ana lyzed to d e t e r m i n e the d i s a m b i g u a t e d word sense of the k e r n e l terms of each word sense be ing d e f i n e d . The r e s u l t a n t s e t s of word p a i r s of d e f i n e d and d e f i n i n g words were then computaCiona l ly connected i n t o t~o taxonomic semil a t t i c e s ( " t a n g l e d h i e r a r c h i e s " ) r e p r e s e n t i n g some 24,000 noun nodes and 11,000 verb nodes . The s tudy of the n a t u r e of the " topmos t" nodes i n t h e s e h i e r a r c h i e s . and the s t r u c t u r e of the t r e e s r e v e a l i n f o r m a t i o n about the nature of the dictionary's organization of the l a n g u a g e , the concept of seman t i c p r i m i t i v e s and o t h e r a s p e c t s of l e x i c a l s e m a n t i c s . The d a t a p roves t h a t the d i c t i o n a r y o f f e r s a f u n d a m e n t a l l y c o n s i s t e n t d e s c r i p t i o n of word meaning and may p r ov ide the b a s i s f o r f u t u r e r e s e a r c h and a p p l i c a t i o n s in compu ta t i ona l l i n g u i s t i c sy s t ems .