Morphosemantic Relations in and Across Wordnets:

A Study Based on Turkish

Orhan Bilgin, Özlem Çetinoglu, Kemal Oflazer

Sabanci University

Human Languages and Speech Technologies Laboratory

Istanbul, Turkey

{orhanb,ozlemc,oflazer@sabanciuniv.edu}

OBJECTIVES

Using morphological processes in Language A, we can:

extract explicit semantic relations in Language A and use these to enrich Wordnet A;

automatically prepare machine-tractable synset glosses for Wordnet A and/or B; and most importantly

discover implicit semantic relations in Wordnet B and use these to enrich Wordnet B.

METHODOLOGY

1) Determine derivational affixes in Language A

Rule of Thumb:

Prefer productive affixes with predictable semantics

METHODOLOGY

-ci

The chaotic “agentive” suffix -ci

A more well-behaved suffix: - li

-li

METHODOLOGY

METHODOLOGY

2) Define the semantic effects of the affixes

SUFFIXSUFFIX POSPOS EFFECTEFFECT

-laş-laş n-v, a-vn-v, a-v BECOMEBECOME

-lan-lan n-vn-v ACQUIREACQUIRE

-lHk-lHk a-n, n-na-n, n-n BE_IN_STATEBE_IN_STATE

-lH-lH n-an-a WITHWITH

-sHz-sHz n-an-a WITHOUTWITHOUT

-sAl-sAl n-an-a PERTAINS_TOPERTAINS_TO

-(y)lA-(y)lA n-bn-b WITHWITH

-Hş-Hş v-vv-v RECIPROCALRECIPROCAL

-(H)l-(H)l v-vv-v CAUSESCAUSES

-(H)t, -DHr, -(H)r, -(A)r-(H)t, -DHr, -(H)r, -(A)r v-vv-v IS_CAUSED_BYIS_CAUSED_BY

-Hş-Hş v-nv-n ACT_OFACT_OF

-CA-CA a-b, n-ba-b, n-b MANNERMANNER

2) Extract morphosemantically-related pairs

boulder

builder

deer

dresser

father

founder

her

killer

laser

maker

mother

never

teacher

CA

ND

IDA

TE

S

boulder

builder

deer

dresser

father

founder

her

killer

laser

maker

mother

never

teacher

WIN

NE

RS

MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYZER

ROOT (v) + AGENT ?

METHODOLOGY

2) Extract morphosemantically-related pairs

build - builder

dress - dresser

found - founder

kill - killer

make - maker

teach - teacher

METHODOLOGY

-put on clothes-dress in a certain manner-dress with elaborate care-put a dressing on-convert into leather-apply a bandage to-give a neat appearance to-arrange hair attractively-put a finish on-kill and prepare for consumption-arrange in ranks-provide with clothes-cut back the growth of

-furniture for keeping clothes-person who dresses in a particular way-a wardrobe assistant for an actor-a cabinet with shelves-low table with mirror or mirrors

3) Link pair members to ILI records

dress (v) dresser (n)

(1709-1784)

METHODOLOGY

?

USES

1) Extract explicit semantic relations in the language

taşlaşmak

polimerleşmek

iyonlaşmak

kemikleşmek

billurlaşmak

kireçleşmek

plastikleşmek

izomerleşmek

keratinleşmek

BECOME

taşlaştırmak

polimerleştirmek

iyonlaştırmak

kemikleştirmek

billurlaştırmak

kireçleştirmek

plastikleştirmek

izomerleştirmek

keratinleştirmek

taş

polimer

iyon

kemik

billur

kireç

plastik

izomer

keratin

IS_CAUSED_BY

USES

2) Share relations with other wordnets

a) Pairs in importing language are morphologically related

deli delilik

madnessmad

13580347-n 02005975-a

STATE_OFEXPORTING LANGUAGE

IMPORTING LANGUAGE

INTERLINGUAL INDEX

USES

2) Share relations with other wordnets

a) Pairs in importing language are morphologically related

deli delilik

madnessmad

13580347-n 02005975-a

STATE_OFEXPORTING LANGUAGE

IMPORTING LANGUAGE

INTERLINGUAL INDEX

STATE_OF

USES

2) Share relations with other wordnets

b) Pairs in importing language are morphologically unrelated

yıkmak yıkılmak

collapsetear down

01614562-v 01931110-v

CAUSESEXPORTING LANGUAGE

IMPORTING LANGUAGE

INTERLINGUAL INDEX

USES

yıkmak yıkılmak

collapsetear down

01614562-v 01931110-v

CAUSESEXPORTING LANGUAGE

IMPORTING LANGUAGE

INTERLINGUAL INDEX

CAUSES

2) Share relations with other wordnets

b) Pairs in importing language are morphologically unrelated

USES

3) Prepare simple synset glosses

omurga omurgalı

vertebratespine

05268544-n 02422440-a

WITHEXPORTING LANGUAGE

IMPORTING LANGUAGE

INTERLINGUAL INDEX

USES

3) Prepare simple synset glosses

omurga omurgalı

vertebratespine

05268544-n 02422440-a

WITHEXPORTING LANGUAGE

IMPORTING LANGUAGE

INTERLINGUAL INDEX

vertebrate == with spine

USES

3) Prepare simple synset glosses

Some examples based on Turkish Wordnet:

ossify: become bone dress: cause to wear

languish: become weak dissuade: cause to give up

petrify: become stone abrade: cause to wear away

thin out: become sparse encourage: cause to take heart

improve: become good kill: cause to die

saponify: become soap disease: state of being sick

caseate: become cheese infidel: without religion

hush: become silent weak: without strength

rejuvenate: become young perfect: without defect

calcify: become lime smooth: without roughness

RESULTS

SUFFIXSUFFIX # OF PAIRS# OF PAIRS EFFECTEFFECT

-lik-lik 4,0784,078 BE_IN_STATEBE_IN_STATE

-li-li 2,7252,725 WITHWITH

-siz-siz 1,0011,001 WITHOUTWITHOUT

-iş-iş 991991 ACT_OFACT_OF

-lan-lan 758758 ACQUIREACQUIRE

-laş-laş 763763 BECOMEBECOME

-dir-dir 782782 CAUSESCAUSES

-ca-ca 710710 MANNERMANNER

-sal-sal 115115 PERTAINS_TOPERTAINS_TO

TOTALTOTAL 11,92311,923

The current wordlist of Turkish contains a substantial number of words derived from a small set of suffixes.

RESULTS

SUFFIXSUFFIX # IN WL# IN WL # IN TWN# IN TWN # IN PWN# IN PWN NEWNEW

-dir-dir 782782 8080 1818 77.5%77.5%

-laş-laş 763763 8383 1111 86.7%86.7%

Detailed analysis of two suffixes:

Although Turkish Wordnet is a small-sized resource (~10,000 synsets), it contains a significant number of synsets involving these two suffixes.

In only a few cases does PWN indicate a CAUSES relation between the respective English synsets.

In the case of the BECOME pairs, PWN provides the underspecified relation “ENG_DERIVATIVE”.