How to write a synset
Main points
click on Edit tab → New → choose Part of speech → type Synonym(s) → click Save
Part of speech
Decide which literals a synset consists of and what part of speech all of them belong to: noun (n), verb (v), adjective (a) or adverb (b).
Synonyms
Type down the respective literal (one or more - click on Add button to add more synonyms), specify word and sense number.
Numbering senses:
| number literal | literal always has to be numbered, i.e. you have to provide a sense number for it |
| distinguish different senses | e.g. bank:1 - financial institution, bank:2 as in "river bank" |
| lower numbers = basic senses | it is usual, as you can observe in Princeton WordNet (2.0 and higher), to assign lower numbers (1, 2, 3) to the basic senses |
| number of meanings | senses in PWN 2.0 are quite often too fine-grained - see e.g. verb to get (36 senses); we recommend to translate only the senses that can be confirmed in a corpus |
Except of Part of speech and Synonyms (which are necessary), you can add other information as well. For example definition, usage, relations (to other synsets; e.g. hypernyms), ...
Linking synsets
You can link synsets via ID/ILI. It is useful for translations, if you link your synset with another synset in a WordNet in different language.
- find a synset with the same meaning in another WordNet
- right-click in the window of your WordNet
- click Take ID from (in context menu, choose WordNet with the found synset)
- after saving, you can try Inter-WordNet functions (mentioned in DEBVisDic manual)
Linguistic recommendation
Dictionaries and corporas may help you (if they exist for given language):
| synonymical dictionary | to extend your synset |
| explanatory dictionary | should be used for establishing hyperonym relations on the first level, e.g. chair is a piece of furniture |
| parallel corpora | to find reliable translation equivalents |
Typical errors
- When entering a relation between two synsets or linking two synsets via ID/ILI, always check whether they both exist.
- Do not forget to click on the New button when entering a new synset and the Save button when you want to store it. If you do not click the Save button, nothing will be stored.
- Avoid entering one synset twice or more times (this is possible, since they will receive different IDs on creation).