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Relations in GermaNet

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Overview

Concepts are the basic unit to enter lexicographic data for GermaNet. Concepts are described as synsets. Each synset consist of a list of lemmas or lexical units denoting the lexical realizations of the concept described. Note, that a list of synonyms can consist of only one element.


There are two types of relations, conceptual relations denote relations that hold for the full concept, not only for one of its synonyms. Lexical relations hold between lexical realizations (synonyms, lemmas), one frequent lexical relation is for example the antonymy.


GermaNet covers all relations which are defined for WordNet®, except for the 'similar to' relation for adjectives, which is replaced by the hyperonymy/hyponymy relation in GermanNet (see description of adjectives for details).


Some of them (like 'entails') are used less often in GermaNet, others (like 'cause to') will be used more frequently (see description of verbs for details).


One major difference to WordNet® is that cross-classification (multiple inheritence) is explicitly allowed in GermaNet and lexicographers are encouraged to make ample use of it whenever appropriate.


This section is intended to list all the relations together with their definition, restrictions in use, and notes on the current status of their implementation.



Relation Name
Valid Class Name of Reverse
Relation
Type
N A V
Synonymy y y y Synonymy lexical
Antonymy y y y Antonymy lexical
Hyperonymy y y y Hyponymy conceptual
Hyponymy y y y Hyperonymy conceptual
Meronymy y n n Holonymy conceptual
Holonymy y n n Meronymy conceptual
Causation n n y   conceptual
Association y y y   conceptual
Pertonymy y y y   lexical
Participle n y n   lexical
Compound Relations y n n   lexical

 

Legend

  • Valid Class N: is the relation valid for nouns?
  • Valid Class A: is the relation valid for adjectives?
  • Valid Class V: is the relation valid for verbs?


Conceptual Relations


Hyperonymy/Hyponymy

According to EuroWordNet, the "denotation of a hyponym is never equal to the denotation of a hyperonym, i.e. it must be a proper subset. There must be multiple co-hyponyms to result in a genuine hyponomy relation." It is assumed that the hyperonym (more general) may substitute the hyponym (less general) in a given context, but not the other way round.



Test (EuroWordNet) for verbs:

Verb synset X is hyponym of verb synset Y and verb synset Y is a hyperonym of verb synset X if the following test sentences can be answered accordingly:


X is Y + AdvP/AdjP/NP/PP.

('To run' is 'to go' fast.)

yes
Y is X + AdvP/AdjP/NP/PP.

('To go' is 'to run' fast.)

no



Test (EuroWordNet) for nouns:

Attention has to be payed, since this test can also be used for synonymy. Therefore a second test for species, kinds, races, and brands has been developed.


Test 1 (also for synonymy):

X is a hyponym/synonym of Y and Y is a hyperonym/synonym of X if the following test sentences apply:


An X is a Y with specific characteristics.

(A car is a vehicle with specific characteristics.)

It is an X and thus also a Y.

(It is a car and thus also a vehicle.)

If it is an X, it has to be also a Y.

(If it is a car...)

yes
Inversion of the above sentences

(A vehicle is a car with specific characteristics.)

(It is a vehicle and thus also a car.)

(If it is a vehicle ...)

no

Test 2 (for species, kinds, races, and brands):

Note that this test cannot be used for synonymy.


X is a kind/a type/a race/a species/a brand of Y.

(A car is a kind of vehicle.)

yes
Inversion of the above sentence

(A vehicle is a kind of car.)

no


Meronymy/Holonymy

This relation in general only applies to concrete nouns which are interpreted generically (EuroWordNet 1996). According to EuroWordNet, part-whole relations come in inverse pairs, i.e. as holonymy and meronymy.

Test (EuroWordNet) :

X has a holonym Y and Y has a meronym X if


(an) X constitutes a part of (a) Y

(a) Y has (an) X.

yes
Inversion of the above sentences no


Causation

This pointer indicates the causation relation especially between verbs and adjectives. See also Semantic Relations between Verbs



Association

This is a dummy pointer without a clear definition that is best characterized as "is related to". See also Semantic Relations between Verbs



Lexical Relations

Synonymy

The following text passages are taken from the EuroWordNet General Document (edited by Piek Vossen, University of Amsterdam, and published in July 2002; it is online available):



Synonymy is the basis for the organization of the database in synsets. Miller and Fellbaum (1990) suggested a notion of synonymy, namely 'semantic similarity', which is defined as: “two expressions are synonymous in a linguistic context C if the substitution of one for the other in C does not alter the truth value” (Miller et al., 1990).



From this we can derive the following tests for synonymy between nouns and verbs respectively:



Test 1: Synonymy between nouns

if it is (a/an) X then it is also (a/an) Y

if it is (a/an) Y then it is also (a/an) X


Example:

if it is a fiddle then it is a violin

if it is a violin then it is a fiddle


synset variants {fiddle, violin}


Test 2: Synonymy between verbs


If something/someone/it Xs then something/someone/it Ys

If something/someone/it Ys then something/someone/it Xs


If something/someone/it begins then something/someone/it starts

If something/someone/it starts then something/someone/it begins


synset variants: {begin, start}



Antonymy

Test (EuroWordNet) for Verbs:

In EuroWordNet antonymy is a relation between variants, i.e. between elements of the same synset: Synset variant X is an antonym of synset variant Y if X is the opposite of Y.


Test sentences:

If sth./sb. X-s, he/she/it does not Y.

(If she borrows sth., she does not lend it.)

yes
If sth./sb. Y-s, he/she/it does not X.

(If she lends sth., she does not borrow it.)

yes

The following conditions have to apply for this relation:


  1. X and Y share the same hyperonym, thus they are elements of a co-hyponym synset (this prevents, e. g., that verbs like eat and sleep are designated as antonyms).

  2. There is a hyperonym of X, which is the opposite of a hyperonym of Y.

  3. Both verbs involve the same participants, which play, however, different roles in the situations (i.e. states, events or processes) that are described by these verbs (example: give and receive are antonyms because the indirect object of give , i.e. the addressee, who is involved in the event, is subject of receive ).

EuroWordNet further assumes a relation called near_antonymy which applies to entire synsets, i.e. the antonymy relation holds between all members of the synset. Besides this, the test is the same as for antonymy (including the three conditions).



Test (EuroWordNet) for Nouns

Antonymy and near_antonymy are also distinguished for nouns. The test is simpler than for verbs however:

X is an antonym of Y and Y is an antonym of X if the following test sentences apply:


X and Y are both a kind of Z, but X is the opposite of Y.

(i.e. Z is a hyperonym of X and Y.)

(Love and hate are both a kind of emotion, but love is the opposite of hate.)

yes
Inversion of the above sentence

(Hate and love are both a kind of emotion, but hate is the opposite of love.)

yes

As for verbs, the condition that Z is a hyperonym of both X and Y is necessary in order to guarantee that the antonymy relation is stated in a reasonable, competitive denotational range.



Pertonymy

The lexical relation pertonymy combines adjectives derived from a noun with their nominal base. The noun forms the basis of the adjective and determines its meaning (e.g. the adjective finanziell (financial) is derived from the noun Finanzen (finance)).



Participle

A subgroup of adjectives corresponds formally with the participle of a verb. Their semantic refers to the semantic of the underlying verb, but additionally they show to a different extent idiosyncratic semantic features. In those cases where the semantics of the underlying verb is in a significant way relevant for the interpretation of the participle adjective, there is a relation from the adjective to the respective verb. For example, ergreifend, ergriffen refer to the verb ergreifen in the sense of having an emotional effect on someone (eine emotionale Wirkung auf jemanden haben).



Compound Relations

Compound relations specify the semantic relation which can be established between a compound and its modifier. The inventory of those relations is based on the results of a project in the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 833 "The Construction of Meaning: The Dynamics and Adaptivity of Linguistic Structures" at the University of Tübingen: "Corpus-based Semantic Composition Models for Phrases". In this project a complex annotation scheme was developed to characterize the semantic relation between the modifier and the head of a given noun compound. We adapted this scheme and reformulated it as a relation between modifier and compound.


The following examples illustrate some possible relations of compounds with the head ‚Haus’:


Holzhaus (wooden house) [has_material] Holz (wood)
Gästehaus (guest house) [has_user] Gast (guest)
Autohaus (car dealership) [has_goods] Auto (car)
Baumhaus (tree house) [has_location] Baum (tree)


This table shows all compound relations with an example of each:


GN-relation Example
has_active_usage Schlafwagen has_active_usage Schlaf
has_occasion Geburtstagsgeschenk has_occasion Geburtstag
has_attribute Zauberland has_attribute Zauber
has_appearance Kugelfisch has_appearance Kugel

has_construction_method

Blockhütte has_construction_method Block

has_container

Dosenmilch has_container Dose

is_container_for

Mokkatasse is_container_for Mokka

has_consistency_of

Panzerglas has_consistency_of Panzer

has_component

Chlorwassser has_component Chlor

has_owner

Metzgerladen has_owner Metzger

is_owner _of

Hauseigentümer is_owner _of Haus

has_function

Grenzzaun has_function Grenze

has_manner_of_functioning

Sonnenuhr has_manner_of_functioning Sonne

has_origin

Ackersalat has_origin Acker

has_production_method

Pfannkuchen has_production_method Pfanne

has_content

Bilderbuch has_content Bild

has_no_property

Maultier has_no_property Maul

has_habitat

Bachforelle has_habitat Bach

has_location

Almhütte has_location Alm

is_location_of

Schlossberg is_location_of Schloss

has_measure

Literflasche has_measure Liter

is_measure_of

Blutzuckerspiegel is_measure_of Blutzucker

has_material

Holzhaus has_material Holz

has_member

Kinderchor has_member Kind

is_member_of

Marinesoldat is_member_of Marine

has_diet

Ameisenbär has_diet Ameise

is_diet_of

Katzenfutter is_diet_of Katze

has_eponym

Panflöte has_eponym Pan

has_user

Taucherbrille has_user Taucher

has_product

Autofabrik has_product Auto

is_product_of

Spinnennetz is_product_ofSpinne

has_prototypical_holder

Altartuch has_prototypical_holderAltar

is_prototypical_holder_for

Kleiderbügelis_prototypical_holder_forKleid

has_prototypical_place_of_ usage

Gartenbank has_prototypical _place_of_usage Garten

has_relation

Bankdirektor has_relation Bank

has_raw_product

Apfelsaft has_raw_product Apfel

has_other_property

Jägerzaun has_other_property Jäger

is_storage_for

Bildarchiv is_storage_for Bild

has_specialization

Augenarzt has_specialization Auge

has_part

Gelenkbus has_part Gelenk

is_part_of

Autodach is_part_of Auto

has_topic

Sportzeitung has_topic Sport

is_caused_by

Regenbogen is_caused_by Regen

is_cause_for

Schauerroman is_cause_for Schauer

is_comparable_to

Satellitenstadt is_comparable_to Satellit

has_usage

Handelsschiff has_usage Handel

has_result_of_usage

Wärmflasche has_result_of_usage Wärme

has_purpose_of_usage

Autoschlüssel has_purpose_of_usage Auto

has_goods

Blumenladen has_goods Blume

has_time

Abendzeitung has_time Abend

is_access_to

Haustür is_access_to Haus

has_ingredient

Obstkuchen has_ingredient Obst

is_ingredient_of Kaffeemilch is_ingredient_of Kaffee