The Generation of Term Definitions From an On-Line Terminological Thesaurus

THE G~INERATION OF TERM DEFINITIONS FROM AN ON-LINE TEP~NOLOGICAL ~SA[~S John McNaught Centre for Computational Linguistics bT~IST P.O. Box 88 Manchester UK ABSTRACT A new type of machine dictionary is described, which uses terminological relations to build up a semantic network representing the terms of a particular subject field, through interaction with the user. These relations are then used to dynamically generate outline definitions of terms in on-line query mode. The definitions produced are precise, consistent and informative, and allow the user to situate a query term in the local conceptual ~vironment. The simple definitions based on terminological relations are supplemented by information contained in facets and modifiers, which allow the user to capture different views of the data. I Introduction This paper describes an on-golng project being carried cot at U~T, which is concerned with the nature, constructicn and use of specialised machine dictionaries, concentrating on one particular type, the terminological thesanrus (Sager, 1981). ~ system described here is capable of c~ynem~ically producing outline definitions of technical terms, and it is this feature which distinguishes it from other automated dictionaries. II Background A. Published Specialised Dictionaries These traditional reference tools, while often containing hi~n quality terminology collected after painstaking research, do not in the normal case afford the user an overall conceptual view of the subject field, as they exhibit a relative lack of structure. Moreover, due to the limitations of the printed page, the form%t of the entries is fixed, such that 1~sers with differing information needs are obliged to search through to them irrelevant data. The only real aid ~ich allows the user to place a term roughly in the local conceptual environment is the conve~.tional def~_nition. However, such definitions tend to be idiosyncratic, inconsistent and non- rigorous, especially if the subject field is of any great size. Contexts, while of some help, are * sponsored by the Department of Education and Science through the award of a Research Fellowship in fx~fo1~tion Science notoriously difficult to find and control, and should only be seen as supplementary to a rigorous definiticn of the term which firmly places the term in the conceptual space. Those reference tools containing definitions which are rigorous exist mainly in the form of glossaries established by standards bodies. However, standardisation of terminologies is a slow affair, and is restricted to certain key terms or fields, such that no overall conceptual structure r,~y be obtained from these glossaries. B. Term Banks and F~chine Dictionaries Term Banks offer many advantages over traditional dictionaries, and are becoming more and more common, especially among organisations which have urgent terminolo~ needs, such as the Co~ssicn of the European Communities or the electronics firm Siemens AG in W. Germar~y. National bodies likewise use term banks to control the creation and dissemination of new standaraised terms, e.g. AFNOR (France) and DIN (W. Germany). In the UK, work is going ahead, coordinated by UMIST and the British Library, to set up a British Term Bank. Other in~portant term banks exist in Denmark …

Content truncated to 500 words