The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics (1999) and Reading in the Brain (2009), by Stanislas Dehaene, provide insights that can aid in the construction of computational lexicons. Dehaene describes how both reading and mathematics recruit structures of the brain that evolved for other purposes (the neuronal recycling hypothesis). There is a visual recognition process that progressively extracts graphemes, syllables, prefixes, suffixes, word roots, and numbers. After this process, two routes in parallel activate speech creation and look-up in a mental lexicon. For both reading and mathematics, the processes are different from the computational processes implemented in computers (e.g., mathematical algorithms and parsing). Rather than attempting to optimize computational mechanisms for such processes, we can take a slightly different route by following the steps used by the brain to perform these tasks, i.e., accessing fragments of meaning in the mental lexicon.

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I have been involved in the development of a frame element hierarchy or taxonomy, based on FrameNet’s frame-to-frame relations and frame element definitions. Since I know that this taxonomy is not perfect and can be improved, I need to consider the types of operations that might be involved in making changes. Although this may seem a trivial task, a substantial amount of rigor needs to be maintained. Many other systems (particularly ontologies) also involve some sort of hierarchical relationships, principally the ISA relationship. The operations I consider will embrace these as well.

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In The Preposition Project (TPP), each sense was assigned a semantic relation type by the lexicographer. These types were grouped together into 20 larger classes. The assignment of these two labels was a local decision, that is, without any a priori theoretical perspective. Once completed, the overall collection of these classifications are amenable to more detailed analysis. In particular, each class can be subjected to a digraph analysis and examined in relation to the other classes. In addition, the classes can be compared to the frame element hierarchy. The digraph analysis suggests that several of the classes are really subtypes of other classes. Examination of the frame element hierarchy assists in a clearer perception of the semantic roles filled by prepositional phrases.

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Efforts to disambiguate prepositions have been increasing in the last few years, with claims of precision reaching 0.80. All such efforts present results in statistical generalities, with identification of the key factors related to the results. Continued progress in these efforts requires a close examination of limitations that have been noted. In addition, the exploitation of these results requires a close examination of the factors associated with each sense, so that the relevant information for each can be encoded in a meaningful way. This post summarizes the current literature on preposition disambiguation as a prelude to further developments of the data to be encoded in The Preposition Project (see sidebar link).

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