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The Gellish English Dictionary is an example of an open-source “smart” electronic dictionary that is a machine readable. It is a computer interpretable structured subset of the English language.
A smart electronic dictionary has the following characteristics:
- It contains definitions per concept, whereas ordinary dictionaries usually provide various definitions of a term, where it is unclear whether those definitions are alternative definitions of the same concept or whether they are definitions of different concepts. Thus a smart dictionary explicitly distinguished homonyms (the same term for different concepts) and explicitly specifies which terms are used as true synonyms.
- It is completely arranged as a taxonomy, which is a subtype-supertype hierarchy of concepts. This means that each concept is defined as an explicit subtype of one or more supertype concepts by specialization relations (A is a specialization of B and B is a specialization of C, etc.).
- It includes also concepts with plural term names. For example: line shaft centrifugal pump.
- It defines relation types (as a special kind of concepts). These relation types enable to make computer interpretable expressions that express facts, including the expression of knowledge and information. This means that a smart English dictionary defines a subset of the English language. Those relation types have names and synonyms that consist of standardised phrases. For example: the phrase 'is a part of' can be used to express the fact that A is a part of B, whereas the phrase 'can have as part a' can be used to express the knowledge that a whole of a particular kind can have as a part a component of a particular kind. For example, the fact that a pump can have a bearing is expressed in a structured subset of English as:
pump can have as part a bearing.- Note: All three elements in this expression are names of standard English concepts that shall be defined in a smart English dictionary.
- Concepts are related to other concepts in various ways by explicit relations of standardised relation types. Those additional relations express additional knowledge about the concepts. This makes a smart dictionary an ontology. This knowledge about the concepts can be used by computers, because such knowledge about a concept is inherited by all the subtypes of that concept in the subtype hierarchy (taxonomy).
- It uses one language independent unique identifier (a natural number) to represent each concept. This enables that facts that are expressed in one language can be automatically presented by a computer in any other language for which a smart dictionary is available.
- It can be extended by private and proprietary concepts and terms. For example, company specific codes and proprietary knowledge. Some instructions are given in 'Proper definition of a concept'.
- It is computer interpretable and system independent.
The Gellish Smart Dictionary is documented in a single standardised Gellish table that can be defined in any database system. The Gellish English Dictionary is freely available under open-source conditions (through one of the open source licenses) via a SourceForge Web site.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 20 May 2008, at 02:51.
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