1. Some thing about Nouns in WordNet
Wentao Ding
Jiajie Yu

2. Back to traditional grammar…
Sentence = Subject + Predicate
The subject is the thing being talked about.
The predicate comprises the rest of the sentence, all of the parts of the sentence that are not the subject.
Subject: Generally a noun or pronoun, or a phrase containing a noun or pronoun.
Predicate: The only required element is a finite verb, may contain object(s), complement(s), prepositional phrases, or adverbial elements.

3. Nouns in subject/predicate
“Subject”: Object with independent semantics.
Center + Modifier
“Predicate”: The semantics relies on its argument.
Property + Value
Value
Another object
Status of an object

4. 25+1 WordNet classes of nouns
Description
tops
unique beginner for nouns
motive
nouns denoting goals
act
nouns denoting acts or actions
object
nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
animal
nouns denoting animals
person
nouns denoting people
artifact
nouns denoting man-made objects
phenome-non
nouns denoting natural phenomena
attribute
nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
plant
nouns denoting plants
body
nouns denoting body parts
possession
nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
cognition
nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
process
nouns denoting natural processes
communication
nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
quantity
nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
event
nouns denoting natural events
relation
nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas
feeling
nouns denoting feelings and emotions
shape
nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes
food
nouns denoting foods and drinks
state
nouns denoting stable states of affairs
group
nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
substance
nouns denoting substances
location
nouns denoting spatial position
time
nouns denoting time and temporal relations
“Medicine” and “Motrin” are both artifact, “crime” and “WW II” are both act.

5. Concept
The function of a conceptual noun can only be determined in utterance.
Women are numerous. | Women’s human rights.
Alice is numerous.
He is a student. | His student
Entity | Collection | Predicate | Status ...

6. WordNet Classification of nouns
Focus on semantic domain.
Man-made / Natural
Partly related with nouns’ function in utterances.
Noun’s function:
Has argument?
Has instance?
Inheritable?
Computable?
Has semantics?

7. Q & A
Thanks for listening.