[Lexicog] Digest Number 1050

[Mike Maxwell]

Ronald Moe wrote:
> Mike Maxwell wrote:
> “what does it mean for one word to be a 'hub', rather than another?”
> 
> This is a metaphor used in a theory of semantic networks. 
> ...
> Let’s imagine that ‘armchair’ is only related to ‘chair’, but that 
> ‘chair’ was related to ‘high chair’ ‘sofa’ ‘furniture’ and ‘stool’.
> In this case ‘armchair’ would be a node with only a single link to
> ‘chair’:
> 
> armchair-----chair
> 
> But ‘chair’ would be a hub (and a node) with lots of spokes:
> 
>               furniture
>                    |
> armchair-----chair----sofa
>            /        \
>          stool      high chair
> 
> It turns out that ‘furniture’ is also a hub...

Right, but to go from a metaphor to a theory, there has to be some way 
to accurately measure (count) these links.  For example, how do we know 
that 'stool' is connected to 'chair' instead of directly to 'furniture'?

And what about multiple inheritance?  Is 'high chair' linked to both 
'chair' and 'table'?  If not, why not?  And is 'high chair' perhaps 
linked to 'baby' or 'infant' as well, or do only 'is-a' links count (as 
opposed in this example to 'for the use of' links)?  How would we know 
which kinds of links count and which kinds don't?  If we count links 
other than 'is-a' links, I suspect that every word might turn into a 
hub, because words which are specific have lots of links to other 
concepts--namely, the concepts that help define their specificity.  And 
at a guess, there won't be much space between clusters.

Also, do incoming 'is-a' links (the one from 'furniture' to 'chair' 
count differently from outgoing 'is-a' links (the ones from 'chair' to 
'armchair', 'stool' and 'high chair')?  And what kind of link is it 
between 'chair' and 'sofa'?  If the two are instead linked directly from 
'furniture' (and linked to each other only by way of the 'furniture' 
node), then the count of links from 'chair' goes down; so if we're going 
to determine whether s.t. is a hub by counting the links, this is important.

I suspect there's also an issue of the gradiency of links.  For example, 
if I'm camping, a stump or rock may make a good chair.  Is there a weak 
link between 'stump' or 'rock' and 'chair'?  What about a barstool that 
has a back to it: is it linked to 'stool' or to 'chair', and how would 
we know?  Is a 'wheelchair' a 'chair', or is it linked more to 'bicycle' 
or 'tricycle' (or to some node above them)?  Is a 'seat' in a car a 
chair?  Does it matter whether it's a bucket seat, a bench seat, or a 
child's car seat?  What about the seat on a motorcycle or bicycle?

It reminds me a bit of Fillmore's Case Grammar; very attractive, until 
you try to pin down exactly what it means.  (Your mileage may vary :-).)

Paint me skeptical...
-- 
	Mike Maxwell
	maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu

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