[Corpora-List] WordNet vs Ontology

[Robert A. Amsler]

No, WordNet is not an ontology. Wordnet is a tangled hierarchy. A taxonomy
that allows multiple upward paths from a given node. Ontologies are the
result of logic being enforced on nodes and relationships that may use
natural language words as their names. One of their primary functions is
to eliminate ambiguity by narrowing down the meanings of words to
precisely what they want the words to mean. This allow enforcement of
useful computational properties, such as predictable relationships and
inheritance of relationships, well-defined relationships between concepts,
etc.

The loss is that ontologies may no longer represent natural language
although they "look" as though they do because they use natural language
words as nodes. Using an ontology should come with a warning that once you
start using the ontology you are committing to acceptance of its formal
definitions of the meanings of the words in the ontology.

One could almost consider ontologies to be the equivalent of artificial
languages.



> Dear corpora linguists,
>
> There is recently a discussion on stackoverflow about "wordnet vs
> ontology". I would like your perspective on several issues about wordnet
> and ontology:
>
> - Is wordnet an ontology? If it is not an ontology, what is it?
>
> - What is the definition of an ontology? Is anything
> (words/concept/entities) under a hierarchical structure some sort of
> linguistic ontology?
>
> - Are linguistic onotology / information science ontology subjected to
> only
> upper and domain ontology?
>
> - Any other comments about ontology and wordnet?
>
> Regards,
> liling
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