The generation of term definitions from an on-line terminological thesaurus

Abstract

A new type of machine dictionary is described, which uses terminological relations to build up a semantic network representing the terms of a particular subject field, through interaction with the user. These relations are then used to dynamically generate outline definitions of terms in on-line query mode. The definitions produced are precise, consistent and informative, and allow the user to situate a query term in the local conceptual environment. The simple definitions based on terminological relations are supplemented by information contained in facets and modifiers, which allow the user to capture different views of the data.