Lexicosemantic relationships

It is possible to relate the sense objects using the predicate lemon:senseRelation. This has the following sub-properties defined in lemon:

• equivalent
• incompatible
• broader
• narrower⁶

These can be used to state the similarity of the terms “animal” and “creature” as follows

:animal lemon:canonicalForm [ lemon:writtenRep "animal"@en ] ;
   lemon:sense :animal_sense .

:animal_sense lemon:reference ontology:animal ;
   lemon:equivalent :creature_sense .
   
:creature lemon:canonicalForm [ lemon:writtenRep "creature"@en ] ;
   lemon:sense :creature_sense .
   
:creature_sense lemon:reference ontology:animal ;
   lemon:equivalent :animal_sense .

Example 23

For a further example of the usefulness of these similarities consider the case of the French words “rivière” and “fleuve”, these refer to rivers that flow into other rivers and the sea respectively. As such this distinction can be modeled by the following sub-graph.

:fleuve lemon:sense :fleuve_sense .
:riviere lemon:sense :riviere_sense .
:river lemon:sense :river_sense .

:fleuve_sense lemon:incompatible :riviere_sense .

:riviere_sense lemon:incompatible :fleuve_sense .

:river_sense lemon:narrower :riviere_sense ,
                            :fleuve_sense .

Example 24