Ontology and the Lexicon: Learning and using ontological knowledge

The relation between ontologies and language is at the forefront of both natural language processing (NLP) and knowledge engineering. Ontologies, as widely used models in semantic technologies, have much in common with the lexicon. A lexicon organizes words as a conventional inventory of concepts, while an ontology formalizes concepts and their logical relations. A shared lexicon is the prerequisite for knowledge-sharing through language, and a shared ontology is the prerequisite for knowledge-sharing through information technology. In building models of language, computational linguists must be able to map accurately the relations between words and the concepts that they can be linked to. This book focuses on the integration of lexical resources and semantic technologies. It will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in NLP, computational linguistics and knowledge engineering, as well as in semantics, psycholinguistics, lexicology and morphology/syntax.