MDS of Electronic Dictionary Research:EDR (E)

Introduction to IT Projects (Electronic Dictionary Research:EDR)

Keywords Used For WWW Search:

Electronic dictionary, Machine tractable dictionary, General-purpose dictionary, Large-scale dictionary, Natural language processing, Knowledge information processing, Linguistic data, Word dictionary, Bilingual dictionary, Concept dictionary, Co-occurrence dictionary, Corpus, Text base, Headword, Part of speech, Syntactic tree, Conjugation, Surface case, Idiom, Synonymy, Concept, Concept relation, Concept hierarchy, Co-occurrence relation, Semantic frame, Frequency, Example sentence

Project Name:

Experimental research towards the development of an electronic dictionary for natural language processing [-> EDR web server]

Country of Origin and Current Location:

Japan Electronic Dictionary Research Institute, Ltd. (EDR)

Mailiing address:Daini-Abe Bldg., 78-1, Kanda-sakumagashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0026,Japan

The EDR Electronic Dictionary is composed of four types of dictionaries, the Word Dictionary, the Bilingual Dictionary, the Concept Dictionary, and the Co-occurrence Dictionary, and the EDR Corpus. The Word Dictionary is divided into the General Vocabulary and the Technical Terms Dictionaries, and the Concept Dictionary is separated into the Headconcept, the Concept Classification and the Concept Description Dictionaries. In addition, the intended languages are the Japanese language and the English language. (Refer to Figure 1).

Figure 1. Structure of the EDR Electronic Dictionary

Word Dictionary
The Word Dictionary indicates the concept (meaning) that a word represents and, corresponding to the concept, describes grammatical characteristics, which will function as clues to apprehend the syntactic structure of sentences. Depending on the difference of vocabularies, the Word Dictionary is divided into the General Vocabulary and the Technical Terms Dictionaries. The Technical Terms Dictionary is limited to the field of information processing only.

Bilingual Dictionary
The Bilingual Dictionary describes the word correspondence between Japanese and English words. The dictionary is divided into the Japanese-English and the English-Japanese Bilingual Dictionaries.

Concept Dictionary
The Concept Dictionary is essential for computers to understand the concept indicated in the Word Dictionary. In EDR, "to understand a concept" is represented by describing the relation between concepts. For example, the concept of "an apple," as shown in Figure 2, is defined in the manner that it is capable of becoming objects of such actions and state concepts as "to cut," "to eat," "to make" and "being red." Furthermore, the action concept, "to cut," is defined in the forms that such concepts as "she," "an apple," "a kitchen" and "a knife" are capable of becoming the agent of the action, the object, the place and the implement, respectively.
Just as shown above, the "relation of a concept with another one" constitutes the minimum unit of all relations. The minimum unit is named as the concept description and a large-scale collection of the units is the Concept Description Dictionary. However, to describe every relation with all remaining concepts for each concept will turn out as astronomical work and will also be hard to maintain. Therefore, the concepts are grouped, the super-concepts are given onto them and the hierarchy are created, and further, the super-concept are made to be the objects for the concept description as well; thus, the relations among all concepts are approximated each other.
What collected and arranged the relations with regard to all concepts, making the "super and sub relation of a concept with another one" as a unit, is the Concept Classification Dictionary. The Headconcept Dictionary is prepared putting more consciousness on human beings than computers and is furnished with plain explanations for human beings to make, modify and use the concepts.

Figure 2. Concept Description

Co-occurrence Dictionary
The Co-occurrence Dictionary provides descriptions about information related to the wording of the words. The dictionary will be used to select an appropriate word when computers represent certain things in natural language.
The EDR Corpus is linguistic data obtained through analyses on each level from morphology, syntax to semantics, collecting a large amount of usages. The dictionary is used mainly by researchers at their technological development stages.

Relations among major dictionaries
The relations among major dictionaries that constitute the EDR Electronic Dictionary are given in Figure 3. For example, the knowledge that "a bird flies" is represented in the form that "an animal called a bird" can be an agent of the concept, "to fly," in the Concept Description Dictionary. The concept, "to fly," is placed under the concept of "to move" and "to move" is located under the "volitional action" in the Concept Classification Dictionary. Similarly, "an animal called a bird" is put under the concept of "animals" and the concept of "animals" is set under the concept of "living creatures."
These concepts are described as the word meanings in the Word Dictionary and are linked with the words. In addition, the Japanese and the English Word Dictionaries are made connected each other via concepts established independently from the language and the Bilingual Dictionaries are constituted with these correspondence relations.; The Word Dictionary indicates the concept (meaning) that a word represents and, corresponding to the concept, describes grammatical characteristics, which will function as clues to apprehend the syntactic structure of sentences. Depending on the difference of vocabularies, the Word Dictionary is divided into the General Vocabulary and the Technical Terms Dictionaries. The Technical Terms Dictionary is limited to the field of information processing only.

Bilingual Dictionary
The Bilingual Dictionary describes the word correspondence between Japanese and English words. The dictionary is divided into the Japanese-English and the English-Japanese Bilingual Dictionaries.

Concept Dictionary
The Concept Dictionary is essential for computers to understand the concept indicated in the Word Dictionary. In EDR, "to understand a concept" is represented by describing the relation between concepts. For example, the concept of "an apple," as shown in Figure 2, is defined in the manner that it is capable of becoming objects of such actions and state concepts as "to cut," "to eat," "to make" and "being red." Furthermore, the action concept, "to cut," is defined in the forms that such concepts as "she," "an apple," "a kitchen" and "a knife" are capable of becoming the agent of the action, the object, the place and the implement, respectively.
Just as shown above, the "relation of a concept with another one" constitutes the minimum unit of all relations. The minimum unit is named as the concept description and a large-scale collection of the units is the Concept Description Dictionary. However, to describe every relation with all remaining concepts for each concept will turn out as astronomical work and will also be hard to maintain. Therefore, the concepts are grouped, the super-concepts are given onto them and the hierarchy are created, and further, the super-concept are made to be the objects for the concept description as well; thus, the relations among all concepts are approximated each other.
What collected and arranged the relations with regard to all concepts, making the "super and sub relation of a concept with another one" as a unit, is the Concept Classification Dictionary. The Headconcept Dictionary is prepared putting more consciousness on human beings than computers and is furnished with plain explanations for human beings to make, modify and use the concepts.

Figure 2. Concept Description

Co-occurrence Dictionary
The Co-occurrence Dictionary provides descriptions about information related to the wording of the words. The dictionary will be used to select an appropriate word when computers represent certain things in natural language.
The EDR Corpus is linguistic data obtained through analyses on each level from morphology, syntax to semantics, collecting a large amount of usages. The dictionary is used mainly by researchers at their technological development stages.

Relations among major dictionaries
The relations among major dictionaries that constitute the EDR Electronic Dictionary are given in Figure 3. For example, the knowledge that "a bird flies" is represented in the form that "an animal called a bird" can be an agent of the concept, "to fly," in the Concept Description Dictionary. The concept, "to fly," is placed under the concept of "to move" and "to move" is located under the "volitional action" in the Concept Classification Dictionary. Similarly, "an animal called a bird" is put under the concept of "animals" and the concept of "animals" is set under the concept of "living creatures."
These concepts are described as the word meanings in the Word Dictionary and are linked with the words. In addition, the Japanese and the English Word Dictionaries are made connected each other via concepts established independently from the language and the Bilingual Dictionaries are constituted with these correspondence relations.; The Bilingual Dictionary describes the word correspondence between Japanese and English words. The dictionary is divided into the Japanese-English and the English-Japanese Bilingual Dictionaries.

Concept Dictionary
The Concept Dictionary is essential for computers to understand the concept indicated in the Word Dictionary. In EDR, "to understand a concept" is represented by describing the relation between concepts. For example, the concept of "an apple," as shown in Figure 2, is defined in the manner that it is capable of becoming objects of such actions and state concepts as "to cut," "to eat," "to make" and "being red." Furthermore, the action concept, "to cut," is defined in the forms that such concepts as "she," "an apple," "a kitchen" and "a knife" are capable of becoming the agent of the action, the object, the place and the implement, respectively.
Just as shown above, the "relation of a concept with another one" constitutes the minimum unit of all relations. The minimum unit is named as the concept description and a large-scale collection of the units is the Concept Description Dictionary. However, to describe every relation with all remaining concepts for each concept will turn out as astronomical work and will also be hard to maintain. Therefore, the concepts are grouped, the super-concepts are given onto them and the hierarchy are created, and further, the super-concept are made to be the objects for the concept description as well; thus, the relations among all concepts are approximated each other.
What collected and arranged the relations with regard to all concepts, making the "super and sub relation of a concept with another one" as a unit, is the Concept Classification Dictionary. The Headconcept Dictionary is prepared putting more consciousness on human beings than computers and is furnished with plain explanations for human beings to make, modify and use the concepts.

Figure 2. Concept Description

Co-occurrence Dictionary
The Co-occurrence Dictionary provides descriptions about information related to the wording of the words. The dictionary will be used to select an appropriate word when computers represent certain things in natural language.
The EDR Corpus is linguistic data obtained through analyses on each level from morphology, syntax to semantics, collecting a large amount of usages. The dictionary is used mainly by researchers at their technological development stages.

Relations among major dictionaries
The relations among major dictionaries that constitute the EDR Electronic Dictionary are given in Figure 3. For example, the knowledge that "a bird flies" is represented in the form that "an animal called a bird" can be an agent of the concept, "to fly," in the Concept Description Dictionary. The concept, "to fly," is placed under the concept of "to move" and "to move" is located under the "volitional action" in the Concept Classification Dictionary. Similarly, "an animal called a bird" is put under the concept of "animals" and the concept of "animals" is set under the concept of "living creatures."
These concepts are described as the word meanings in the Word Dictionary and are linked with the words. In addition, the Japanese and the English Word Dictionaries are made connected each other via concepts established independently from the language and the Bilingual Dictionaries are constituted with these correspondence relations.; The Concept Dictionary is essential for computers to understand the concept indicated in the Word Dictionary. In EDR, "to understand a concept" is represented by describing the relation between concepts. For example, the concept of "an apple," as shown in Figure 2, is defined in the manner that it is capable of becoming objects of such actions and state concepts as "to cut," "to eat," "to make" and "being red." Furthermore, the action concept, "to cut," is defined in the forms that such concepts as "she," "an apple," "a kitchen" and "a knife" are capable of becoming the agent of the action, the object, the place and the implement, respectively.
Just as shown above, the "relation of a concept with another one" constitutes the minimum unit of all relations. The minimum unit is named as the concept description and a large-scale collection of the units is the Concept Description Dictionary. However, to describe every relation with all remaining concepts for each concept will turn out as astronomical work and will also be hard to maintain. Therefore, the concepts are grouped, the super-concepts are given onto them and the hierarchy are created, and further, the super-concept are made to be the objects for the concept description as well; thus, the relations among all concepts are approximated each other.
What collected and arranged the relations with regard to all concepts, making the "super and sub relation of a concept with another one" as a unit, is the Concept Classification Dictionary. The Headconcept Dictionary is prepared putting more consciousness on human beings than computers and is furnished with plain explanations for human beings to make, modify and use the concepts.

Figure 2. Concept Description

Co-occurrence Dictionary
The Co-occurrence Dictionary provides descriptions about information related to the wording of the words. The dictionary will be used to select an appropriate word when computers represent certain things in natural language.
The EDR Corpus is linguistic data obtained through analyses on each level from morphology, syntax to semantics, collecting a large amount of usages. The dictionary is used mainly by researchers at their technological development stages.

Relations among major dictionaries
The relations among major dictionaries that constitute the EDR Electronic Dictionary are given in Figure 3. For example, the knowledge that "a bird flies" is represented in the form that "an animal called a bird" can be an agent of the concept, "to fly," in the Concept Description Dictionary. The concept, "to fly," is placed under the concept of "to move" and "to move" is located under the "volitional action" in the Concept Classification Dictionary. Similarly, "an animal called a bird" is put under the concept of "animals" and the concept of "animals" is set under the concept of "living creatures."
These concepts are described as the word meanings in the Word Dictionary and are linked with the words. In addition, the Japanese and the English Word Dictionaries are made connected each other via concepts established independently from the language and the Bilingual Dictionaries are constituted with these correspondence relations.; The Co-occurrence Dictionary provides descriptions about information related to the wording of the words. The dictionary will be used to select an appropriate word when computers represent certain things in natural language.
The EDR Corpus is linguistic data obtained through analyses on each level from morphology, syntax to semantics, collecting a large amount of usages. The dictionary is used mainly by researchers at their technological development stages.

Relations among major dictionaries
The relations among major dictionaries that constitute the EDR Electronic Dictionary are given in Figure 3. For example, the knowledge that "a bird flies" is represented in the form that "an animal called a bird" can be an agent of the concept, "to fly," in the Concept Description Dictionary. The concept, "to fly," is placed under the concept of "to move" and "to move" is located under the "volitional action" in the Concept Classification Dictionary. Similarly, "an animal called a bird" is put under the concept of "animals" and the concept of "animals" is set under the concept of "living creatures."
These concepts are described as the word meanings in the Word Dictionary and are linked with the words. In addition, the Japanese and the English Word Dictionaries are made connected each other via concepts established independently from the language and the Bilingual Dictionaries are constituted with these correspondence relations.; The relations among major dictionaries that constitute the EDR Electronic Dictionary are given in Figure 3. For example, the knowledge that "a bird flies" is represented in the form that "an animal called a bird" can be an agent of the concept, "to fly," in the Concept Description Dictionary. The concept, "to fly," is placed under the concept of "to move" and "to move" is located under the "volitional action" in the Concept Classification Dictionary. Similarly, "an animal called a bird" is put under the concept of "animals" and the concept of "animals" is set under the concept of "living creatures."
These concepts are described as the word meanings in the Word Dictionary and are linked with the words. In addition, the Japanese and the English Word Dictionaries are made connected each other via concepts established independently from the language and the Bilingual Dictionaries are constituted with these correspondence relations.

Name of the Dictionary	Contents	CD-ROM No.
Japanese Word Dictionary	General Vocabulary (250,000 words)	JWD-V015
English Word Dictionary	General Vocabulary (190,000 words)	EWD-V015
Concept Dictionary	Concepts for General Vocabulary Dictionary (400,000 concepts) in the forms of the Concept Classification Dictionary and the Concept Description Dictionary	CPD-V015
Japanese-English Bilingual Dictionary	General Vocabulary (230,000 words)	JEB-V015
English-Japanese Bilingual Dictionary	General Vocabulary (160,000 words)	EJB-V015
Japanese Co-occurence Dictionary	General Vocabulary (900,000 phrases) including an assisting dictionary of co-occurence patterns for Japanese verbs Supplement: Japanese Corpus (220,000 sentences)	JCC-V015 JCO-V015E JCO-V015S
English Co-occurence Dictionary	General Vocabulary (460,000 phrases) Supplement: English Corpus (160,000 sentences)	ECC-V015 ECO-V015E ECO-V015S
Technical Terms Dictionary (Information Processing)	Japanese Word (120,000 words), English Word (80,000 words). Concept Classification, Bilingual, and Co-occurence Dictionaries	TED-V015