WordNet | From Words to Deeds: translation & the law

Following Wednesday’s post about the Bengali WordNet, I have received information about the Polish version.

The Polish wordnet – plWordNet – is a semantic network which reflects the Polish lexical system. The first ever WordNet was built in the late 1980s at Princeton University (see this post). plWordNet is one of few such resources built not by translating the English WordNet, but from the ground up, in a joint effort of lexicographers and computer scientists. It can be browsed online here: http://plwordnet.pwr.wroc.pl/wordnet/. It is the second largest wordnet in the world.

If you would like to read more about designing wordnets, see this book: http://nlp.pwr.wroc.pl/en/ksiazki/92/show/publication

Acknowledgement: Many thanks to Professor Stan Szpakowicz for granting permission to publish this post.

I think you might find this very witty post on the So Meta blog, After DuPont bans Teflon® from WordNet, the world is their non-sticky oyster, amusing (or possibly sad).

It involves the giant DuPont that has threatened WordNet, an open-source database of the English language, with legal action because it wasn’t happy with the entry concerning Teflon®.

WordNet, based at Princeton University, provides data for researchers in many fields. It is not a commercial undertaking.

Here are some questions for you. Was WordNet right to capitulate and change the entry? Did DuPont have legal standing to threaten action anyway? (see Dr Butters’ comment at the end of the So Meta post) How much responsibility does a lexicographer have for entries they provide?

Brought to my attention by Dr Tim Grant at Aston among others.