Calculation of Semantic Distances Between Words: From Synonymy to Antonymy

Abstract A new approach to numerically measure the semantic distances between lexical units (words and collocations) based on the geometric analogies and analytical calculation, is put forward. Having considered the cases of equal and different weights of semes, we obtained exact algebraic formulas describing different levels of the meanings proximity, ranging from absolute synonymy to full antonymy. It was emphasized that absolute synonymy arises when the compared units contain equal numbers of semes that fully coincide and have equal weights in the corresponding pairs. Calculation of the semes weights helps to locate the unit more precisely on the semantic sphere. It was shown that the level of synonymy and antonymy decreases if different semes are accentuated, while the semantic distance between the units without identical semes cannot be influenced by seme boosting. It was observed that depending on the context, a word may wander over this sphere, thus modifying its lexical semantic relations with other units. As the proposed approach contributes to formalization of the units comparison procedure, it is advisable for incorporation into relevant automatic tools, particularly into WordNet and FrameNet. The obtained results may be useful for various linguistic and associated studies including automatic text analysis and processing, computer lexicography, information search and retrieval, machine translation and other NLP applications that are related to the artificial intelligence problem.