Annotating Chinese Word Senses with English WordNet: A Practice on OntoNotes Chinese Sense Inventories

Hongzhi Xu, Jingxia Lin, Sameer Pradhan, Mitchell Marcus

Abstract:

Abstract
In this paper, we present our exploration of annotating Chinese word senses using English WordNet synsets, with examples extracted from OntoNotes Chinese sense inventories. Given a target word along with the example that contains it, the annotators select a WordNet synset that best describes the meaning of the target word in the context. The result demonstrates an inter-annotator agreement of 38% between two annotators. We delve into the instances of disagreement by comparing the two annotated synsets, including their positions within the WordNet hierarchy. The examination reveals intriguing patterns among closely related synsets, shedding light on similar concepts represented within the WordNet structure. The data offers as an indirect linking of Chinese word senses defined in OntoNotes Chinese sense inventories to WordNet sysnets, and thus promotes the value of the OntoNotes corpus. Compared to a direct linking of Chinese word senses to WordNet synsets, the example-based annotation has the merit of not being affected by inaccurate sense definitions and thus offers a new way of mapping WordNets of different languages. At the same time, the annotated data also serves as a valuable linguistic resource for exploring potential lexical differences between English and Chinese, with potential contributions to the broader understanding of cross-linguistic semantic mapping