Graph separability and word grouping

ABSTRACT

A semantic group of words is one whose words are associated in meaning, in some way definable by the lexicographer. A thesaurus is a large collection of words, each of which is assigned to one or more semantic groups. The importance of thesauri for applications in library information storage and retrieval is evident from the number of centres interested in them. (No less than 24 centres are listed in the index of Current Research in Scientific Documentation No. 13, and thesuri in 10 disciplines are mentioned specifically.) The present paper describes aspects of an attempt to generate groups of words by purely mechanical means, which seem to have strong semantic connections within groups and which, therefore, are of potential value as thesauri. The lexicographer plays no part at all, and therefore no semantic processes can be used. However, the machine can make very many more binary decisions than a lexicographer, and there is the possibility that a machine generated “thesaurus” is at least as valuable for document processing as a man-made one.

REFERENCES

• 1: A R MEETHAM Preliminary studies for machine-generated index vocabularies Language and Speech 6 22 1963
• 2: A R MEETHAM Probabilistic pairs and groups of words in a text Language and Speech 7 98 1964
• 3: P K T VASWANI Mechanized storage and retrieval of information Rev Int Doc 32 19 1965
• 4: M KOCHEN Information science The Scarecrow Press Inc New York 1965
• 5: A F PARKER-RHODE R M NEEDHAM The theory of clumps CLRU Cambridge England and CFSTI PB 166804
• 6: A R MEETHAM Algorithm to assist in finding the complete subgraph of a given graph Nature in press 1966
• 7: D ROSENBLATT On the graphs and asymptotic forms of finite Boolean relation matrices and stochastic matrices Naval research logistics quarterly 4 151 1957

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  G. Mathematics of Computing
  G.2 DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
      G.2.2 Graph Theory

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.1 Content Analysis and Indexing
          Subjects: Thesauruses

General Terms:
Theory