Revisiting the Potentialities of a Mechanical Thesaurus

This paper revisits the lattice-based thesaurus models which Margaret Masterman used for machine translation in the 1950’s and 60’s. Masterman’s notions are mapped onto modern, Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) terminology and three of her thesaurus algorithms are formalised with FCA methods. The impact of the historical and social situatedness of Roget’s Thesaurus on such algorithms is considered. The paper concludes by discussing connections between Masterman’s research and modern research.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: ICFCA
• Authors: Uta Priss, L. John Old
• Keywords: Formal Languages, ICFCA 2009, Lattice-based Thesaurus Models, Thesaurus, Thesaurus Algorithms