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word-sense disambiguation – the task of automatically associating a sense with a word in context; lexical substitution – the task of replacing a word in context with a lexical substitute; sememe – unit of meaning; linguistics – the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. sense and reference
Sense is something possessed by a name, whether or not it has a reference. For example, the name "Odysseus" is intelligible, and therefore has a sense, even though there is no individual object (its reference) to which the name corresponds. The sense of different names is different, even when their reference is the same.
Literal usage confers meaning to words, in the sense of the meaning words have by themselves, [8] for example as defined in a dictionary. It maintains a consistent meaning regardless of the context, [9] with the intended meaning of a phrase corresponding exactly to the meaning of its individual words. [10]
Semantics studies meaning in language, which is limited to the meaning of linguistic expressions. It concerns how signs are interpreted and what information they contain. An example is the meaning of words provided in dictionary definitions by giving synonymous expressions or paraphrases, like defining the meaning of the term ram as adult male sheep. [22]
This leads to a corresponding distinction between nominal and real definitions. A nominal definition is the definition explaining what a word means (i.e., which says what the "nominal essence" is), and is definition in the classical sense as given above. A real definition, by contrast, is one expressing the real nature or quid rei of the thing.
An extensional definition gives meaning to a term by specifying its extension, that is, every object that falls under the definition of the term in question.. For example, an extensional definition of the term "nation of the world" might be given by listing all of the nations of the world, or by giving some other means of recognizing the members of the corresponding class.
Lexical semantics (also known as lexicosemantics), as a subfield of linguistic semantics, is the study of word meanings. [1] [2] It includes the study of how words structure their meaning, how they act in grammar and compositionality, [1] and the relationships between the distinct senses and uses of a word. [2]
Two (or more) words are disambiguated by finding the pair of dictionary senses with the greatest word overlap in their dictionary definitions. For example, when disambiguating the words in "pine cone", the definitions of the appropriate senses both include the words evergreen and tree (at least in one dictionary).