Xibket il-kliem : a lexical semantic network of Maltese words

Abstract

The Xibket il-kliem (Xik) project was motivated by the need for a Maltese wordnet. This would serve Maltese authors and natural language processing (NLP) researchers in their work. It would enable them to retrieve semantically related words and senses. Such wordnets are now available in many languages and are based on the design and functionality of the eponymous Princeton WordNet (PWN) pioneered by Miller and Fellbaum in about 1986. After perusal and analysis of relevant literature and www applications, the Xik database design was produced and two pilot, proof of concept, exercises executed using alternative Xik database population strategies. In both instances, the absence of a digital dictionary was a major obstacle. Apart from the critical dictionary issue, which urgently needs to be addressed for this and other NLP purposes, the project produced sufficient evidence that the creation of a Maltese wordnet as per the proposed design is indeed feasible and, given the additional development work identified in the concluding chapter of this dissertation, a potentially useful addition to the Maltese Language Resource Server (MLRS) suite of applications.