on the meaning of 'word sense'

Ted Dunning (ted@crl.nmsu.edu)
Sun, 30 Apr 1995 11:53:16 -0600

The distinction I usually make is that I expect true
ambiguity resolution to find the distinctions between senses
as detailed in a specific published dictionary. However, in
applications that matter (i.e. commercial information storage and
retrieval systems fielding keyword queries) that degree of fineness
is too much to ask for--

furthermore, there is a problem with this definition, because people
can't perform this disambiguation task with any reliability or even
repeatability.

to anyone from a science in which empirical evidence is considered to
be the the basis for theory confirmation, it is hard to take this sort
of definition of sense distinction very seriously.

I've undoubtedly said enough here to incite a riot, so I'll
stop...

having contributed to this worthy goal, i should probably stop, too.