brave/wordnet

Name: wordnet

Owner: Brave Software

Description: A Wordnet API in pure JavaScript

Created: 2015-12-08 05:54:54.0

Updated: 2017-09-19 10:09:48.0

Pushed: 2015-08-11 01:51:03.0

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Size: 444

Language: CoffeeScript

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README

Wordnet

This is an implementation of a Wordnet API in pure JavaScript. It was initially adapted from NaturalNode/natural, which had the original core implementation, but which was very basic and hard to use for higher-level tasks.

This is a drop-in replacement for the Wordnet access in NaturalNode/natural, but with additional methods that make it easier to use for other tasks, and probably higher in performance too. For example, the original implementation opens file handles for more or less each individual low-level query.

More recently, it includes a promise-based set of methods parallel to callback ones. Because most of the access is asynchronous, this does make it easier to use. Methods ending Async return promises. This will also assist error handling, when we get to implement that, as it was not the strongest part of the original implementation.

Usage

You'll need a copy of WordNet. There are several on Github, but for full functionality, at least for now, I'd suggest using: wndb-with-exceptions, available at: https://github.com/morungos/WNdb-with-exceptions, as it includes the morphological exception lists needed by validForms. If you don't care about that, you can get by with https://github.com/moos/WNdb, or even just download WordNet directly.

This module doesn't download and install the WordNet files, because there are several versions and it feels impolite to download and install one for you.

For easy use, therefore, it might be best to add both this module and a WordNet data module to your project, e.g.:

install node-wordnet --save
install wndb-with-exceptions --save
API
new WordNet([options | string])

The constructor returns a new object to access a WordNet database. The passed options configure the interface. The following options are available:

lookup(word, callback)

Here's an example of looking up definitions for the word, “node”. The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the results.

wordnet = new WordNet()

net.lookup('node', function(results) {
results.forEach(function(result) {
    console.log('------------------------------------');
    console.log(result.synsetOffset);
    console.log(result.pos);
    console.log(result.lemma);
    console.log(result.synonyms);
    console.log(result.pos);
    console.log(result.gloss);
});

lookupAsync(word)

Similar to lookup(word, callback) but returning a promise.

get(offset, pos, callback)

Given a synset offset and a part of speech, a definition can be looked up directly. The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the result.

wordnet = new WordNet()

net.get(4424418, 'n', function(result) {
console.log('------------------------------------');
console.log(result.lemma);
console.log(result.pos);
console.log(result.gloss);
console.log(result.synonyms);

getAsync(offset, pos)

Similar to get(offset, pos, callback) but returning a promise.

validForms(word, callback)

Returns valid morphological exceptions. The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the results.

wordnet = new WordNet()
net.validForms('axes#n', console.log);
validFormsAsync(word)

Similar to validForms(word, callback) but returning a promise.

querySense(query, callback)

Queries WordNet to find all the senses of a given word, optionally with a part-of-speech. The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the results.

wordnet = new WordNet()
net.querySense('axes#n', console.log);
querySenseAsync(query)

Similar to querySense(query, callback) but returning a promise.

findSense(query, callback)

Queries WordNet to find full information on a single sense of a term. The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the results.

wordnet = new WordNet()
net.findSense('lie#v#1', console.log);
findSenseAsync(query)

Similar to findSense(query, callback) but returning a promise.

close()

Closes all the file handles being used by this instance. If new queries are done, the files may be silently re-opened, but that probably isn't a very good plan. It should be assumed that re-use of an instance after close is deprecated.


This work is supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Grant Number U24TR002306. This work is solely the responsibility of the creators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.