Disecting a database... Help with syntax, please (P.S. this is a bit long and boring)

[Sori]

I need an offline dictionary.

I did some searches and some e-mails, and found this one... Wordnet.

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/wordnet/license/

License Info (just the important bit):

"Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and database and its documentation for any purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted"

Perfect candidate for my offline dictionary.

Now the hard part... I have database files.

I downloaded "WordNet 3.1 DATABASE FILES ONLY"

I dove in, started looking at the files and decided that it was probably best to use

wn3.1.dictdictdbfiles

Unfortunately, the syntax inside these files is a bit more complicated than I can figure out just by looking at the files alone.

So... the program I'm working on goes in alphabetical order.

First is, "adj.all"

Let's look at the first line.

[{ [ ABLE, noun.cognition:ability,+ noun.attribute:ability,+ UNABLE,!] noun.attribute:ability,= noun.cognition:ability,= ((usually followed by `to') having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something; "able to swim"; "she was able to program her computer"; "we were at last able to buy a car"; "able to get a grant for the project") }

What I can figure out:

The type marker is to the right of the text.

Main word is followed by ,

Antonym is followed by ,!

The definition is enclosed is parenthesis

The definition and example sentences are separated by ;

I'm not sure what ,+ is

I'm not sure what ,= is

If you look at more lines, it appears comma plus is some type of grouping component.

Special group names seem to be followed by ,;c or ,;u

,^ appears to be for similes

Moving on to the next file in the list... adj.pert

They have added , for another grouping

and now they also have alternate forms of the word

It appears that the words and their alternate forms are enclosed in square brackets.

Blah blah blah, I'm listing off tons of unorganized details about tedious files.

Essentially... I need help figuring out how to turn this database into something readable.

Mainly, I'm trying to figure out the grouping system that they're using.

The program that I'm working on will go through every file and create a single text document for each word. Inside the document will be the information such as, "noun, verb, adjective, etc" definition, antonym, synonym... the works.

I can code all the stuff myself, I just need help deciphering the raw data.

Thank you, and sorry for the huge post.

[rcmaehl]

Well, to understand how stuff works, it can be helpful to look at the final output.
 
Download and install WordNet 2.1 and manually replace the database files with the 3.1 ones.

Search for 'able' both normally and with all options on (Options -> Set Advanced Search Options)

Clicking on 'Adjective' will bring up additional display options including synonyms, antonyms, value of, derivative forms, and familiarity.

Things I've figured out so far:

,+ and .=    Mark derivatives / values of, although I don't know which is which.

 

P.S. This should be in Chat but I'm not sure you have access to that.

Edited April 23, 2014 by rcmaehl

[Sori]

Thank you for the suggestion. I also noticed that with the download, they offer the source code. I will have to look inside there on how they did the actual search function as well. It will take a bit of time, but I will be able to figure out exactly how all the words are connected that way. Thank you.