---
title: "Aligning FrameNet and WordNet based on — Ferrández 2010"
description: "The paper presents an automatic method for linking FrameNet lexical units (LUs) to WordNet synsets, with the aim of building a combined FrameNet-WordNet…"
authors: ["Óscar Ferrández", "Michael Ellsworth", "Rafael Muñoz", "Collin F. Baker"]
year: 2010
venue: "Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'10)"
source: "https://aclanthology.org/L10-1436/"
licence: "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/papers/ferrandez-2010-aligning-framenet-wordnet-based-semantic/"
---
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# Aligning FrameNet and WordNet based on Semantic Neighborhoods

**Authors:** Óscar Ferrández, [Michael Ellsworth](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/authors/michael-ellsworth/), [Rafael Muñoz](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/authors/rafael-munoz/), [Collin F. Baker](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/authors/collin-f-baker/) · **Year:** 2010 · **Venue:** Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'10) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

**Links:** [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/L10-1436/) · [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/L10-1436.pdf) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W953868)

**Citations:** 28 citations (openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14) · [9](#cited-by) in our library, of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read

## Summary
The paper presents an automatic method for linking FrameNet lexical units (LUs) to WordNet synsets, with the aim of building a combined FrameNet-WordNet hierarchy. Such a hierarchy could extend FrameNet's lexical coverage and support FrameNets for other languages. For each lemma.pos, the algorithm compares candidate LUs with the synsets containing that lemma (SSLs). It builds a neighborhood around each candidate by following the explicit relations of its resource: frame-to-frame links in FrameNet, and synset and lexical relations in WordNet. Neighbors whose distances from the centre are similar in both resources raise the correlation score. Each pairing of a FrameNet relation with a WordNet relation is weighted. These weights were set heuristically and tuned on 100 hand-made alignments. The method then adds a score measuring how similar the LU's definition is to the synset's WordNet gloss, and the top-scoring synset is chosen. Tested on a merged gold standard, the method reached 77.2% accuracy, against 65.7% for a most-frequent-sense baseline. This suggests that relational structure is a useful signal for aligning the two resources.

## Key points
- The alignment was run on 9,612 LUs covering 7,830 distinct lemma.pos entries, mapped to WordNet 3.0 synsets. The resulting alignments were released in XML.
- The correlation formula sums the weighted relation-pair scores across neighborhoods and adds a TextSim term comparing the LU definition with the WordNet gloss. A constant α (set to 1) prevents division by zero. FrameNet relation weights were set higher than WordNet ones because WordNet neighborhoods are much larger.
- The gold standard combines two sources: the Tonelli and Pianta (2009) LU–synset mappings, converted from WordNet 1.6 to 3.0, and the Shi and Mihalcea (2005) verb mapping, converted from FrameNet 1.2/WordNet 2.0. The final set has 2,874 verbs, 124 nouns, 57 adjectives and 1 adverb.
- Accuracy was 0.772 overall, with 0.77 for verbs, 0.78 for nouns and 0.81 for adjectives. The MFS baseline scored 0.657 overall. Gains over the baseline were larger for verbs than for nouns.
- Planned future work includes:
  - learning the weights, α and neighborhood sizes from a larger gold standard;
  - adding a score threshold so that precision, recall and F-measure can be reported;
  - adding a machine-learning classifier.

*Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.*

Fields: [Linguistics & languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/shelves/linguistics/)

Topics: [Semantic role labeling](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/topics/semantic-role-labeling/)

## Cited by

Cited by

9 papers of our library cite it (of the 140673 whose bibliographies we read); 3 of them have a page here, 6 not yet.

- [FrameNet on the Way to Babel: Creating a Bilingual FrameNet Using Wiktionary as Interlingual Connection](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/papers/hartmann-2013-framenet-way-babel-creating-bilingual/)
- [FrameNet+: Fast Paraphrastic Tripling of FrameNet](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/papers/pavlick-2015-framenet-fast-paraphrastic-tripling-framenet/)
- [Augmenting FrameNet Via PPDB](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/papers/rastogi-2014-augmenting-framenet-ppdb/)

## Cite

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{ferrandez2010aligning,
  title = {{Aligning FrameNet and WordNet based on Semantic Neighborhoods}},
  author = {Ferrández, Óscar and Ellsworth, Michael and Muñoz, Rafael and Baker, Collin F.},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'10)},
  year = {2010},
  doi = {10.63317/49fp43rofs73},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.63317/49fp43rofs73}
}
```

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## References

20 references, 5 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. Collin Baker, Michael Ellsworth, and Katrin Erk. 2007. Semeval-2007 task 19: Frame semantic structure extraction. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Semantic Evaluations (SemEval-2007), pages 99–104, Prague, Czech Republic, June. Association for Computational Linguistics. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Collin+Baker%2C+Michael+Ellsworth%2C+and+Katrin+Erk%2E+2007%2E+Semeval%2D2007+task+19%3A+Frame+semantic+structure+extraction%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+Fourth+International+Workshop+on+Semantic+Evaluations+%28SemEval%2D2) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/papers/baker-2007-semeval-2007-task-19-frame/)
2. Aljoscha Burchardt, Katrin Erk, and Anette Frank. 2005. A wordnet detour to framenet. In Sprachtechnolo-gie, mobile Kommunikation und linguistische Resourcen, volume 8 of Computer Studies in Language and Speech. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Aljoscha+Burchardt%2C+Katrin+Erk%2C+and+Anette+Frank%2E+2005%2E+A+wordnet+detour+to+framenet%2E+In+Sprachtechnolo%2Dgie%2C+mobile+Kommunikation+und+linguistische+Resourcen%2C+volume+8+of+Computer+Studies+in+Language+)
3. Diego De Cao, Danilo Croce, Marco Pennacchiotti, and Roberto Basili. 2008. Combining word sense and usage for modeling frame semantics. In Proceedings of STEP 2008, Venice, Italy. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Diego+De+Cao%2C+Danilo+Croce%2C+Marco+Pennacchiotti%2C+and+Roberto+Basili%2E+2008%2E+Combining+word+sense+and+usage+for+modeling+frame+semantics%2E+In+Proceedings+of+STEP+2008%2C+Venice%2C+Italy%2E) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/papers/cao-2008-combining-word-sense-usage-modeling/)
4. Ian C. Chow and Jonathan J. Webster. 2006. Mapping framenet and sumo with wordnet verb: Statistical distribution of lexical-ontological realization. Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 0:262– 268. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Ian+C%2E+Chow+and+Jonathan+J%2E+Webster%2E+2006%2E+Mapping+framenet+and+sumo+with+wordnet+verb%3A+Statistical+distribution+of+lexical%2Dontological+realization%2E+Mexican+International+Conference+on+Artificial+Inte)
5. Katrin Erk and Sebastian Padó. 2006. Shalmaneser – A Flexible Toolbox For Semantic Role Assignment. In Proceedings of the fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-2006). [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Katrin+Erk+and+Sebastian+Pado%CC%81%2E+2006%2E+Shalmaneser+%E2%80%93+A+Flexible+Toolbox+For+Semantic+Role+Assignment%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+fifth+International+Conference+on+Language+Resources+and+Evaluation+%28LREC%2D200)
6. Thierry Fontenelle, editor. 2003. International Journal of Lexicography–Special Issue on FrameNet, volume 16. Oxford University Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Thierry+Fontenelle%2C+editor%2E+2003%2E+International+Journal+of+Lexicography%E2%80%93Special+Issue+on+FrameNet%2C+volume+16%2E+Oxford+University+Press%2E)
7. Matthew Honnibal and Tobias Hawker. 2005. Identifying framenet frames for verbs from a real-text corpus. In Australasian Language Technology Workshop. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Matthew+Honnibal+and+Tobias+Hawker%2E+2005%2E+Identifying+framenet+frames+for+verbs+from+a+real%2Dtext+corpus%2E+In+Australasian+Language+Technology+Workshop%2E)
8. Nancy Ide. 2006. Making senses: Bootstrapping sense-tagged lists of semantically-related words. In Alexander F. Gelbukh, editor, CICLing, volume 3878 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 13–27. Springer. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Nancy+Ide%2E+2006%2E+Making+senses%3A+Bootstrapping+sense%2Dtagged+lists+of+semantically%2Drelated+words%2E+In+Alexander+F%2E+Gelbukh%2C+editor%2C+CICLing%2C+volume+3878+of+Lecture+Notes+in+Computer+Science%2C+pages+13%E2%80%9327%2E)
9. Richard Johansson and Pierre Nugues. 2007a. Lth: Semantic structure extraction using nonprojective dependency trees. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Semantic Evaluations (SemEval-MFS overall Accuracy 0.657 Adjs Verbs Nouns 0.80 0.58 0.70 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Richard+Johansson+and+Pierre+Nugues%2E+2007a%2E+Lth%3A+Semantic+structure+extraction+using+nonprojective+dependency+trees%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+Fourth+International+Workshop+on+Semantic+Evaluations+%28SemEva)
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13. George A. Miller, Richard Beckwith, Christiane Fellbaum, Derek Gross, and Katherine J. Miller. 1990. Introduction to WordNet: An On-line Lexical Database. International Journal of Lexicography, 3(4):235–244. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=George+A%2E+Miller%2C+Richard+Beckwith%2C+Christiane+Fellbaum%2C+Derek+Gross%2C+and+Katherine+J%2E+Miller%2E+1990%2E+Introduction+to+WordNet%3A+An+On%2Dline+Lexical+Database%2E+International+Journal+of+Lexicography%2C+3%284%29%3A2)
14. Dan Moldovan and Adrian Novischi. 2002. Lexical chains for question answering. In Proceedings of COLING 2002. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Dan+Moldovan+and+Adrian+Novischi%2E+2002%2E+Lexical+chains+for+question+answering%2E+In+Proceedings+of+COLING+2002%2E)
15. Marco Pennacchiotti, Diego De Cao, Roberto Basili, Danilo Croce, and Michael Roth. 2008. Automatic induction of FrameNet lexical units. In Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, pages 457–465, Honolulu, Hawaii, October. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Marco+Pennacchiotti%2C+Diego+De+Cao%2C+Roberto+Basili%2C+Danilo+Croce%2C+and+Michael+Roth%2E+2008%2E+Automatic+induction+of+FrameNet+lexical+units%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+2008+Conference+on+Empirical+Methods+in+Na) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/papers/pennacchiotti-2008-automatic-induction-framenet-lexical-units/)
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17. Lei Shi and Rada Mihalcea. 2005. Putting Pieces Together: Combining FrameNet, VerbNet and WordNet for Robust Semantic Parsing. In Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing, 6th International Conference, CICLing 2005, Mexico City, Mexico, pages 100–111. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Lei+Shi+and+Rada+Mihalcea%2E+2005%2E+Putting+Pieces+Together%3A+Combining+FrameNet%2C+VerbNet+and+WordNet+for+Robust+Semantic+Parsing%2E+In+Computational+Linguistics+and+Intelligent+Text+Processing%2C+6th+Interna)
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19. Sara Tonelli and Emanuele Pianta. 2009. A novel approach to mapping FrameNet lexical units to WordNet synsets. In Proceedings of IWCS-8, Tilburg, The Netherlands. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sara+Tonelli+and+Emanuele+Pianta%2E+2009%2E+A+novel+approach+to+mapping+FrameNet+lexical+units+to+WordNet+synsets%2E+In+Proceedings+of+IWCS%2D8%2C+Tilburg%2C+The+Netherlands%2E)
20. Sara Tonelli and Daniele Pighin. 2009. New features for framenet - wordnet mapping. In Proceedings of the Thirteenth Conference on Computational Natural Language Learning (CoNLL-2009), pages 219–227, Boulder, Colorado, June. Association for Computational Linguistics. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sara+Tonelli+and+Daniele+Pighin%2E+2009%2E+New+features+for+framenet+%2D+wordnet+mapping%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+Thirteenth+Conference+on+Computational+Natural+Language+Learning+%28CoNLL%2D2009%29%2C+pages+219%E2%80%93227%2C+) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/papers/tonelli-2009-new-features-framenet-wordnet-mapping/)