Extraction and representation of encyclopedic knowledge from a dictionary

The software tool described in this thesis demonstrates a practical application of prototype theory to the representation of world or encyclopedic knowledge. The tool is designed to extract such knowledge from dictionary entries and to represent it in a network of frames. An application needing encyclopedic knowledge would rely on some separate utility program to draw information from the frames, translating frame data as necessary for s own use. The encyclopedic knowledge that can be extracted from a dictionary extends over an extremely wide range of topics, but it is very shallow, so the knowledge base of any final application would require further enrichment from other sources. However, a substantial part of the deficit might be overcome through similar automatic processing of more dictionaries and other published sources of encyclopedic knowledge.