Assignment 1: Princeton WordNet

Deadline: 24 September, 23.59 CET

How to report the assignment

The completed assignment file assign1.py should be mailed to markus.forsberg@gu.se, with an appropriate subject line. Remember to write your full names in the mail, and as a header in the assignment file (as a doc string).

Requirements

The assignment is done in groups of two.
It is ok to discuss solutions with students outside of your group, but copying code is the same as cheating (the same goes for the web, of course).
If requested, both members in a group should be able to explain the solution to the assignment.
Always hand in the assignment before the deadline, even if you have not been able to fully complete the assignment.
If the assignment is uncompleted, clearly state what is left to do, and what you need help with.

Description

In this assignment we will work with the Princeton WordNet.

Read NLTK book chapter 2.5 about Princeton WordNet, and test the examples.

Note 1: the focus of this assignment is on the synonymy relation with its corresponding concept synset (Senses and Synonyms in chapter 2.5). But have a look at the other relations.

Note 2: WordNet is an extremely rich lexical-semantic resource that we could spend a whole course on. Here we use it to make things a bit more interesting.
Create a file assign1.py containing the code below. (replace NAME with your full names). Define all procedures and functions in this file.
```
"""Assignment 1: WordNet (deadline: 2010-09-24)
Name 1: NAME
Name 2: NAME
"""
from nltk.corpus import wordnet as wn
import random
```

Define a procedure print_synsets(word) that given word, lookups up the synsets of word and prints, for every synset, its lemma_names, definition, and examples (if there is no examples, print no examples). If word is missing from WordNet, print no synsets.

Hint: before you start, think through what needs to be done, and define help functions where appropriate.

Hint 2: use string formatting

The output of print_synsets is exemplified below.

>>> import assign1

>>> assign1.print_synsets('house')
synset 1: {house}
  def: "a dwelling that serves as living quarters for one or more families"
  example: "he has a house on Cape Cod"
  example: "she felt she had to get out of the house"

synset 2: {firm, house, business_firm}
  def: "the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments"
  example: "he worked for a brokerage house"

synset 3: {house}
  def: "the members of a religious community living together"
  no examples

synset 4: {house}
  def: "the audience gathered together in a theatre or cinema"
  example: "the house applauded"
  example: "he counted the house"

synset 5: {house}
  def: "an official assembly having legislative powers"
  example: "a bicameral legislature has two houses"

synset 6: {house}
  def: "aristocratic family line"
  example: "the House of York"

synset 7: {house}
  def: "play in which children take the roles of father or mother or children and pretend to interact like adults"
  example: "the children were playing house"

synset 8: {sign_of_the_zodiac, star_sign, sign, mansion, house, planetary_house}
  def: "(astrology) one of 12 equal areas into which the zodiac is divided"
  no examples

synset 9: {house}
  def: "the management of a gambling house or casino"
  example: "the house gets a percentage of every bet"

synset 10: {family, household, house, home, menage}
  def: "a social unit living together"
  example: "he moved his family to Virginia"
  example: "It was a good Christian household"
  example: "I waited until the whole house was asleep"
  example: "the teacher asked how many people made up his home"

synset 11: {theater, theatre, house}
  def: "a building where theatrical performances or motion-picture shows can be presented"
  example: "the house was full"

synset 12: {house}
  def: "a building in which something is sheltered or located"
  example: "they had a large carriage house"

synset 13: {house}
  def: "contain or cover"
  example: "This box houses the gears"

synset 14: {house, put_up, domiciliate}
  def: "provide housing for"
  example: "The immigrants were housed in a new development outside the town"

>>> assign1.print_synsets('qrsx')
no synsets

Define a function synonyms(word) that returns a set of lemma_names of the synsets of word.

The output of synonyms is exemplified below.

>>> assign1.synonyms('house')
set(['firm', 'put_up', 'theater', 'family', 'planetary_house', 
'menage', 'house', 'household', 'theatre', 'star_sign', 
'sign_of_the_zodiac', 'sign', 'domiciliate', 'mansion', 
'home', 'business_firm'])

>>> assign1.synonyms('computer')
set(['data_processor', 'computing_machine', 'information_processing_system', 
'calculator', 'computing_device', 'estimator', 'electronic_computer', 
'computer', 'figurer', 'reckoner'])
>>> assign1.synonyms('qrsx')
set([])

Define a function random_pick(lst) that randomly selects an element from a list.

Hint: use random.randint in module random. Try out random.randint(1,10) (execute it a couple of times).

The output of random_pick is exemplified below.
```
>>> assign1.random_pick(['a','b','c','d','e'])
'e'

>>> assign1.random_pick(['a','b','c','d','e'])
'b'

>>> assign1.random_pick(['a','b','c','d','e'])
'c'
```
Define a function random_synonym(word) that randomly generate one of the synonyms of word, except word itself, unless it is the only word.

If word is not in WordNet, then the function returns *word* (a star in the beginning and end of word).

Hint: use synonyms and random_pick.
The output of random_synonym is exemplified below.
```
>>> assign1.random_synonym('house')
'household'

>>> assign1.random_synonym('house')
'menage'

>>> assign1.random_synonym('computer')
'computing_machine'

>>> assign1.random_synonym('xqrs')
'*xqrs*'
```

Define a function synonymify(sentence) that apply random_synonym to every word in sentence.

The output of synonymify is exemplified below.

>>> assign1.synonymify('bill sits in front a computer in his house')
'bank_note ride Indiana front_man adenine reckoner inward *his* sign'

>>> assign1.synonymify('bill sits in front a computer in his house')
'account pose Hoosier_State look ampere figurer inch *his* star_sign'

>>> assign1.synonymify('bill sits in front a computer in his house')
'flier sit_down indium breast angstrom_unit computing_device inch *his* domiciliate'

To think about: the output of synonymify is rather strange. Do you have any ideas on how to improve the function so the meaning of sentence is preserved?