Weak Semantic Map of the Russian Language: Preliminary Results

Weak semantic maps are characterized by definite semantics associated with their dimensions, while the notion of a dissimilarity metric may not be applicable to them. Among the variety of approaches to their construction, weak semantic maps can be derived from semantic relations, such as synonymy and antonymy, using the technique developed by Samsonovich and Ascoli in previous works. This paper presents a weak semantic map constructed using this technique, based on the Microsoft Word Russian Thesaurus. General characteristics of the map are described. The new map is compared to the maps reported earlier, that were constructed using the Microsoft Word English, French, German and Spanish thesauri. Differences and similarities are noted that may be due to differences between languages or between particular corpora. Potential applications of Russian weak semantic maps are discussed.