Wordnet

This is an implementation of a Wordnet API in pure JavaScript. It was initially adapted from NaturalNode/natural, which had the original core implementation, but which was very basic and hard to use for higher-level tasks.

This is a drop-in replacement for the Wordnet access in NaturalNode/natural, but with additional methods that make it easier to use for other tasks, and probably higher in performance too. For example, the original implementation opens file handles for more or less each individual low-level query.

More recently, it includes a promise-based set of methods parallel to callback ones. Because most of the access is asynchronous, this does make it easier to use. Methods ending Async return promises. This will also assist error handling, when we get to implement that, as it was not the strongest part of the original implementation.

Usage

You'll need a copy of WordNet. There are several on Github, but for full functionality, at least for now, I'd suggest using: wndb-with-exceptions, available at: https://github.com/morungos/WNdb-with-exceptions, as it includes the morphological exception lists needed by validForms. If you don't care about that, you can get by with https://github.com/moos/WNdb, or even just download WordNet directly.

This module doesn't download and install the WordNet files, because there are several versions and it feels impolite to download and install one for you.

For easy use, therefore, it might be best to add both this module and a WordNet data module to your project, e.g.:

npm install node-wordnet --save
npm install wndb-with-exceptions --save

API

new WordNet([options | string])

The constructor returns a new object to access a WordNet database. The passed options configure the interface. The following options are available:

• dataDir -- specifies the location of the Wordnet directory.

  If this option isn't passed, the module uses require to locate wndb-with-exceptions, so if you don't want to deploy your own WordNet, all you need to do is add wndb-with-exceptions as an application dependency and not pass a directory to the constructor. The original WordNet data files can always be manually downloaded and installed anywhere from http://wordnet.princeton.edu/wordnet/download.

  As a shortcut, if you pass a string directly to the constructor, it's interpreted as a Wordnet directory, and all other options default in sensible ways.

• cache -- adds an LRU cache to the Wordnet access.

  If the option is false, no cache is set; and if it is true, then a cache (using lru-cache with a default size of 2000 items) is set. In addition, the cache can be an object. If that object has a get method then it's used as a cache directly, and if it doesn't, it's assumed to be a configuration object which will be used to configure a new lru-cache.

lookup(word, callback)

Here's an example of looking up definitions for the word, "node". The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the results.

var wordnet = new WordNet()

wordnet.lookup('node', function(results) {
    results.forEach(function(result) {
        console.log('------------------------------------');
        console.log(result.synsetOffset);
        console.log(result.pos);
        console.log(result.lemma);
        console.log(result.synonyms);
        console.log(result.pos);
        console.log(result.gloss);
    });
});

lookupAsync(word)

Similar to lookup(word, callback) but returning a promise.

get(offset, pos, callback)

Given a synset offset and a part of speech, a definition can be looked up directly. The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the result.

var wordnet = new WordNet()

wordnet.get(4424418, 'n', function(result) {
    console.log('------------------------------------');
    console.log(result.lemma);
    console.log(result.pos);
    console.log(result.gloss);
    console.log(result.synonyms);
});

getAsync(offset, pos)

Similar to get(offset, pos, callback) but returning a promise.

validForms(word, callback)

Returns valid morphological exceptions. The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the results.

var wordnet = new WordNet()
wordnet.validForms('axes#n', console.log);

validFormsAsync(word)

Similar to validForms(word, callback) but returning a promise.

querySense(query, callback)

Queries WordNet to find all the senses of a given word, optionally with a part-of-speech. The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the results.

var wordnet = new WordNet()
wordnet.querySense('axes#n', console.log);

querySenseAsync(query)

Similar to querySense(query, callback) but returning a promise.

findSense(query, callback)

Queries WordNet to find full information on a single sense of a term. The callback can accept one or two arguments, if two, the first is an error flag and the second the results.

var wordnet = new WordNet()
wordnet.findSense('lie#v#1', console.log);

findSenseAsync(query)

Similar to findSense(query, callback) but returning a promise.

close()

Closes all the file handles being used by this instance. If new queries are done, the files may be silently re-opened, but that probably isn't a very good plan. It should be assumed that re-use of an instance after close is deprecated.