Special Thematic Section on Semantic Models for Natural Language Processing (Preface)

With the availability of large language data online, cross-linked lexical resources (such as BabelNet, Predicate Matrix and UBY) and semantically annotated corpora (SemCor, OntoNotes, etc.), more and more applications in Natural Language Processing (NLP) have started to exploit various semantic models. The semantic models have been created on the base of LSA, clustering, word embeddings, deep learning, neural networks, etc., and abstract logical forms, such as Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS) or Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR), etc.

Additionally, the Linguistic Linked Open Data Cloud has been initiated (LLOD Cloud) which interlinks linguistic data for improving the tasks of NLP. This cloud has been expanding enormously for the last four-five years. It includes corpora, lexicons, thesauri, knowledge bases of various kinds, organized around appropriate ontologies, such as LEMON. The semantic models behind the data organization as well as the representation of the semantic resources themselves are a challenge to the NLP community.

The NLP applications that extensively rely on the above discussed models include Machine Translation, Information Extraction, Question Answering, Text Simplification, etc.