A WordNet Ontology in Improving Searches of Digital Dialect Dictionary

In this paper, we present a method for automatic generation of a digital resource, which connects all indirect synonyms of a dialect term to all indirect synonyms of a corresponding term in the standard language, aiming to improve the search of a digital dialect dictionary. The method uses SWRL rules defined in the Serbian WordNet ontology to identify sets of synonymous words. It also uses e-dictionaries to produce correct lemmas in standard language that users usually employ in searches. The method was applied and evaluated on verbs and a group of nouns derived from verbs (verbal nouns). We compared the results obtained by the system to those produced by humans and achieved the accuracy of 89.7%.