Semi-Automatic Mapping of WordNet to Basic Formal Ontology

We present preliminary work on the mapping of WordNet 3.0 to the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO 2.0). WordNet is a large, widely used semantic network. BFO is a domain-neutral upper-level ontology that represents the types of things that exist in the world and relations between them. BFO serves as an integration hub for more specific ontologies, such as the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI) and Ontology for Biobanking (OBIB). This work aims at creating a lexico-semantic resource that can be used in NLP tools to perform ontology-related text manipulation tasks. Our semi-automatic mapping method consists in using existing mappings between WordNet and the KYOTO Ontology. The latter allows machines to reason over texts by providing interpretations of the words in ontological terms. Our working hypothesis is that a large portion of WordNet synsets can be semi-automatically mapped to BFO using simple mapping rules from KYOTO to BFO. We evaluate the method on a randomized subset of synsets, examine preliminary results, and discuss challenges related to the method. We conclude with suggestions for future work.