# Semantic Network **Domain:** Knowledge Representation / Lexical Semantics / Artificial Intelligence **Doc Type:** Canonical Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Knowledge Representation|Knowledge Representation]], [[wiki/Lexical Semantics|Lexical Semantics]], [[wiki/Ontology|Ontology]], [[wiki/WordNet|WordNet]], [[wiki/Distributional Semantics|Distributional Semantics]] --- ## Definition **A Semantic Network represents concepts or lexical items as nodes connected by meaningful relations.** Edges may encode taxonomy, synonymy, part-whole structure, association or another explicitly defined relation. Semantic networks differ from undifferentiated similarity spaces. A graph can preserve the type and direction of a relationship, while an embedding usually expresses proximity without automatically explaining why two items are near. ## Project Context The Hyperbolic Thesaurus in [[wiki/VersePerfect|VersePerfect]] rendered lexical relations as an explorable topology. [[wiki/Living Language — Proximal Frequency Research Reference|Living Language — Proximal Frequency Research Reference]] treated corpus associations as a weighted traversable structure. These are related but distinct networks: one begins with lexically classified relations, the other with observed usage. The project implemented graph behavior using available containers rather than a native graph database. That reinforces a useful distinction: a graph is a relational structure, not a product category. ## Key Insight **A semantic network becomes explanatory only when its edges retain the meaning and provenance of the relation they assert.** ## See Also [[wiki/Knowledge Representation|Knowledge Representation]], [[wiki/Ontology|Ontology]], [[wiki/Lexical Semantics|Lexical Semantics]], [[wiki/Distributional Semantics|Distributional Semantics]], [[wiki/Synset vs Concept Set|Synset vs Concept Set]], [[wiki/Provenance|Provenance]] ## Sources / Provenance - Primary project account: [[projects/Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine|Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine]]. - M. Ross Quillian, early work on semantic memory. - WordNet and VersePerfect project architecture.