Semantic Networks: The Basics

The semantic network is a representation formalism that has been used for many years in artificial intelligence (AI) research. Semantic networks consist of nodes and links. Nodes usually represent objects, concepts, or situations within a specific domain. Links represent relationships between the nodes that have a semantic meaning to them. Both the nodes and the links can have labels. Continuing with the genealogical chart, it is possible to represent a simple fact such as “Eric is a descendant of George” in a semantic network by creating two nodes—one to represent a person named “Eric” and another to represent a person named “George.” We then create a link specifying an “is-a-descendant-of” relationship between ...

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