Features
Hot key Lookup
One of the most important feature of Artha that makes it handy is the hot key lookup feature. When you are reading an article in the browser, or composing a mail, or working on the Terminal, be it any window, when you select some text in it and press the pre-set hot key combination assigned to Artha, it pops-up with the definitions of the selection made in that window. To know the hot key that is set currently, you can see the About dialog by pressing the About button from Artha's tool bar. Also, after installation, on the first run, Artha will show you a message box telling about the hot key set.
Artha's hot key feature is currently not customizable i.e. it tries to set a hot key in the following order:
- Ctrl + Alt + W
- Ctrl + Alt + A
- Ctrl + Alt + T
- Ctrl + Alt + Q
When one fails it tries to set the next. If all the above hot keys are pre-occupied by some other application, the hot key feature is disabled. Hence its highly recommended that you keep at least one of them free. If no hot key could be set, you will be intimated that the hot key feature is disabled.
Notifications
Notifications are passive messages that pop up from the system tray (generally), without expecting the user to make an input, so that he/she can continue to do what he/she was doing, uninterrupted. These are sometimes called balloon tips (in Microsoft Windows). Artha has the capability to show notifications. If you enable notifications, and when you select some text on a window and press the hot key, instead of popping-up, Artha will show a notification of the most prime definition of the query and continue to stay on the system try, so that you can carry on with your work with out an interruption. Should you require more details on it, you can always click on the system try icon or the Detailed Lookup button on the notification window.
Artha notifying the definition of thesaurus:
Notifications can be enabled or disabled by the Notify button on the tool bar or by right-clicking on Artha's system tray icon and choosing Notify in the pop-up menu. If no such button/menu appears, then check if libnotify and notifications-daemon are installed on your system. These components are mandatory to show notifications. Refer Installation for further details.
WordNet
WordNet is a free open lexical database for English, by Cognitive Science Laboratory of Princeton University under the direction of psychology professor George A. Miller. It is what its name says. Each word will have one or more definitions (or senses, technically). Apart from these definitions, a word is interlinked to other words by a relation like Synonyms, Hypernyms, etc. Generally, We tend to forget a word by learning a word's definitions alone. That's the prime reason, WordNet has this relatives feature by creating a net of words. When you learn a word, you also learn (or would at least glance) its relatives like what are its similar terms, what does a verb entail doing, etc. which makes a complete net of a word and its associates. These are displayed in an easily comprehend-able fashion by Artha.
Senses
A sense is a meaning/definition that a word conveys in a given context and Part of Speech (PoS). Many a time, a word will have more then one sense. The number of senses a word has (polysemy count), determines its familiarity.
E.g. clear conveys a variety of meanings in different parts of speech. Below listed are a few:
- As a verb
- rid of obstructions
- make a way or path by removing objects
- grant authorization or clearance for
- As an adjective
- readily apparent to the mind
- free from confusion or doubt
- affording free passage and view
- As a noun
- the state of being free of suspicion (the state of being free of suspicion)
- As an adverb
- completely (slept clear through the night)
- in an easily predictable manner (she cried loud and clear)
Synonyms
Words that infer the same meaning and can be interchanged in a particular context. This category of relatives is the most famous and the frequently visited.
E.g. pass is synonymous to clear with respect to its context "grant authorization or clearance for". (refer verb sense 3 above)
Antonyms
(Opposite) Words that expresses a meaning opposed to the meaning of the given word, in a given context. Antonyms can be direct, inferred or indirect. In simple mode, only direct antonyms are listed, while in detailed mode, inferred and indirect antonyms are also shown. See Dual Modes for details about the two different modes.
E.g. poor is a direct antonym of rich, while broke, penniless, skint, etc. are inferred antonyms from the direct antonym poor. One of the senses ofrich is "having an abundant supply of", which makes abundant a synonym of rich and its antonym scarce, becomes an indirect antonym to rich.
Artha showing Indirect, Direct and Inferred antonyms of rich:
Derivatives
Terms in different syntactic categories that have the same root form and are semantically related to the given word.
E.g. A few derivatives of clear would be:
- cleared
- clearing
- clearance
- clarity
- clearness
- lucidity
- uncloudedness
Pertainyms
Nouns or verbs an adjective closely pertains/relates to. Only adjectives have this category of relatives. Artha shows pertainyms under the tab "Relates To".
E.g. culinary's pertainyms are cuisine, cooking, cookery, etc..
Artha showing pertainyms of culinary:
Attributes
A noun for which adjectives express values.
E.g. weight has attributes heavy and light. Or, conversely, heavy is an attribute of weight.
Similar Terms
Terms which are not exactly synonyms but they convey a similar meaning at a broader level.
E.g. Similar terms to clear are permit, remove, disappear, etc.
Domain Terms
Terms that are specific to a topical class. Further classified as being a Category, Regional or Usage term. Simply put, domain terms are (lingo/jargon) terms that are specific to a topic, region or a classification. E.g.
- contrast, underdeveloped, overexposed, etc. are domain terms of the topic photography.
- pukka and chancellor are domain terms of the region India and Britain respectively.
- freaky comes under the classification domain slang.
moment is used in the domain statistics as per definition 6 and also moment means "an indefinitely short time" in the U.K. (definition 2). Hence it has 2 sections under Domain terms, namely Topic and Usage.
Artha showing the Domain Terms of 'moment in detailde mode':
Causes
These are terms that denote what a verb causes in doing it. This category of relatives are specific to verbs.
E.g. kill causes to die. Hence die comes under kill's Causes terms.
Entails
A verb X entails Y if X cannot be done unless Y is, or has been, done. This category of relatives are specific to verbs.
E.g. kick entails doing move or displace. Hence move and displace come under kick's Enatils terms.
Hypernyms
Generic terms used to designate a whole class of specific instances. Y is a hypernym of X if X is a (kind of) Y.
E.g. water is a kind of liquid. Hence liquid is a hypernym of water.
Artha showing water's hypernyms (Kind of):
Hyponyms
The specific term used to designate a member of a class. X is a hyponym of Y if X is a (kind of) Y.
E.g. water is a kind of liquid. Hence water is a hyponym of liquid.
Meronyms
The name of a constituent part of, the substance of, or a member of something. X is a meronym of Y if X is a part of Y.
E.g. accelerator, wheel, seat, etc. are parts of a car. Hence they are its meronyms.
Holonyms
The name of the whole of which the meronym names a part. Y is a holonym of X if X is a part of Y.
E.g. tree is a part of forest or woods. Hence forest and woods are its holonyms.
Dual Modes
Artha has two modes of operation: Simple and Detailed. In the former, it shows only the relatives that occur at the first level i.e. lists and not trees. For instance, water`s Hypernyms is a tree of relatives more then it is a list. In its first level, we have liquid, which is further a kind of fluid, which in turn is a kind of matter, which is a kind of physical entity, which is a kind of entity. Hence each is at a level below the other and is not considered a list, but a tree. In simple mode, Artha will only show liquid and not the children under liquid. This simple mode mimics what proprietary software like WordWeb does, while the Detailed mode, which can be enabled by clicking the tool bar button Detailed, shows you trees of relatives, up to any depth until it reaches a end category. Likewise, in simple mode, only Direct Antonyms are available, while in Detailed, Inferred and Indirect antonyms are also visible.
Suggestions
When you type a word incorrectly/misspell and query it in Artha, apart from saying that it couldn't find a definition for it, Artha will show a set of words which are close matches to the searched word i.e. it will suggest you with other valid words, which could have been what you really meant.
For suggestions feature to work, make sure you have libenchant and an English dictionary (of any locale) installed on your system. Refer Installation for further details.
