The System of Register Labels in plWordNet

The System of Register Labels in plWordNetStylistic registers influence word usage. Both traditional dictionaries and wordnets assign lexical units to registers, and there is a wide range of solutions. A system of register labels can be flat or hierarchical, with few labels or many, homogeneous or decomposed into sets of elementary features. We review the register label systems in lexicography, and then discuss our model, designed for plWordNet, a large wordnet for Polish. There follows a detailed comparative analysis of several register systems in Polish lexical resources. We also present the practical effect of the adoption of our flat, small and homogeneous system: a relatively high consistency of register assignment in plWordNet, as measured by inter-annotator agreement on a manageable sample. Large-scale conclusions for the whole plWordNet remain to be made once the annotation has been completed, but the experience half-way through this labour-intensive exercise is very encouraging.