[Paper Review] Build Electronic Arabic Lexicon

Nidhal El-Abbadi, Ahmed Nidhal Khdhair+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Nov 23, 2013

Algorithms and Data Compression2 references3 citations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method for building an electronic Arabic lexicon using a hash function to map each Arabic word to a unique integer identifier, enabling efficient indexing and retrieval. The approach validates Al Farahidy's word count through mathematical relations and offers a scalable, deterministic framework for electronic lexicon construction with potential applications in NLP and Arabic language processing.

ABSTRACT

There are many known Arabic lexicons organized on different ways, each of them has a different number of Arabic words according to its organization way. This paper has used mathematical relations to count a number of Arabic words, which proofs the number of Arabic words presented by Al Farahidy. The paper also presents new way to build an electronic Arabic lexicon by using a hash function that converts each word (as input) to correspond a unique integer number (as output), these integer numbers will be used as an index to a lexicon entry.

Motivation & Objective

• To develop a scalable and efficient method for constructing an electronic Arabic lexicon using computational techniques.
• To validate the estimated number of Arabic words proposed by Al Farahidy using mathematical relations.
• To enable fast and deterministic lookup of Arabic words in a digital lexicon through unique integer identifiers.
• To provide a foundation for Arabic NLP systems requiring structured lexical resources.
• To explore the feasibility of using hash functions for mapping Arabic words to unique indices in a lexicon data structure.

Proposed method

• A hash function is applied to each Arabic word to generate a unique integer identifier, serving as a direct index for lexicon entries.
• The method relies on mathematical relations to estimate and verify the total number of Arabic words, supporting Al Farahidy's claims.
• Each word is processed through the hash function to ensure no collisions in the indexing system, assuming uniform distribution.
• The resulting integer indices are used to store and retrieve lexical entries in a compact, ordered data structure.
• The approach is designed for computational efficiency, supporting large-scale lexicon construction in Arabic.
• The system is implemented as a prototype, with results reported in terms of word count validation and indexing performance.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How can a deterministic and efficient method be developed for indexing Arabic words in an electronic lexicon?
• RQ2 What mathematical approach can be used to validate the estimated number of Arabic words as proposed by Al Farahidy?
• RQ3 Can a hash function effectively map Arabic words to unique integer identifiers without collisions?
• RQ4 What are the computational advantages of using integer indexing over traditional string-based lookup in Arabic lexicons?
• RQ5 How scalable is the proposed method for constructing a comprehensive electronic Arabic lexicon?

Key findings

• The mathematical relations used in the study successfully validate Al Farahidy's estimation of the total number of Arabic words.
• The hash function approach enables a collision-free mapping of Arabic words to unique integer indices, ensuring reliable indexing.
• The method supports efficient storage and retrieval of lexical entries, reducing lookup time compared to string-based methods.
• The prototype demonstrates the feasibility of constructing a large-scale electronic Arabic lexicon using the proposed indexing mechanism.
• The study confirms that the total number of Arabic words is consistent with established linguistic estimates when validated through mathematical modeling.
• The approach provides a foundation for future Arabic NLP systems requiring structured and scalable lexical databases.