Recurrent Markov Cluster (RMCL) Algorithm for the Refinement of the Semantic Network

The purpose of this work is to propose a new methodology to ameliorate the Markov Cluster (MCL) Algorithm that is well known as an efficient way of graph clustering (Van Dongen, 2000). The MCL when applied to a graph of word associations has the effect of producing concept areas in which words are grouped into the similar topics or similar meanings as paradigms. However, since a word is determined to belong to only one cluster that represents a concept, Markov clusters cannot show the polysemy or semantic indetermination among the properties of natural language. Our Recurrent MCL (RMCL) allows us to create a virtual adjacency relationship among the Markov hard clusters and produce a downsized and intrinsically informative semantic network of word association data. We applied one of the RMCL algorithms (Stepping-stone type) to a Japanese associative concept dictionary and obtained a satisfactory level of performance in refining the semantic network generated from MCL.