# PunFields at SemEval-2017 Task 7: Employing Roget's Thesaurus in Automatic Pun Recognition and Interpretation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.05479 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.05479/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 18 Jul 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Decoders Laugh as Loud as Encoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04779/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The article describes a model of automatic interpretation of English puns, based on Roget's Thesaurus, and its implementation, PunFields. In a pun, the algorithm discovers two groups of words that belong to two main semantic fields. The fields become a semantic vector based on which an SVM classifier learns to recognize puns. A rule-based model is then applied for recognition of intentionally ambiguous (target) words and their definitions. In SemEval Task 7 PunFields shows a considerably good result in pun classification, but requires improvement in searching for the target word and its definition.