# A State-of-the-Art of Semantic Change Computation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.09872 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.09872/

## Key facts

- Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 30 Jan 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [A Survey on Contextualised Semantic Shift Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.01666/) (2023)
- [A Systematic Comparison of Contextualized Word Embeddings for Lexical Semantic Change](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.12011/) (2024)
- [Contextualized language models for semantic change detection: lessons learned](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00154/) (2022)
- [Substitution-based Semantic Change Detection using Contextual Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.02403/) (2023)
- [(Chat)GPT v BERT: Dawn of Justice for Semantic Change Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.14040/) (2024)
- [Abolitionist Networks: Modeling Language Change in Nineteenth-Century Activist Newspapers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.07538/) (2021)
- [Survey in Characterizing Semantic Change](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.19088/) (2024)
- [A Multidimensional Framework for Evaluating Lexical Semantic Change with Social Science Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06052/) (2024)
- [LSC-Eval: A General Framework to Evaluate Methods for Assessing Dimensions of Lexical Semantic Change Using LLM-Generated Synthetic Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08042/) (2025)
- [Measuring diachronic sense change: new models and Monte Carlo methods for Bayesian inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.00819/) (2021)
- [Tracking Semantic Change in Slovene: A Novel Dataset and Optimal Transport-Based Distance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.16596/) (2024)
- [SiDiaC-v.2.0: Sinhala Diachronic Corpus Version 2.0](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.10861/) (2026)
- [We went to look for meaning and all we got were these lousy representations: aspects of meaning representation for computational semantics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.04949/) (2021)
- [An Embedded Diachronic Sense Change Model with a Case Study from Ancient Greek](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.00541/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of semantic change computation, one emerging research field in computational linguistics, proposing a framework that summarizes the literature by identifying and expounding five essential components in the field: diachronic corpus, diachronic word sense characterization, change modelling, evaluation data and data visualization. Despite the potential of the field, the review shows that current studies are mainly focused on testifying hypotheses proposed in theoretical linguistics and that several core issues remain to be solved: the need for diachronic corpora of languages other than English, the need for comprehensive evaluation data for evaluation, the comparison and construction of approaches to diachronic word sense characterization and change modelling, and further exploration of data visualization techniques for hypothesis justification.