9. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computer system to identify path patterns indicating similarity between word pairs connected by these path patterns by: (a) for a each of a multiplicity of pairs of words known to be synonyms: (1) identifying the most salient semantic relation paths connecting the words of the pair, each identified semantic relation comprising an ordered series of semantic relations, each semantic relation having a relation type; and (2) for each identified path: (A) extracting from the path a relation type path pattern comprising the relation types of the relations of the path; and (B) incrementing a relation type path pattern frequency for the extracted relation type path pattern indicating the likelihood that an arbitrary pair of words connected by a path having the extracted relation type path pattern have similar meanings, such that, after the performance of the steps, the relation type path pattern frequencies of the relation type path patterns reflect the likelihood that an arbitrary pair of words connected by a path having the relation type path pattern have similar meanings.
10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the contents of the computer-readable medium further cause the computer system to: (b) for a each of a multiplicity of pairs of words known to not be synonyms: (1) identify the most salient semantic relation paths connecting the words of the pair, each identified semantic relation comprising an ordered series of semantic relations, each semantic relation having a relation type; and (2) for each identified path: (A) extract from the path a relation type path pattern comprising the relation types of the relations of the path; and (B) decrement the relation type path pattern frequency for the extracted relation type path pattern, thus reducing the reflected likelihood that an arbitrary pair of words connected by a path having the relation type path pattern have similar meanings.