17. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computer system to determine whether a queried semantic relation is valid, the queried semantic relation comprising two query words and a relation type relating the meanings of the query words, by: identifying a first group of salient semantic relation paths relating the meanings of the two query words, the identified semantic relation paths each comprising an ordered chain of semantic relations, each semantic relation comprising two words and a relation type relating the meanings of the two words, such that each identified semantic relation path relates the meanings of the two query words via one or more intermediate words; among the first group of semantic relation paths, identifying a second group of one or more semantic relation paths in which the first or last semantic relation is of the query relation type; in each of the semantic relation paths of the second group, selecting the semantic relation of the query type; and determining a quantitative assessment of whether the queried semantic relation is valid based upon the level of similarity between the meanings of the intermediate word in the selected semantic relation and the query word not in the selected semantic relation in the semantic relation paths of the second group.
17. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computer system to determine whether a queried semantic relation is valid, the queried semantic relation comprising two query words and a relation type relating the meanings of the query words, by: identifying a first group of salient semantic relation paths relating the meanings of the two query words, the identified semantic relation paths each comprising an ordered chain of semantic relations, each semantic relation comprising two words and a relation type relating the meanings of the two words, such that each identified semantic relation path relates the meanings of the two query words via one or more intermediate words; among the first group of semantic relation paths, identifying a second group of one or more semantic relation paths in which the first or last semantic relation is of the query relation type; in each of the semantic relation paths of the second group, selecting the semantic relation of the query type; and determining a quantitative assessment of whether the queried semantic relation is valid based upon the level of similarity between the meanings of the intermediate word in the selected semantic relation and the query word not in the selected semantic relation in the semantic relation paths of the second group. 18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the contents of the computer-readable medium further cause the computer system to determine that the queried semantic relation is valid where the quantitative assessment exceeds a validity threshold.