Semantic associations and confluences in paradigmatic networks

In this article, we hypothesize that some of the structural properties of paradigmatic graphs of the hierarchical small world type are to be found in all natural languages. Within this hypothesis of the universal structure of paradigmatic graphs, we explore a method for the automatic analysis of semantic groupings in order to distinguish, on typological and cognitive levels, which groupings are universal, and which are more limited geographically, genetically or culturally.