What should entity linking link?

Abstract

Some decades have passed since the concept of “named entity” was used for the first time. Since then, new lines of research have emerged in this environment, such as linking the (named) entity mentions in a text collection with their corresponding knowledge-base entries. However, this introduces problems with respect to a consensus on the definition of the concept of “entity” in the literature. This paper aims to highlight the importance of formalizing the concept of “entity” and the benefits it would bring to the Entity Linking community, in particular relating to the construction of gold standards for evaluation purposes.