Representing semantical relations with TikZ

Question

What is the best way to draw those two semantical relations with TikZ? I’ve seen it in a paper describing relations within wordnets.

Answer 1

You might try with

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\pagestyle{empty}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds}

\begin{document}

\tikzstyle{normal}=[circle,text=white,fill=black]
\tikzstyle{superset}=[normal,inner sep=1em]


\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \matrix [column sep=3em,row sep=1em]
    {
    \node (a) [normal] {Subset}; & \node (b) [superset] {Superset}; \\
    \node (a caption) {\parbox{6em}{\textbf{\{Caption\}}\\Lorem ipsum}}; & \node (b caption) {\parbox{6em}{\textbf{\{Caption\}}\\Lorem ipsum}};\\
    };
    \begin{pgfonlayer}{background}
        \fill (a.center) -- (b.north east) -- (b.south east) -- (a.center);
    \end{pgfonlayer}
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \matrix [column sep=3em,row sep=1em]
    {
    \node (c) [normal] {One set}; & \node (d) [normal] {One set}; \\
    \node (c caption) {\parbox{6em}{\textbf{\{Caption\}}\\Lorem ipsum}}; & \node (d caption) {\parbox{6em}{\textbf{\{Caption\}}\\Lorem ipsum}};\\
    };
    \begin{pgfonlayer}{background}
        \draw [line width=0.8em] (c.center) -- (d.center);
    \end{pgfonlayer}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

But you have to be careful and use minimum width or text width key-values when needed to achieve the sizes you really need.

Result:

Answer 2

You can use the mindmap library; a little example:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc,shapes,mindmap}

\newcommand\MyAnn[4]{%
  \node [annotation,below] (#1) at (#2.south) {\textbf{ \{#3\}}\\#4};
}

\begin{document}

\tikzset{concept color=red!50,%
    every annotation/.style={text width=4cm,text badly centered,font=\large}}

\begin{tikzpicture}[mindmap]
  \node [concept] (vodka) {WN.Pr}
    child[grow=left] {node[concept] (caipi) {WN.Br}};
  \MyAnn{fn}{vodka}{vodka}{text text text text.};
  \MyAnn{sn}{caipi}{caipirosca}{text text text text.};
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{scope}[every node/.append style={minimum size=3.5cm,font=\large},mindmap]
  \node [concept] (chek) {WN.Br} 
    child[grow=right] {node[concept] (xeque) {WN.Pr}};
  \MyAnn{fn}{chek}{chekmate}{text text text text.};
  \MyAnn{sn}{xeque}{xeque-mate}{text text text text.};
  \end{scope}
  \node [style=double arrow,draw,fill=black,scale=0.5] at ($(fn)+(2.4,0.25)$) {dblarrow};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

EDIT: I've changed the code to include the second example.