I don't think there's a synonym file for this use case. I am not even sure if synonym is the right way to handle it.
I think the better way to improve recall is to mark up your documents with a "hidden" field of is the geographic relations. For example, before indexing, you can add a field to all documents containing "South America", something like: "South America is a subcontinent, that is consisted of the countries Brazil, Chile, Argentina, …" This data can come from various sources, such as wikipedia, wordnet, etc. On Jul 5, 2012, at 4:12 AM, Stephen Lacy wrote: > When a user types in South America they want to be able to see documents > containing Brazil, Chile etc. > No I have already thrown together a list of countries and continents > however I'm a little more ambitious, > I would like to get a lot more regions such as american states as well or > Former members of the USSR... > Are there ready made synonym files or taxonomies in a different format. > Are synonyms the best way of achieving this? Perhaps there is a better way? > Any pitfalls or advice on this subject from someone who has done this > before would be appreciated. > Thanks > > Stephen
