LEXUS: a web based lexicon tool

Jacquelijn Ringersma

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Content

Max Planck Institute – Archive of linguistic resources

Documentation of endangered languages projects (DoBeS)

Tool support (archiving software and enrichment software)

LEXUS and ViCoS

Interdisciplinary software development – challenges and problems

Max Planck Institute for psycholinguistics

Max Planck Gesellschaft

78 research institutes (Germany)

3 outside Germany:

2 Italy (art)

1 The Netherlands (psycholinguistics)

The study of mental processes involved in language production, language comprehension and language acquisition, as well as the relation between language, thought, and culture

Max Planck Institute for psycholinguistics

Archive for linguistic resources

Different types of linguistic material: endangered languages archive, the European second learner corpus, the National Corpus of Spoken Dutch, gesture corpora, acquisition corpora and language documentation corpora

More than 230.000 objects, 25 Tb data:digitized audio and videoimagesannotationsIncluded formats: o.a. XML, HTML, Chat, Toolbox, PDF, Wav, Mpeg1,2,4

Organization:Metadata descriptions, data base

Access via the Internet:Meta data search & content searchaccess to these resources is limited and can be made available upon request

Documentation of endangered languages

DoBeS = Dokumentation Bedrohter Sprachen

DoBeS has two major pillars:

language documentation by experienced teams to preserve part of our cultural heritage and

to help in revitalization where possible

creating an organized, accessible and persistent archive

Multimedia Lexicon

Typed Relations within the Lexicon

Annotated Media

Described Corpus

Archive Content: Yélî Dnye (Rossell Island)

Photos

Tool Support

Archiving: IMDI, LAMUS, AMS

Data enrichment: ELAN, Synpathy, ADDIT, ANNEX, LEXUS

LEXUS - Lexicon tool

LEXUS

Web based lexicon tool

Based on the ISO recommendations for linguistic resourcesLMF : Linguistic Markup Framework (lexicon structure)DCR: Data Category Registries (concept naming)

LMF/DCR: a modular structure for content interoperabilitybetween (all aspects) of lexical resources.

LEXUS - Lexicon tool

• Creation of lexica from scratch, import lexica from other formats

LEXUS - Lexicon tool

• Creation of lexica from scratch, import lexica from other formats • User defined view of the information in the lexical entries

LEXUS - Lexicon tool

• Creation of lexica from scratch, import lexica from other formats • User defined view of the information in the lexical entries

• Linking multi-media fragments to lexical entries

LEXUS - Lexicon tool

• Creation of lexica from scratch, import lexica from other formats • User defined view of the information in the lexical entries

• Linking multi-media fragments to lexical entries

• Creation of links in images

LEXUS - Lexicon tool

Link to: kauo’e mei ‘terminal bud (female)’

LEXUS - Lexicon tool

• Creation of lexica from scratch, import lexica from other formats • User defined view of the information in the lexical entries

• Linking multi-media fragments to lexical entries

• Creation of links in images

• Link to resources within the digital archive (or other external web-based resources) – interaction with other archiving tools

LEXUS - further developments

Towards a multi-media dictionary of the Marquesan and Tuamotuan languages of French polynesia

• Building a digital multi-media encyclopedic dictionary with LEXUS

• Improving basic LEXUS functionalities

• Conceptual spaces

• Improved User Interface

Project team:

• Linguist team (Gablitz, Mosel)

• Developers (Kemps, Zinn, Alcock)

• Speech community (Kape, Guillome, Tetahiotupa, Tahia, Mataiki, Bruneau Pati)

LEXUS - further developments

Towards a multi-media dictionary of the Marquesan and Tuamotuan languages of French polynesia

• Building a digital multi-media encyclopedic dictionary with LEXUS

• Improving basic LEXUS functionalities

• Conceptual spaces

• Improved User Interface

Aim:

• MM Dictionary

• Speech community input and extensions

• Community based instance of the lexicon

LEXUS - further developments

Project workflow

Field work Data archiving and annotation

Lexicon creation

Joint action linguist and speech community

Lexus basic functionalities

Developers

Definition of SW constraints

Definition of SW requirements

Lexicon import and creation of

Multi media encyclopedic lexicon

Further developments of LEXUS

all

LEXUS - further developments

Issues that came up:

User Interface

Conceptual spaces in multi media encyclopedia

LEXUS - further developments

User Interface

User wants to enter the lexicon through the lexical entries, either by from the listed lexicon or by search :

LEXUS - further developments

New User Interface

LEXUS - further developments

New User Interface

LEXUS - further developments

Conceptual spaces in multi media encyclopedia

Conventional paper dictionaries: network of meanings less visible

Paper dictionaries limited usefulness in language maintenance and language revival (Manning et al., 2000) Members of speech community prefer following semantic links of different semantic types (synonyms, antonyms, lexical, taxonomies)

LEXUS - further developments

Conceptual spaces in multi media encyclopedia

ViCoS

Complement lexical spaces with ontological spaces

Allow users to construct a space of culturally relevant concepts

Concepts as centres for all sorts of information

relations to other concepts

anchored in the language to express them

linked to multimedia archive to describe them

Vizualizing Conceptual Spaces

ViCoS

Interdisciplinary software development challenges and problems

Our challenge:

Design a product that fits the needs of the SC

and thus

contribute to maintain and possible revitalize a documented language and consequently present and preserve the cultural heritage

More practical:

Simple user interface for a complex tool – is it possible?

Collaborative workspaces to work in a Wiki-like manner

Interdisciplinary software development challenges and problems

So, what do we encounter:

Interesting project and collaboration, but NOT easy:

Need to bridge the ‘concept gap’

Communication over distances

Different expectations – different (sub)-goals

Software limitations of an online tool

IPR between developer team and linguist team

IPR between speech community and linguist team

Interdisciplinary software development challenges and problems

Is there a positive conclusion?

Interaction opens worlds

First reactions on concept UI and ViCoS from SC are positive

First experience of SC and LS is useful for the development of ViCoS

More DoBeS projects are interested in using LEXUS as an ‘exploitation’ tool

Still almost a year to go..

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to Gaby Cablitz, Jean Kape, Guillome Taimana for their contributions