LEXUS and ViCoS: from lexical to conceptual spaces

• Main Authors: Ringersma, Jacquelijn, Zinn, Claus, Kemps-Snijders, Marc
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Kildin
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4974

The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics provides a rich set of tools for archiving, management and the enrichment of linguistic resources, and hosts all data of the Endangered Languages Documentation project DoBeS [1] in the online digital archive. In this paper, we focus on LEXUS, a web-based tool for the creation of multimedia encyclopedic lexica and dictionaries, and ViCoS, which allows users to define arbitrary relations between objects within and across lexica, complementing lexical spaces with a conceptual dimension. We describe the LEXUS and ViCoS functionalities using three cases from DoBeS language documentation projects. Marquesan [2] The Marquesan lexicon, initially created in Toolbox, has been automatically imported into LEXUS, and then further enriched with multimedia to better illustrate the meaning of words in their cultural environment. For members of the speech community, however, the meaning of words is best described by the various associations they evoke rather than in terms of any formal theory of meaning. To better capture this aspect, ViCoS is used to construct a knowledge space of associations featuring relevant parts of Marquesan life and tradition. Kola-Sámi [3] Two lexica are being created in LEXUS: RuSaDic, a plain Russian-Kildin wordlist, and SaRuDic, providing highly structured content, including multimedia fragments and derivations. Using ViCoS we connected the two lexica, so that speakers who are familiar with Russian and wish to revitalize Kildin can enter the lexical space through RuSaDic and from there access the more informative SaRuDic. Similarly, we will create relations from these lexica to external databases, like e.g. Ãlgu. Beaver [4] A speaker database including kinship relations has been created and imported into LEXUS, allowing users to get a basic view of the relationships between individuals. Using ViCoS, relational information from the database will be extracted to form a knowledge space of various kinship relation types, which users can then easily explore ...