DEBV is D ic: Instant W ordnet Building (2016)

Abstract: The semantic network editor DEBVisDic has been used by different development teams to create more than 20 national wordnets. The editor was recently re-developed as a multi-platform web-based application for general semantic networks editing. One of the main advantages, when compared to the previous implementation, lies in the fact that no client-side installation is needed now. Following the successful first phase in building the Open Dutch Wordnet, DEBVisDic was extended with features that allow users to easily create, edit, and share a new (usually national) wordnet without the need of any complicated configuration or advanced technical skills. The DEBVisDic editor provides advanced features for wordnet browsing, editing, and visualization. Apart from the user-friendly web-based application, DEBVisDic also provides an API interface to integrate the semantic network data into external applications.

## introduction the original wordnet, princeton wordnet (pwn), is one of the most popular lexical semantic resources in the nlp field @xcite . the publication of pwn was followed by the multilingual eu projects eurowordnet 1 and 2 @xcite @xcite and the balkanet project @xcite @xcite @xcite in which wordnets for 13 languages were developed (english, dutch, italian, spanish, french, german, czech, estonian, bulgarian, greek, romanian, serbian and turkish). in the course of this work, new software tools for browsing and editing wordnets were designed and implemented. within the eurowordnet project the polaris (and periscope) tools were implemented and used @xcite . for balkanet project, a new browser and editor visdic was built at the nlp laboratory at the faculty of informatics, masaryk university (fi mu) @xcite , since the development of the polaris tool was closed by 1999. in comparison with the previous tools, vis-dic exploits the xml data format thus making the wordnet-like databases more standard and exchangeable. not only that, thanks to the xml data format used and to its dictionary specific configurability, visdic can serve for developing various types of dictionaries, i.e. monolingual, translational, thesauri and multilingually interlinked wordnet-like databases. the experience with the visdic tool during the balkanet project has been positive @xcite and it was used as the main tool with which all balkanet wordnets were developed. visdic, however, has its disadvantages, particularly it was designed for a single user off-line use, and team coordination was really difficult. ## the deb platform and the debvisdic editor based on the experience with visdic, the team at the nlp centre fi mu has designed and implemented a universal dictionary writing system that can be exploited in various lexicographic applications to build large lexical databases. the system has been named dictionary editor and browser (further deb platform) @xcite and it has been used in many lexicographic projects so far, among others for the development of the czech lexical database @xcite , or currently running projects of pattern dictionary of english verbs @xcite , and family names in uk @xcite . the deb platform is based on the client-server architecture, which brings along a lot of benefits. all the data are stored on the server side and a considerable part of the client-side functionality is also implemented on the server, thus the client application can be very lightweight. this approach provides very good tools for team cooperation: all data modifications are immediately seen by all involved users. the server also provides well arranged authentication and authorization functions. the general design of the deb platform allows to adapt it also for building wordnet-like databases. for this purpose, the original visdic tool was completely re-implemented on top of the deb platform, as the current debvisdic editor @xcite . the first version of the debvisdic editor was designed as a client application for the corresponding deb server module, and was implemented using the flexible mozilla development platform (xul based applications @xcite ), which was at that time the best option to design and build really cross-platform gui applications, utilizing open standards. however, any applications based on the mozilla development platform are limited to the use via mozilla-based browsers (mainly firefox) only, while users prefer many different web-browsers. since the development of debvisdic, the firefox browser has introduced several major changes to the xul application interface, thus limiting debvisdic to be used only in specific versions of the firefox browser. as a result, the editor would need major changes to work with recent firefox versions. fortunately, the current standards for webbased applications support many new features, which are implemented and supported by all the major web browsers. considering all the options, we decided to re-implement debvisdic editor as a general web application, not limited to a single web browser and without the need to install specific browser extensions. ## debvisdic 2 thanks to the client-server architecture of the deb platform, no changes were needed on the server side. only the client side application had to be reimplemented, reusing the existing deb interface. the main feature requests within the design of the new version were to keep all the debvisdic features and to provide an application working in all major web browsers. as in the previous xul version, debvis-dic 2 @xcite aims primarily at wordnet-type semantic network browsing and editing, but supports different types of dictionaries. the application consists of a main window with settings and separate windows for each dictionary that the user needs to edit or browser. single dictionary window includes a list of entries (synsets) and a set of tabbed panels with several types of view on the selected entry: a basic preview, the xml representation, the entry position withing the hypero-hyponymic tree, and an editing form. a context pop-up menu (right-click menu) provides functions for displaying and creating inter-dictionary links (e.g. to show the selected synset in another national wordnet or to display all synsets using the selected ontology term). debvisdic 2 utilizes the model-view-controller (mvc) architecture and its design follows the mvc principle. current open standards are used in the application: html and css for data presentation (view), and javascript for application logic scripting (model, controller). the application itself is modular, with separate core shared by all the dictionaries, and a plugin with specific functionality for each dictionary type. as the implementation of web-related standards (mainly javascript) may vary in different browsers, several frameworks and libraries provide a unified environment on top of the browser interface. after reviewing several frameworks, we have decided to use the jquery library (jquery foundation, 2015), which is a versatile javascript library for basic document and data manipulation without adding unnecessary features, thus staying lightweight and not slowing down the application. one of the most challenging features was the implementation of the context menu functions, because of large differences in its implementation within the main web browsers. in the end, we were able to implement the context menu to keep the same behaviour as in debvisdic with the help of the jquery contextmenu plugin. foot_0 syntax highlighted view (pretty printing) of an entry in the xml format is provided by the prettify plugin foot_1 (see figure 3 ). apart from complete reimplementation of the debvisdic tool, the new version comes with several new features, especially concentrating on team work and complex dictionary editing. for example, saving user settings (opened dictionaries and window positions, with the possibility to store more information) on the server, thus allowing the user to switch browsers and computers and continue in the work. another major new feature is the implementation of generalized links and relations between dictionaries. it is possible to use any part of the entry structure (xml-based query) to build interdictionary search queries. for instance, selecting all lexical units in a synset, automatically view details of an ontology term for the selected synset, or all synonymic or near synonymic synsets between two wordnet languages. ## building new wordnet to support fast preparation of national wordnets, the debvisdic editor was extended with features similar to the debwrite application @xcite . the new application allows any user of the debvisdic server to create a new wordnet, without any complicated configuration or a need of advanced technical skills. right after the straightforward set-up of a new wordnet, users may edit the wordnet data in the debvisdic application. the debvisdic application supports copying of synsets from other wordnets (e.g. pwn). editors have two options: either copy the original synset and translate it to the target language, or to create a new synset and link it to the "pivot" wordnet. 3 in the case when the wordnet data are prepared in advance, e.g. in another editor or via "manual" editorial work, it is possible to import a xml file to debvisdic. the application also supports an export in the debvisdic xml file format. one of the major assets of the debvisdic application lies in its support of team cooperation on the wordnet editing process. debvisdic classifies authorized users into one of three possible user roles: a manager, an editor, or a reader (see figure 5 for an example of user access management). ## data sharing for sharing the resulting databases and its inclusion to wordnet repositories, e.g. open multilingual wordnet @xcite , it is possible to export the wordnet data in several xml formats: to enhance the possibility to share and reuse wordnet resources, debvisdic provides a published api (application programming interface) through which the debvisdic server functionality can be integrated in external applications, e.g. visual browser @xcite for wordnet visualization. features accessible by the api include complex searching for synsets, extracting various synset data, getting information on the semantic network graph, synset batch editing, or synset translation between several interconnected languages. ## conclusions we have introduced a new web-based version of one of the most widespread wordnet editor, the debvisdic application. besides the easyto-distribute client application, debvisdic now comes with an extension that allows fast and simple wordnet building. the application is currently in public testing, available at http://deb.fi . muni.cz/debvisdic. future versions will incorporate features based on user feedback, and new options to link separate wordnets together or to shared ontologies. we believe this application will help with creation of new national wordnets, especially for sparsely resourced languages. in the future, we plan to enhance the deb-visdic editor features, both in user experience (e.g. redesign the graphical interface) and format checks to ensure the synset structure follows specified rules.