Itsy Bitsy Spider
Itsy bitsy spider
Climbed up the waterspout;
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out;
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain;
And the itsy bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again.
ItsyBitsy Editor project
Computing development manager: Nabil Gader
Codesigner: Sandrine Ollinger
Consulting engineer: Cyril Pestel
Starting date of the project: January 2018
Initial duration phase 1: two years
Financing: CPER LCHN (Langues, Connaissances & Humanités Numériques)
Lexical System lexicography [Polguère 2014] can only be performed using a lexicographic editor specially designed for weaving lexical networks. The construction of the French Lexical Network (fr-LN), in particular, was made possible by the Dicet editor [Gader et al. 2012], specially built for this purpose in the context of the RELIEF project 2011–2014, in collaboration with MVS Publishing Solutions (Sainte Marguerite). Dicet is a Java application designed to give access to SQL databases that store all Lexical Systems of the fr-LN type, for all corresponding natural languages.
At present, Dicet is used at ATILF to work on the following Lexical Systems:
- French Lexical Network fr-LN
- Russian Lexical Network ru-LN
- English Lexical Network en-LN
- Arabic Lexical Network ar-LN [sample]
- Spanish Lexical Network es-LN [sample]
- Italian Lexical Network it-LN [sample]
- Korean Lexical Network ko-LN [sample]
The ItsyBitsy Editor project aims at replacing the Dicet editor with ItsyBitsy, a new generation editor with the following characteristics in comparison with Dicet.
- ItsyBitsy will allow for interlingual connections using a pivot database storing linguistic universals. The pivot database will contain in particular the model of Meaning-Text standard lexical functions used to structure the relational backbone of Lexical Systems.
- ItsyBitsy will have two modes of operation: an “expert” mode, which requires a good mastering of Explanatory and Combinatorial Lexicography principles; a “general public” mode, for pedagogical or professional applications of this lexicography (terminology, etc.).
- ItsyBitsy will permit the implementation of crowdsourcing strategies for enriching Lexical Systems’ data.
- ItsyBitsy is programed as a Web application, compatible with most current browsers, in order to allow for better access to lexical databases.
- ItsyBitsy is an open source system with modular architecture designed for collaborative programming.
References
Gader N., Lux-Pogodalla V. & Polguère A. (2012) Hand-Crafting a Lexical Network With a Knowledge-Based Graph Editor. Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Cognitive Aspects of the Lexicon (CogALex III), The COLING 2012 Organizing Committee, Mumbai, pp. 109–125.
Polguère A. (2014) From Writing Dictionaries to Weaving Lexical Networks. International Journal of Lexicography 27(4), pp. 396–418.