wiki:DebVisDicManual
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DEBVisDic Manual

For developers: DEBVisDic server API (DEB)VisDic Wordnet format

Installation of Debvisdic

How to obtain DEBVisDic login and password

How to install DEBVisDic

Firefox warning before installation

  • a window will open with several packages - click on Install

Packages for installation

  • close all windows in Firefox (with File -> Quit)
  • start Firefox again and DEBVisDic should appear as a new menu entry in Firefox Tools

First start

  • Click on Tools -> DEBVisDic
  • Log-in with your username and password
  • DEBVisDic will automatically install packages for all the WordNets you have access to (Firefox may seem unresponding for a while, depending on the number of dictionaries)
  • Close DEBVisDic and all Firefox windows (with File -> Quit)
  • Run DEBVisDic again (for example, click on Tools -> DEBVisDic in Firefox)
  • Log-in with your username and password
  • You will see long and narrow main DEBVisDic window

DEBVisDic main widnow

Choose WordNets

  • In DEBVisDic click on Settings -> Preferences
  • Upper part of the window contains list of WordNets available to you. Select the packages in the left list (Ctrl+click, Shift+click to select multiple packages) and click the Add button. You can Add one WordNet several times, you'll get more windows for the same dictionary.
  • Click OK and the selected WordNets will open
  • Now you can start working

Preferences window

How to uninstall/remove DEBVisDic

  • run Firefox (without the -chrome option)
  • in Tools -> Extensions (or Add-ons) select all DEBVisDic packages (debvisdic, jslib, and wn... for each wordnet) and Uninstall them

Short overview

Note: If you don't see Asian characters (for example Chinese) in Windows, you need to install Asian Language Support.

Interface description (main components)

Each WordNet client is opened in a window of its own, you can arrange those windows as you like on your desktop, or you can select one of the options in the Windows menu of DEBVisDic main window to arrange windows automatically.

WordNet window

Each window has the following components: 1: Search query

Enter the search query into this box (previously used queries are automatically offered). The Search button will run the query only in the actual WordNet window, while the Search in all will run the same query in all open windows. Query possibilities are listed in section Search, queries

2: Result list

List of synsets found as a result of the query. Each line represents one synsets - PoS and list of literals. Click on a synset to display detailed information in the bottom part of the window.

3: Synset information

This part of window contains several tabs, by clicking on them you will get detailed information about the selected synset.

Synset information, tabs

  • Preview - text preview of a given synset. When you click on a synset link (for example hypernym), linked synset is selected and its information is displayed.
  • Tree - hypernym/hyponym tree related to the given synset. By default, the selected synset is displayed plus all the hypernyms up to the topmost one. By clicking on the [+] button in front of a synset name in the tree, the synset hyponyms are displayed. You can also click on [-] button to hide tree levels below. When you click on [+] again, all the hyponyms of synset are displayed.
  • Rev(ersed) Tree - basically, the same tree as above, just reversed upside-down. This time, hyponyms are up and hypernyms down. This reversed tree is needed since the hypero/hyponymy relations form a general graph structure, not just a simple tree.
  • Edit - a form for synset editing and adding new synsets, see section Editing functions
  • XML - the synset data displayed in XML format

Search, queries

You can use several types of queries, from the basic ones to the advanced.

  • word - search for entries containing whole word in literals, for example dog will give you all the synsets with dog in literals (even multiword literals, like Eskimo dog)
  • word: - search for exact literal, for example dog: will find all synsets with literal dog (exactly this one word)
  • word:number - search for entries containg the exact literal (all PoS), for example dog:3
  • xml_element=value - search for value of xml_element, for example SYNSET.POS=n will find all nouns
  • xml_element=dictionary_code2:entry_id2:xml_element2 - search for xml_element with value from xml_element2 of entry_id2 in dictionary_code2, for example SYNSET.SUMO=sumo:BodyPart:CONCEPT.ID will lookup the entry with BodyPart in sumo dictionary and take the value of element CONCEPT.ID and then search for all synsets with given value in element SYNSET.SUMO. This is used mostly in automatic DEBVisDic AutoLookup queries.

Inter-WordNet functions

Usually, WordNets are connected using InterLanguage Identifiers (in some form, e.g. ID links to English WordNet?). If you right-click in the Synset information part of a WordNet window, you will see the dictionary context menu (see picture).

WordNet context menu

Now, let us have a look at the first five menu entries. Show in allows you to display entry with the same ID in another WordNet, for example see the entry linked to an English synset in the Czech WordNet. When you select this entry, you will see the list of dictionaries connected to the current one. When you click on a dictionary name, the linked synset is displayed in the selected dictionary.

Show in (by) is similar, but uses different elements to link between entries. For example, you can display SUMO entry for the SUMO information stored in synset (as SYNSET.SUMO).

AutoLookUp in works similar to Show in and lasts for all future queries. When you click on a dictionary name, the tick appears (or disappears) in front of the name. When you select another synset in the current dictionary, all the ticked dictionaries are automatically updated to show the entry with the same ID. For example: in English WordNet you tick AutoLookUp in Czech and Polish WordNets. Whenever you select a synset in the English WN (by clicking in result list, on a link in preview or on a synset in tree), the Czech and Polish synsets are automatically displayed.

AutoLookUp in (by) is a combination of Show in (by) and AutoLookUp in.

AutoLookUp by search - whenever you search in actual dictionary, the same query is automatically run in all the ticked dictionaries.

Editing functions

Writing a new synset

To create a new synset, choose the Edit tab and click the New button. You'll see red border around the form - this means that you are editing new entry, not an existing one. In the form, you can see several boxes with labels and + buttons, for example Synonyms or Relations. When you click on the + button, the box will open and you will see a group of form fields. The + button changes to - button, which you can use to hide the box if you feel the form is too complex.

For a new synset, you have to select at least Part of Speech and a synonym - click on Add button to add more synonyms. Don't forget to fill the literal and sense number for each synonym. You can also fill in other information, like Definition, Usage or Relations.

When you are done, do not forget to click on Save button.

Create new synset

Changing an existing synset

Edit synset

Editing relations

Edit relations

Click the Add button in Relations box to add new relation form fields. First, the target synset must be found out by a query. Write the query (see queries) to the first box, press Enter and select the target synset from the list (this is important). Select relation type in the second box. When adding hyponym/hypernym relations, add only the hypernym of the synset, hyponyms are generated automatically.

If you press the Go to button, linked synset is displayed. Note: when pressing this button, you will lose all unsaved changes.

Inter-WordNet functions - linking to other WordNets

Let us have a look at the rest of the Inter-WordNet functions.

Copy entry to copies the selected synset completely to selected dictionary. If the entry with the same ID already exists in target dictionary, you are asked if you want to overwrite the entry.

Take ID from changes the ID (used as ILI) of the selected synset to the value of the synset ID in the selected dictionary. You can use this function to link several dictionaries to a central one. For example, create a new Czech synset, find the appropriate English equivalent and in the Czech WN select Take ID from English Wordnet. Synsets are connected with the same ID/ILI and you can display them using Show and Autolookup functions.

Locking synsets

When you start editing a synset, it is locked for you so no one else can make changes to this synset. Locks are indicated in the synset result list - [x] in front of synset means that someone else has locked this synset, [*] means that you have locked this synset. Also, when you change to the Edit tab, you will see the lock icon for synsets locked by some other user.

Typical errors

  • Do not try to write a new synset on the first top line (box). To enter a new synset you have to open the Edit tab.
  • When entering a relation between two synsets or linking two synsets via ID/ILI, always check whether they both exist.
  • Do not forget to click on the New button when entering a new synset and the Save button when you want to store it. If you do not click the Save button, nothing will be stored.
  • Avoid entering one synset twice or more times (this is possible, since they will receive different IDs with the New button).

Linguistic recommendations

  • Use a synonymical dictionary if it exists for a given language.
  • A good explanatory dictionary of a given language should be used for establishing hyperonym relations on the first level, e.g. chair is a piece of furniture.
  • To find reliable translation equivalents use a parallel corpora.

How to write a synset?

  • You decide what literals a synset will consist of and what part of speech it belongs to: noun (n), verb (v), adjective (a) or adverb (b)
  • When you open the Edit tab, click on New, then type down the respective literal (one or more, write both word and sense number), assign it a symbol of PoS and click Save.
  • If you do not click Save, all what you wrote will be lost.

Numbering senses

  • A new literal (in fact, any literal) has to be always numbered, i.e. you have to provide a sense number for it.
  • Sense number distinguishes the different senses of a literal, e.g. bank:1 - financial institution, bank:2 as in "river bank".
  • It is usual, as you can observe in Princeton WordNet (version 2.0 and higher), to assign lower numbers (1, 2, 3) to the basic senses.
  • It can be seen that senses in PWN 2.0 are quite often too fine-grained - see e.g. verb to get with 36 senses. We recommend to translate only the senses that can be confirmed in a corpus.

Eq_Relations, IL relations, ILI

Glossary of basic terms

  • synset
  • literal
  • sense
  • IL relations: synonymy, antonymy, hyperonymy/hyponymy, holo/meronymy, deriv
  • EQ_relations
  • Interlingual Index
  • Set of Base Concepts
  • Top Ontology
  • ...
Last modified 12 years ago Last modified on Oct 19, 2011, 11:03:29 AM

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